MINUTES

                            BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

                                            October 5, 2006

    The meeting was called to order by President Warren Goodrich at 10:01 am.

    With no opening remarks President Goodrich asked Don Bradley to give the invocation.

    Roll call of officers was then taken with David Soderquist, Jeremy Blake, Allen Lengacher, Alan Nadon, David Stalf, Bud Swathwood and John Weesner being absent.

    Don Bradley stated that John Weesner was recovering from recent bypass surgery and was planning on attending in February.

    The meeting then moved on to the minutes of the previous meeting. After little discussion a motion was made by Bill Shaffer to accept the minutes as written. The motion was seconded by Dave Schofield and passed with a unanimous vote.

    The meeting then turned to the Treasurers Report. Treasurer Rick Spitaels stated that there were not many transactions since June. Treasurer Spitaels did state that he had to spend $25.00 to have all the Association files that were on Floppy discs transferred to CD’s because his new computer would only take CD’s and he couldn’t find a new computer that would accept floppy discs any longer. After little discussion a motion was made by Bill Shaffer to accept the Treasurers Report as printed. The motion was seconded by Fred Davis and passed with a unanimous vote.

     The meeting then moved on to Bud Wheeler and the Western Section Report. Bud stated that the meeting had been in Traverse City, Michigan and that it was a very expensive place. Bud stated that International President Carpenter reported that the IAEI has 2 members on each code panel for the 2008 NEC. President Carpenter then stated that there were quite a few code making panel members that were retiring or not interested in serving for the 2011 code sessions and that we need more members for the code panelists pool as we do not have enough people to cover the code making panels as of now. President Carpenter stated that someone wanting to become a code making panelist must first be qualified, second they must be endorsed by his or her particular chapter, then they must be endorsed by their section who then pass them on to the International Office for consideration. President Carpenter then went on to state that the Education Department, headed  by Mike Johnston, was making great strides and that they had given over 100 seminars throughout the last year. He then stated that the Education Department had made an agreement with both JATC apprenticeship training and ICC to provide them with electrical training materials. President Carpenter then said that Membership is still an ongoing problem with a loss of 160 members in the last year. There was a slight increase in inspector members but it was more than offset by the loss of associate members. President Carpenter stated that it is estimated that less than 50% of specialty inspectors are members. Bud Wheeler then said that the IO ended 2005 with a net income above budgeted income of $171,826. The IO ended 2005 with a cash reserve of over $460.000 great considering that they were on the verge of bankruptcy when President Carpenter took over in 2002 not having many large expenditures on horizon for code panel hearings etc. Bud went on to state that the IAEI was partnering with UL in the ‘ I am safety smart’ program and that the IAEI was encouraging members to get trained and begin going to schools to talk to kids 4 to 14 about electric safety. Western Section Secretary Ed Lawry  stated that there were 369 members registered for the meeting with 145 lady guests. Mr. Lawry was expecting a loss on the meeting of 5 to 6 thousand dollars. The Western Section Executive Board has decided to raise the registration fees for the Western Section next year by $25.00 hoping that this will make future Western Sections profitable. Bud went on to state that Mike Johnston would be unable to attend our February 2007 meeting and that Mike Forister would be retiring after next years Western Section meaning that our upcoming February meeting would be his last time for attending our meeting. Bud stated that the meeting was officially attended, for the chapter, by himself and Fred Davis but that the Indiana Chapter was also represented by Al Nadon, Herb Craig, Charlie Eldridge, and Keith Hood.  Bud went on to state that the Indiana representative at the Western Section would be up to serve as President in 2014-2015 and would have to serve as First and Second Vice President before moving up to President meaning that we, as a Board, have to find someone to start no later than 2010. Bud went on to say that he had been elected to serve as Western Section Representative for the year 2007 and would be willing to serve in 2008 but we need to get someone to take on this responsibility.

       President Goodrich stated that hearing that Mike Forister was retiring and also hearing that a few of our Chapter Boards  members talking about retiring that maybe we should get a Committee together to see about honoring these people somehow.  After some discussion a motion was made by Don Bradley to create a Committee with Bill Shaffer as Chair and President Goodrich and Rick Spitaels assisting. The motion was seconded by Jack Douthit and passed with a unanimous vote.

       Bud Wheeler then reported that Mike Forister, Al Manche, Tom Lichtenstein, Bud Swathwood, Phil Simmons, Charlie Eldridge, Alan Nadon, Jerry Blair, and David Kendall had all agreed to attend the February meeting as code panelists.

        President Goodrich then moved the discussion to reimbursement to Bud Wheeler for attending the Western Section. Bud first stated that he had two revisions for our policies and procedures stating that the Board would set a budgeted amount for the Western Section representative or representatives to be reimbursed for expenses not paid by their respective jurisdictions if funds are available. Bud further stated that the representatives would be responsible to submit an itemized list of their expenses to the Secretary/ Treasurer. Ed Johnson then stated that he felt it should be just a budgeted stipend of a set amount of money and forego the itemized list. Bill Shaffer added that we had budgeted an amount of $750.00 for Bud for the Western Section. After much discussion it was decided to amend the motion from the June Meeting and reimburse Bud $950.00 for his expenses for him and his wife. Ed Johnson then made a motion to rescind the amount of $750.00 he made in June and increase it to $950.00. The motion was seconded by Don Bradley and passed with a unanimous vote.

         Ed Johnson then made a motion that the Western Section Representative and any Board member who attends be reimbursed $950.00 each, if funds are available, to be decided at the June Board Meeting. The motion was seconded by Bill Shaffer and passed with a unanimous vote.

         Bill Shaffer then made a motion to accept the Western Section Report as read. Brian Thompson seconded the motion and it passed with a unanimous vote.

         Jack Douthit then made the Hotel Committee Report. Jack stated that the room rate would be $72.00, up $2.00 from the previous year, and that the rate did not include the continental breakfast. Jack further stated that the hotel would make those rooms available until two days before the meeting begins.

        Jack Douthit then reported that the entertainment for the February meeting had been secured and paid.

        President Goodrich then guided the meeting to the Agenda for the February meeting. After much discussion it was decided to have Phil Simmons start off at 2:00 pm on Wednesday with an Ufer Ground presentation. Then after the 3:00 break we would have code questions. On Thursday Morning at 8:15 am we would have code questions and after the 10:00 break we would have presentation on Hazardous Locations by Phil Simmons. Then after the luncheon we would have code questions at 1:20 and after the 3:00 break we would have code questions again. Then on Friday morning at 8:05 we would again have code questions followed with the UL presentation by Tom Lichtenstein after the 9:45 break. Bud Wheeler went in to say that the UL program “ I am safety smart” training  could be made to anyone interested by the UL people after the meeting but we would have to see if there is any interest. It was decided to give the IAEI Hazardous Locations book with the registration.

          The meeting then moved to meals and accommodations. It was decided to have donuts, coffee, juices and pastries for Thursday and Friday morning. It was decided to have cookies, coffee and soft drinks for all afternoon breaks. It was decided to have soup, salad and sandwiches for the Thursday luncheon. It was decided to keep the banquet food the same as in previous years with roast beef, roasted pork, baked white fish, salads, potatoes, green beans and peach cobbler for dessert. It was then decided to have the cash bar come back after the entertainment, as it seemed people were looking for it to reopen last year. It was decided to leave the conference room and the room for the ladies to meet the same as to tables, times etc.

          The meeting then moved to registration fees. Don Bradley said that as soon as we have the agenda and the registration fees established to send them to Brad Thatcher for the grant approval. Don felt that we should get close to the same amount as last year. After some discussion it was decided to keep the sponsorship and registration fees the same as last year, $225.00 for members for 3 day attendees and $140.00 for 1 day for members and $265.00 for 3 day non-members, with a 1 year membership in the IAEI and $180.00 for 1 day non-members, with ladies fee staying at $55.00.

         The meeting then moved to the guest speaker for the Thursday luncheon. Jack Douthit stated that he had made arrangements with Ron Ritchey Chief of Fire Prevention for the City of Lafayette to speak at our noon luncheon on February 8, 2007.

         Bud Wheeler then stated that his wife, Barb, had volunteered to go through last years registration and compile all the e-mails so we could e-mail everyone about a week before the registration deadline as a reminder.

         The meeting then moved to the mailing flyer. It was decided, of course, to change the Seminar Topics to state Hazardous Locations, Commercial Garages, UFer Ground Presentation, UL White Book Presentation, and Code Questions. It was also decided to change that the registration fees would include an IAEI Hazardous Locations book and for those attending the Friday morning session a UL White Book or CD a $65.00 value. It was also decided to take Mike Johnston off as a Featured Instructor, since he would not be able to attend, and replace him with Tom Lichtenstein.  

         Don Bradley then made the Membership Committee Report and the Indiana State News Report. Don reiterated what the Western Section had reported that we had gained a few inspector members but lost a few associate members so we were just holding our own not much else to report. Don then moved on to news from the State. Don went on to say that the State needed help on getting the arc-fault protection put back in the Indiana Electric Code. Don went on to say that he had been led to believe that quite a few of the Manufacturers were going to jump in and help to get arc-faults reinstated and that this had not happened. Don went on to say that his associate Raleigh Kouns was in the process of compiling data to present to the State Fire, Building and Safety Commission to justify the reinstatement of this rule and that any information that would help needs to be sent to Raleigh. Don said that as of now no one has made a formal request to reinstate arc-faults and that they will not be reinstated if someone doesn’t step forward. Don went on to say that he had been contacted by  quite a few whole house inspectors about classes since they are required to be certified by the State now and that we might want to get these people to become members.

          The meeting then moved to the Education Committee Report by Charley Weber. Charley stated that he and Dave Schofield had gotten together and that they were planning on having 3 seminars after our February meeting. One was to be on grounding and they were still deciding on the other two. The plan was to have John Weesner be the instructor as long as his health stays good. Dates and locations to be decided at a later date.

           The meeting then moved on to the Code Clearing Committee Report by Fred Davis. Fred stated that Ed Lawry is going to send the Western Section code questions  to Bud Wheeler who would then pass them on to Fred. Fred said he still needed questions so if any one had any send them to him ASAP.

           The meeting then moved on to the By Law Committee Report by Bud Wheeler. Bud stated that he had nothing to report.

            With Chair Alan Nadon not in attendance there was no Fire and Safety Committee Report.

            The meeting then moved on to the Website Report by Warren Goodrich. Warren stated that everyone needs to check the website because the IO had lost the whole IAEI website last year and that he had to rebuild the Indiana website. Warren said that he wanted everyone to check for accuracy on the information in the Indiana website. Warren stated that we have to stay on the code panelists to provide us with their answers to their code questions so we can post them on our website after the meeting. Secretary Spitaels stated that he would e-mail all updated information as far as code panelists, registration form etc for Warren to post on the website.

           The meeting then moved to other business. Bud Wheeler stated that Herb Craig wanted him to bring up at this meeting to have the code panelists send there answers to us so we can print them along with the questions and then break down into small groups and discuss them with the code panelists. The idea did not appeal to the Board at this time.

         With no other business there then was a motion to adjourn by Bill Shaffer. The motion was seconded by Ed Johnson and passed with a unanimous vote. Meeting adjournment time was 2:23 pm.