EXCOM meeting minutes, 11DEC03. Taken by Bill Ritter. 

1. KC Section EXCOM meeting took place at 5:30-6:30 PM in the lobby of the Wyndham Garden Hotel prior to the scheduled monthly IEEE Dinner meeting.

2. Attendance was not taken, but a quorum of voting members was present.

3. Both the 2003 and 2004 EXCOM members (both voting and non-voting) were requested to attend for the specific purpose of discussing the KC Section 2004 Budget.

4. Bill Ritter (incoming 2004 Chair) and Randy Smischny developed a strawman budget from which to begin the discussion.

5. Comments from the discussion are provided on this Excel spreadsheet.

6. Specific decisions made were:

1. The newsletter and postcard would be eliminated in 2004 with the issue of one last newsletter.  This reduces the cost from $2,400 to $800 in 2004 alone. The newsletter would explain that this was going to be the last issue and the elimination of it in the future is a cost-cutting measure by the 2004 EXCOM.  For those without computers or Internet service, they will have to seek a connection to the section website from libraries or somewhere else of their choosing.
   
2. The Student Paper Contest awards were discussed. The advertised awards for the students will not change in 2004, but the certificate and money for the judges would be eliminated for the 2004 judging. A letter will have to be sent to Region-5 explaining what the section is doing in 2004 with respect to the awards for the students. Although many in the section believe that Region-5 has given their OK to do this, there is no document substantiating this.
   
3. Bill Ritter advised everyone that in 2004, he expected the section officers and some other members to be traveling to select Region-5 events. This will give those traveling a bigger picture of what IEEE is and does. It is a lot larger than just this section. For this reason, more money was put in the traveling budgets for 2004.
   
4. An attempt will be made in 2004 to save $1,500 from the section’s annual income for use in 2005 to send someone to the 2005 Sections Congress in Tampa, FL.
   
5. The Joint Engineering Council was not funded ($200) in the 2004 budget. Any expenditure would have been for the 2005 membership year. If there are funds available and the EXCOM believes continued involvement is warranted, funds will be provided if Region-5 accepts a letter from this section requesting membership in the JEC. The section can not do this without Region-5 approval.
   
6. Bill Ritter would like to use telephone conferencing for 2 out of every 3 months of EXCOM meetings. One meeting per quarter face-to-face is adequate if telephone conferencing is used for the other 2 months. Alan Richardson and Randy Smischny felt they could work the telephone conferencing issue. Hopefully they would start with the Feb 04 EXCOM meeting.

7. PACE for 2004 needs to seek matching funds from R-5. Everyone agreed that in the past Region-5 seemed to be reluctant to support our efforts. If this is the case in 2004, Bill Ritter stated he would personally work the issue with Region-5.
   
8. The next EXCOM meeting will be on 15 Jan 04, at 5:30-6:30 PM prior to the January Dinner meeting, which will be held at the Wyndham Garden Hotel, I-435 & Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS.