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Meeting Minutes from July 31 Meeting

1. Turnout of 8 people was slightly lower than hoped for, but the conversation was lively and enthusiastic. We had several others that responded that they couldn’t make the meeting due to travel, work conflicts, etc., but plan to make next meeting. We ended up spending a nice evening outdoors on a deck under tall trees.

2. We selected the third Wednesday of each month for our regular meetings. All agreed that it was better to do it in the middle of the week as to not interfere with Thursday night preparation for Friday and weekend fishing trips. Next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 21. In Sept., our meeting will be on Wednesday, Sept. 18.

3. General consensus was that would be better to extend the meeting longer and include dinner/socializing as first part of the program. The logic here was that if we meet at 7:30, nearly everyone would still be coming from work, and would need to stop for dinner somewhere. So we will schedule meetings from 6:30-9:30 in the future with dinner being the first item on the agenda. For next couple of meetings, we’ll probably assign an individual to pick up a plate of sandwiches or make some other arrangements for food, and charge back the cost of it to attendees (anticipate this being less than $10/person). During the coldest winter months – Dec(?)/Jan/Feb/Mar – we may shift to Sat. evenings to allow for an expanded educational venue.

4. We discussed the fee structure for club. General consensus was that a reasonable fee would be anywhere from $50 to $200/year. We plan to develop a budget that would cover meeting costs, costs for a couple of professional speakers during the winter venues, and will work backwards to come up with a number that is backed by some rationale. Russ Walton volunteered to take this project on. We also discussed other ways to make money. Suggestion included holding 50/50 raffles at each meeting to raise money, selling videos, etc. One of the more interesting ideas came from Tom Gregory, who owns an “on demand” publishing company. If we were to write a book, Tom could publish it and we could use that as a revenue generator.

5. Also discussed how we handle membership in the club. We need to develop an application form for individuals that want to join PJSA. This will allow us to qualify applicants that fit our membership on a consistent basis. Noted that JCSA (www.jcsa.org) has an application posted, will develop our own application using the JCSA form as a starting point. Also will want to define maximum size of the club (number of members), terms of officers, etc.

6. Also agreed that there will be a need for bylaws of the club, which will help us be consistent administering the types of activities described in points 4 and 5.

7. We formalized several roles in the club, and identified others. Some have been assigned as noted below:
   • Role: President
     Responsibilities: Coordinate club activities, work with other officers to organize events and activities, manage internal communications for club.
     Assigned to: Al Gillen
     

   • Role: Vice President
     Responsibilities: Develop membership and promote club activities; back up president. Explore discount opportunities for members, travel fishing trips, etc.
     Assigned to: Joel Harnick
     

   • Role: Treasurer
     Responsibilities: Manage assets and work with events manager to pay for speakers or other cost items related to monthly meetings.
     Assigned to: Russ Walton
     

   • Role: Club Historian
     Responsibilities: Videotape presentations for future reuse, perform editing and formatting on video tapes supplied by other members from fishing trips.
     Assigned to: Matt Harnick
     

   • Role: Event Manager
     Responsibilities: Coordinate meetings and other events; develop educational programs and arrange for guest speakers at the meetings.
     Candidates: None yet
     

   • Role: Secretary
     Responsibilities: Capture minutes at meetings, handle correspondences between PJSA and other organizations; work with president and vice president on public communication initiatives.
     Candidates: None yet
     

8. Developed a plan for the educational venue for the August meeting. Captains Scott Martindell and John Berenato will present a lure-rigging clinic. More details to come.

9. Had some discussion revolving around the future of our Web site, and how we may be able to use it for private fishing intelligence sharing. In the short term, we registered the URL www.pjsa.org, which should be live by 8/3 or 8/4, and is configured to redirect visitors to the Web site on Comcast.

10. Next meeting will be held at either Joel Harnick’s house (Maple Glen), Russ Walton’s house (Ivyland), or possibly at a facility that one of the club members has available. John Berenato offered to “sponsor” the next meeting (will discuss further with John).

11. Another suggestion for a future meeting was a rod building session, which tabled by Steve London. This may make a great winter venue.

12. Finally, there was overwhelming interest in creating a “PJSA Wreck Tournament.” We discussed various ideas as for how to run such a tournament, and the enthusiasm for this idea was really high. We need to work out the logistics, and will make this a primary goal for the next meeting.