Come one, come all! This is the first Surfrider meeting of the new year. Come meet the new leadership folks. Come hear what we are looking to do in the coming year. Below is our agenda for tonight's meeting.


Surfrider Foundation
First Coast Chapter
January 2009 Meeting Agenda


Announcement of leadership positions - Danny Barley (Web), Donny Barley (Outreach), Erin Handy (Vice Chair), Paul Hayden (Secretary), Tamil Singh (Special Projects), Ed Cronin (Chairman), Donald Ster (Treasurer)


Due to the amount of work involved in leadership of the Chapter, The EC believes we need two more EC members. We've added one through an EC poll. We are asking for someone that is not at this time tied to another group, has and is willing to put the time into leadership of the chapter and wants to be a future leader for the First Coast Chapter of Surfrider.


Announcement and discussion of short & long term events/plans


Recap of the last beach cleanup.


Water Education Festival at MOSH Feb 7th (Surfrider attendance as a exhibitor is tentative as it's for kids)


Michael Poolt of MySurfari wants a few minutes to talk about the Kick off party they are having in March that they plan to donate the proceeds above their cost to us.


Guest Speaker - Joy Hampp from the Marineland Right Whale Survey Project


General discussion - QA with members

See you tonight.

EC

is that a 7pm or 7:30pm?

Sorry. It's 7PM at Cabo's.

EC

Not sure that I understand this .... you want people that are just sorta doing nothing .... not involved with anything? I can understand that your group would need and want people to commit and carry through. But do you really want the uninvolved to be a part of a leadership group?

Please clarify

We're not necessarily looking for someone that is doing nothing, but looking for someone that wants to do something. Someone tied to another group might not have the time to put into the EC. We put a lot of time into the Chapter, but as we grow our "core" group (some of those folks are not necessarily in the EC either) the time required is split between more people. I'd like a person like that in a non-voting position for the EC to grow our core and especially younger membership. It's been great to see some younger folks attend meetings and seem interested in helping the Chapter. We haven't had that in a while.

Really, it's a wish list. If we don't have a volunteer with those attributes we'll still feel lucky to have someone else volunteer as long as they have the time and desire to help.

Hope that clears it up for you.

EC

Sorta.

As a past, current and future member (often in a leadership role) of several volunteer organizations, I fully understand wanting people that will 1 - step up and 2 - actually do what they said they would.

My point was that in my experience, active / involved people tend to do that more than the passive / uninvolved.

If they attend the meetings, they aren't passive and uninvolved. Were you at the meeting?

EC

At this point we are digressing into semantics.

While I am a member of SR, my chapter affiliation is still where I previously lived. I have in the past (and will in the future) attended and supported your chapter’s events and initiatives. However, due to extensive involvement in 4 other groups, my direct involvement in the local chapter will be limited for the immediate future.

So to Ed's original point, because you are involved in 4 other groups, someone like you would not have the time to commit that we are hoping for. You just supported the point you were arguing against!

Touche!

I have grown weary of this. It has now digressed into "got ya / touché" unproductive urinating contest. Rather than an attempt to objectively look at a different point of view.

However, I will try one more time.

In the body of the SR Chapter meeting announcement it asked for people "not tied to other groups" to become a part of the leadership of the chapter. This puzzled me because it has been my experiences with volunteer organizations that, active involved people actual do more. Additionally, these people tend to be involved with multiple organizations. So I asked for clarification.

"Ed's" response seemed to indicate that what he really wanted was the committed / follow through type or perhaps a younger person just starting to get their feet wet in activism I can certainly understand wanting people that step up and follow through be they young or old.

Yes, I am actively involved with 4 other volunteer groups. In two of those, my level of involvement is mostly monetary (both in paying dues and spending money at their various functions) and voicing my opinion (which I have a lot of ). In two of those I am VERY involved in leadership and all that it entails. Now here is the kicker. The two that I am the most involved in where numbers 3 and 4 in chronological order of my joining. What if they only wanted people "not tied to other groups"?

Again, I fully and completely understand wanting and needing people that will step up and follow through. Just a difference of opinion on criteria.

Communication breakdown.

If you have time to volunteer, please step up. If you don't - don't.

Nuff said.

Everyone's soooo serious. Relax peeps. We're all on the same TEAM.

We need waves can you tell?

Just an objective opinion: someone should delete this thread and start over again. It can only serve to scare people away from joining.

Actually, it should stay because it shows we are transparent. We do welcome everyone's opinion as long as they are willing to respect the fact that others have an opinion too. We aren't all cookie cut-out tree huggers and we aren't even all surfers, we're just a bunch of folks that are trying to make things a little better in the small world we have here in the North Florida area.

In showing that, though we may argue our points we can agree to disagree, perhaps we can actually grow that group of people and make things a little better for us all.

EC