NOWA: Strong and growing

From Dennis L. Clay, NOWA Vice President

The 2019 NOWA Annual Conference is just a week past. My heart beats with delight at the positive feelings radiating from the members during the conference, at the end of the conference and continuing after our rendezvous. Think positive was the theme of the conference. These two words will continue to radiate from the officers to the membership.

The old NOWA I remember from 10 and 20 years ago appeared at this conference. Old friends reconnected and new friendships were solidified.

Officers

Ron Kerr is now the NOWA president and Dennis Clay is vice president. Matt Liere is our second vice president and Chris Batin is the Chairman of the Board.

New or reelected Board members

Janie Gildart and Risa Wyatt were reelected to new three-year terms as board members. Joe Warren was elected to his first term on the board.

Committees

Risa Wyatt and Dennis Dauble volunteered to look over the current EIC rules and regulations and make recommendations for changes. These two, however, didn’t want to conduct the contest.

Up stepped Dave Vedder who said he would run the contest, but didn’t want to commit to any other committee during the year. Alan Liere volunteered to help Dave in this effort.

Bob Mottram was asked to chair the Constitution and Bylaws Committee. He has solicited other members to participate. They are already picking through the documents looking for minor and major changes.

Greg G. is the new chairman of the ethics committee. He accepted and will find one or more members to assist him.

Dennis Dauble has volunteered to chair the membership committee. He has many volunteers to help in this effort. Doug Wilson will work for additional membership by contacting current members and challenging them to recruit another member. Janie Gildart and I plan to call every member listed in the current directory about continuing membership or rejoining NOWA.

Dave Kilhefner has volunteered to maintain the NOWA website, make regular blog posts, coordinate with John Kruse on the Facebook page and produce the NOWA Membership Directory. He is also the chairman of the finance committee. Other members on this committee are Ron Kerr, Peter Schroeder and Jeremy Johnson.

2020 Conference

Next year, 2020, we are meeting at The Dalles, Oregon. The dates are April 30, May 1, 2, 3. The conference headquarters will be the Shilo Inn. We will begin negotiating the contract in the next few weeks.

We need a site-selection committee to work on an Idaho location for 2021. Any volunteers from Idaho?

Board meetings

The board of directors voted to hold a board meeting teleconference every month. The first will be in June. Don’t know the date or time yet.

These meetings will be short and to the point, convened to conduct NOWA business. The monthly meeting will be cancelled if there is no pending business.

Questions/comments?

The NOWA board is open to any and all questions and comments. Open dialogue on the website is encouraged, as are e-mails between members.

Respectfully submitted,

Dennis