APS Board of Directors Meeting Marriott Hartford Downtown Wednesday, August 20, 2014 Open Session APS Board and Staff Present: Rick Banks, Ken Grant, Alex Haimann, Eric Jackson, Yamil Kouri, Nick Lombardi, Ken Martin, Ken Nilsestuen, Kristin Patterson, Steve Reinhard, Wade Saadi, Dan Walker, Kathleen Yurchak, Mick Zais APRL Board Present: Don Heller, Bruce Marsden Present: Michael Bloom, Mark Butterline, Tom Husak I. Steve Reinhard welcomed the attendees to the APS Board General Session. Steve Reinhard asked the attendees to introduce themselves. He also reminded those attending that only Board members may participate in the discussions. II. Minutes: Dan Walker moved and Yamil Kouri seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the the February 13, 2014 Little Rock AmeriStamp Expo Board Meeting, the February 15, 2014 AmeriStamp General Meeting, and the May 14, 2014 Conference Call. Passed III. Society Attorney's Report: Kathleen Yurchak reported that there is currently no litigation involving the APS. Dan Walker moved and Ken Nilsestuen seconded a motion to accept the Society Attorney s report. Passed IV. Executive Director s Report: Ken Martin reported that from January 1 through June 30, 2014, the APS was about $8,000 ahead of budget with the APRL about the same amount behind budget. During the first seven months of 2014, volunteers have contributed over 9,500 hours to the APC. Membership retention continues to be over 90%, and net member loss has declined to 1.85%. Submissions to APS Expertizing are up 2.1%. Parking continues to be an issue at the APC. Dan Walker moved and Nick Lombardi seconded a motion to accept the Executive Director s Report. Passed V. Treasurer s Report: As of June, 2014, we are ahead in total income by $14,000 and ahead in new income by $16,000. Capital Projects in the budget are the Website upgrade. Calendar February to August: The finance committee has had calls in April and July. Financial information is being reviewed monthly. The Finance Committee is in the process of analyzing the proposed refinancing for APRL completion. The Society has conducted its consolidated audit and filed its 990 with the IRS. Satricia Rice, Investment Consultant from Hartland Investments, presented the Society s investment report. She presented a 2 nd quarter economic market review, asset allocation review, and investment policy statement changes. The first half of 2014 was very solid for investors. Analysts are still cautious about the economy s performance. Hartland uses the Zephyr Style Advisor to assist in determining the APS/APRL asset allocation. Investment policy changes were approved in
August 2013, which allowed for a greater investment in emerging markets and provided Hartland greater flexibility in investing for the APS/APRL. The maximum international exposure has been increased from 15 to 33% reflecting the greater role of international markets. VI. Dealer Representative: Eric Jackson noted that the number of dealers attending shows has decreased. He indicated that for dealers meeting with other dealers and customers are benefits of show attendance. Many younger dealers conduct their business on the Internet rather than through show attendance. Westpex and Napex, two successful shows, have very strong planning committees, which yields dealer satisfaction. Many World Series of Philately shows could learn much from these planning committees. Alex Haimann noted that there is not a planning committee for StampShow. VII. Steve Reinhard indicated that he would select a replacement for David McNamee on CANEJ. VIII. Smithsonian National Postal Museum Council of Philatelists: The NPM is starting a maintenance campaign. Cheryl Ganz has retired and Dan Piazza has been appointed to her position as head curator. IX. World Stamp Show New York 2016: Wade Saadi reported that plans are moving along. FIP has signed the contract which is in review by the attorney for World Stamp Show. The Show has sold 125 booths of a possible 204. It has 60 booths for postal administrations and has commitments from many philatelic societies for booths. People may begin to reserve rooms on May 1, 2015. Alex suggested that the APS host a Tiffany Dinner at World Stamp Show NY 2016, and Ken Martin will undertake planning with the Campaign for Philately. X. Stamp Buddy Program: Michael Bloom reported on the third year of the Stamp Buddy Program. Stamp Buddy has added 50 APS members from StampShow Milwaukee to today. He wants to expand the program so that there is a presence at more WSP shows. The program has also targeted retirement communities and has presented programs on collecting. Old Business I. Nepotism: Kathleen Yurchak and Steve Zwillinger presented the draft nepotism policy. Ken Martin indicated that as far as he knows there are no employees of the APS who would be affected by the policy. Ken Grant moved and Ken Nilsestuen seconded a motion to approve the nepotism policy. Passed II. Stamp Show Bus Tour: After twelve weeks of promotion, the Society was able to sell one ticket for the bus tour. The Society was able to cancel the tour without penalty. According to Alex Haimann and Wade Saadi, the entire StampShow should be rebranded to be attractive to significant others and children. III. Stamp Show Members Day: i. Tremendous staff and volunteer time/effort will be required to successfully pull off the APS Members Only Day concept at a future StampShow. Many of the types of effort needed for this day are already focused on World Stamp Show 2016. ii. Postpone APS Members Day initiative in favor of focusing on APS membership recruitment planning/efforts during World Stamp Show 2016
iii. Establish working committee to begin setting out parameters and desired efforts focused on recruiting NY2016 show attendees for APS Membership. Some of the concepts brainstormed for APS Members Only Day could be roadtested at NY2016. Alex Haimann recommended having a committee to focus on benefits for APS members at StampShow which can be rolled out next year. IV. Society of Isreal Philatelists: The SIP would like to implement the proposed Administrative Services Agreement. Moved by Dan Walker and seconded by Ken Nilsestuen a motion to approve the SIP Administrative Services Agreement proposal at $20 per hour and with the SIP purchasing the computer. Passed V. 2026 International Show: Ken Martin reviewed the documents provided. Two locations have expressed interest, Boston and Chicago. VI. Membership Summit Proposal: Steve Zwillinger reported on the proposal for a national industry wide summit on philatelic membership. Current thought is to place this on hold until there is a new executive director. New Business I. ebay Pathway to APS Membership: Michael Bloom presented a proposal of how ebay might be used to solicit new members of the APS. Donated philatelic material would be lotted, listed, and eventually sold on ebay. Purchases would become part of a database and targeted letters could be sent to customers. Moved by Yamil Kouri and seconded Alex Haimann a motion to approve and fund the ebay Pathway to APS Membership pilot. Passed II. American Philatelist Recommendations: Rodney Juell and Barb Boal presented a series of recommendations for the American Philatelist. Recommendation #1 The AP should not have an exclusive or even a primary reliance on unsolicited manuscripts. Rather the AP should solicit manuscripts that enable it to achieve a desired balance. Recommendation #2 The AP should contain articles of varying lengths and depths. Depths should range from introductory to specialized. Length should reflect degree of specialization and popularity of subject. Recommendation #3 Each issue of the AP should typically contain two articles on the United States (in addition to regular columns), one dealing with stamps, including back of the book, and a second dealing with postal history, postal services or production technologies, and/or related ephemera two articles on foreign countries (in addition to regular columns), one dealing with a country (or colony or other postal jurisdiction) which has not been represented in the AP in recent years (if ever). The other should deal with a major and/or popular country or collecting area as established by reader survey.
Dan Walker moved and Yamil Kouri seconded a motion to approve the recommendations from the AP advisory board. Passed III. Wade Saadi moved and seconded Yamil Kouri a motion to acknowledge the dedication and quality of Barb Boal s efforts on behalf of the APS. Passed IV. Blog: Barb Boal reviewed the preliminary results of the Reader survey. Also, APS is currently in the process of developing an Apple App for an American Philatelist reader, which will be free for the first year as Barb Boal has secured a $25,000 grant. The Society will be live with this App in five weeks. The Society currently does not have an APS blog. Barb Boal suggested that we have a committee help manage a blog prepared by board members, department heads, etc. V. Secure the Future Proposal: Alex presented a three year operations and development plan. Society activities fall into four areas: Membership Services, Library Services, Youth Programs and Education Services, New Membership Outreach Programs. Alex Haimann proposes an integrated operations and development plan in the four areas. The Board discussed ways of structuring this integrated review of operations and development, whether to establish ad hoc committees or a committee of the whole. VI. Technology Committee: Clark Frazier reported on Committee priorities for FY 2015: Implementation of the APS Long Range Plan recommendation 12 to develop a comprehensive information technology (IT) plan that incorporates integrated policies for upgrading equipment, software, website and web applications Identify ways to expand the virtual presence of the APS on the Internet with the objective of making the APS web site a must visit destination for aspiring stamp collectors and philatelists. Investigate and flesh out the notion that collectors are seeking comprehensive and useful sources of information about stamps on the Internet. The 2008 Long Range Plan and the 2013 Retreat may have not given enough weight to the value of online information in the hands of collectors. Identify strategies for improving existing Sales Division web services including online submission of StampStore listings and virtual stamp circuit books. Start a process to prioritize and identify improvements to the APS web site and online service offerings. Continue to identify strategies for supporting Society and individual efforts to collect and publish reference information on line. It is likely that this list is incomplete, but it is a start. Virtualization is almost certain to become part of the strategic technical core of the APS organization. The APS is likely to urgently require additional management resources to define technical objectives, develop plans, monitor and control contracted IT projects and reach out to stake holders in order to reach the goals and objectives already defined in the 2008 Long Range Plan and new objectives identified in the 2013 Retreat. A strong on line presence may be the only way to slow or stop the ongoing slide in membership. Superior information offerings should not only help retain existing members, but may serve to attract new members VII. Committee Reports: Kristen indicated she reviewed the reports submitted and helped edit them.
VIII. Moved by Nick Lombardi and second by Yamil Kouri a motion that the APS charge a filing fee of $25 for appeal of the decision of the board of vice presidents to take effect on September 1, 2014 for any newly initiated appeal. Passed IX. Adjourn: Yamil Kouri moved and Nick Lombardi seconded a motion to adjourn. Passed