Present:  Meeker, Hunjadi, TeStroete, Schilder, Blount, Madigan, McCarrier, Weir, Teale, Allen, Merrill, Playman

Guests: Joe Hackett

Meeting called to order by President Meeker at 12:02 PM

President Meeker introduced Joe Hackett who was elected to the Board at the past election. His term will begin in April.

Motion by TeStroete, second by Schilder to accept the October meeting minutes as written. All in favor, none opposed. Motion carried.

Executive Director: Hunjadi presented year end information and an abbreviated year end report. The association ended the year with a 16% increase in membership to 3,552 including a 33% increase in service membership from 107 at the start of the year to 142 at the end. Gross income rose 17.5% with a year-end total gross of $354,710. A partial list of year 2000 accomplishments include passage of the First Responder bill, hosting the EMS Cruise, release of the Resource Kit CD ROM, redesign of the web site, moving to 100% full color in the magazine with reduced printing costs, redesign of the Hot Sheets for release in 2001, and acquisition of a new computer and color laser printer.

Hunjadi reported that the 2001 premium item is the nite writer pen. Items discussed at the October meeting (trauma scissors and key chain CPR shield) could not be found in the price range needed. The nite writer has been found retailing for as much as $13.99 and should prove a very popular premium item.

Hunjadi reported on preliminary results from the membership surveys that were sent with the election ballot. Members clearly are not in favor of First Responders being allowed as a legal crew member for an ambulance with over 95% estimated opposed to the idea. Survey results appear to be in favor of dispatcher certification and are leaning toward support of increased EMT-Basic hours if the need is demonstrated.  Satisfaction with the association appears to be very high both in questions and the 1 to 10 ratings. The state EMS office is somewhat low in the ratings as is the physician advisory committee.  Hunjadi stressed that these results are only preliminary and not based on data entry. The surveys will be computer entered and analyzed before being reported in a future magazine issue. About 400 responses have been received.

Conference: Hunjadi reports that there are 1,144 participants registered for the conference as of this date. Meeker provided information on tracks and totals for individual sessions. He further provided update information on Board member responsibilities at the conference.

Meeker then provided information for the 2002 conference.  Meeker and Hunjadi toured the Midwest Express Center in Downtown Milwaukee and met with representatives from the facility as well as the Hilton and Hyatt hotels. These facilities clearly meet our needs. Pricing will be an increase from where we are currently at, however if participation increases, this will not become an issue. However, at this time, availability is still an issue with other groups having bookings at the center in the last two weeks of January.  The conference division feels that the only facility in Wisconsin who could handle the conference better than the Four Points is the Midwest Express center. According to the person they met with, our conference is one of the bigger events that happen in Wisconsin. While not as big as the sport show, car show, etc, we are a large event due to the hotel rooms we would occupy and the banquet and meal functions. Hunjadi and Meeker also met with the Four Points Sheraton who provided a contract proposal for 2002 and 2003. They are aware we are looking at the Midwest Express center which helped us counter offer their contract by asking for the same contract we had for the 2001 conference. Their final offer is to allow all rates to remain the same other than a $2 increase in hotel rooms. Hunjadi/Meeker recommend to the board that we sign with the Four Points. Motion by Madigan, second by Merrill that the 2002 and 2003 conference be held at the Four Points. All in favor. none opposed. Motion carried.

Legislative: Licenses to lobby for the 2001-2002 legislative period have been obtained. The association has been licensed with Forbes McIntosh and Don Hunjadi listed as lobbyists and Don Hunjadi has been licensed to lobby on behalf of the Wisconsin EMS Association only. Forbes obtains his own license to lobby on behalf of more than one organization. Total cost for the licenses is $875

OLD BUSINESS

Board of Directors Election: Hunjadi presented election results. There were eight candidates filing nomination papers and receiving placement on the ballot. Four seats are open. Results are: Meeker 213, TeStroete, 175, Hackett 154, Schultz 136, Werner 120, Bach 95, Dean 84, Pipp 63. Motion by Playman second by Blount to ratify the election. All in favor. None opposed. Motion carried.  President Meeker has contacted all of the candidates to inform them of the election results.

Cruise: All final payments became due several weeks ago. Penalties now apply for anyone who would attempt to cancel the cruise. There are 221 cabins booked. This is down from the highest booked total of 278 earlier in the year. Cabins may still be available but our block is no longer held. Even though we lost over 50 cabins as people cancelled, the total is still larger than anticipated and is still an extremely large block for any group.  About 80 hotel rooms are booked at the Four Points for the park and ride offer for March 3, 2001.

Rule Changes: Basic rules are completed and were never touched by the legislature. They will become effective on February 1, 2001. The Paramedic rules are ready to go to the legislature. In preparation, we have set up meetings with the committee chairs of the health committees and members of their local EMS community.  The rule regarding flexible staffing is going forward as it was originally written 20 months ago.

First Responder: The law took effect on December 1, 2000. No action what-so-ever has been undertaken by DHFS. Further discussion on this topic was deferred and rolled into the topic on the state EMS office.

State EMS Office:  Meeker gave a report of the meeting that took place between DHFS, EMS office staff and the Executive Board of the association. In general, Jon Morgan feels that many of the concerns and complaints that we have received and observed are a result of office staffing. They agreed that the license renewals were not handled well and they are taking steps to correct this problem. A draft letter (included in board member packets) has been provided to the EMS office. The letter would be mailed to all members, ambulance services, etc.  Morgan reports to Meeker that if the letter is mailed it will create dissention between the office and WEMSA and that he might have to mail a reply to services regarding the letter. Spirited discussion by the Board followed about the draft letter. The majority of Board Members think we should move forward with the letter even if it does cause dissention.  They feel changes must be made and we must call attention to problems. Consensus is that every Board member should sign the letter – which was completed. Several Board members felt we should be dealing with higher levels of the Department of Health and Family Services and that we are now wasting our time with the EMS Bureau. Positives and negatives of this were discussed. Motion by TeStroete to prepare the draft letter for mailing but to hold the letter for discussion with Secretary Leann and/or John Chapen. If we are unable to obtain favorable response from either of these individuals then the letter should be mailed. Second by Madigan. All in favor. None opposed. Motion carried.

Statewide Recruitment: With the resignation of Paul Blount, very little work has been done on the project. Hunjadi suggests we not attempt to move forward with it for May, 2001 instead postponing action until fall or sometime in 2002.

Legislative Attendance: Mindy Allen reports that she has made contact with several services in Dane County and with the County EMS Association to identify potential EMS providers who could participate in hearings, rallies, etc. She has also put together two meetings with legislators and their constituents regarding the HFS 112 rules.

Credit Card/E-Commerce: After voting to begin credit card acceptance on the web, the vendors Hunjadi had identified informed us that MasterCard/Visa have made rule changes regarding memberships and subscriptions. In general they either prohibit or put significant restrictions on selling memberships or subscriptions lasting more than three months. Since the majority of our transactions were intended for membership and Hot Sheet subscriptions, it did not appear prudent to continue with the move to E-Commerce.  Hunjadi will continue to look for other avenues.

Annual Meeting: By laws require an annual meeting to be set and held but do not specify the time or location for the meeting. Motion by Schilder, second by Allen to set the annual meeting for April 1^st in Appleton. All in favor. None Opposed. Motion carried.

By-Laws Change: An initial vote was made at the October meeting to alter the by-laws to title the association CEO as Executive Director in place of Executive Manager. Motion by Playman second by McCarrier to alter the association by-laws for the title of Executive Manager to be changed to Executive Director. Eleven in favor, one abstain. Motion carried.

Other Old Business: Allen questioned if the Board had revisited the topics of a CQI workshop and Research Seminar as she found this referred to in past meeting minutes. Both topics will be placed on the April agenda.

NEW BUSINESS

Board of Directors Qualifications: Concern over current requirements for Board members seeking election to the Board of Directors was presented. The question is raised whether WEMSA members should have a specific amount of time as a member prior to being allowed to seek election to the Board of Directors.  Motion by TeStroete that members seeking election to the Board of Directors be a current member a minimum of three years immediately preceding their election. Second by Madigan.  Discussion was held. An alternate suggestion was to allow three years total but not require they all be immediately preceding. Benefits of the change were discussed. All in favor, none opposed. Motion Carried.

2001 Award Winners: As part of the new awards process the Executive Board discussed and voted for three finalists for the Service of the Year from nominations received. Hunjadi and Meeker then did site reviews of the finalists including touring the facilities, meeting with staff and members/employees and verifying information contained in the nomination. Motion by Allen, second by Schilder to move to closed session to discuss award candidates. All in favor, none opposed. Because Steve Teale is a member of one of the services who is a candidate, he was asked to be excused as well. Motion by Madigan, second by TeStroete to return to open session.  Motion by Madigan, Second by TeStroete to confirm Waunakee Area EMS as the Service of the Year. Eleven in favor, one absent. Motion carried. Steve Teale was invited to return to the meeting.

Membership Software: Hunjadi provided a report on software by the same company that has provided our conference software. The new software would allow us to house all association information, sales information, sponsors, conference, membership and others in the same database. Hunjadi received a demo on the program from Go Members, the company that has acquired Phoenix Solutions, the former owner of MeetingTrak/MemberTrak. Hunjadi reports that they continue to be a marginal company as far as customer friendliness is concerned. However, they make a quality product and would allow us to streamline our operation. Hunjadi believes we have three options: 1) continue to run conference operations on separate software and continue using the DOS based software (from 1991) we are using with no change. 2) Identify a company or individual who can write software specific to our needs that would use the database that the conference software uses. 3) Purchase the MemberTrak from Go Members. Cost is $8,495. Because we already own MeetingTrak they will discount the price to $5,500. We could require an additional $500 of customization to run our membership cards, renewal forms, etc., if Hunjadi is not able customize the program. Motion by Allen second by TeStroete to purchase the software. All in favor, none opposed. Motion carried.

Group Buying: MDS Matrx has provided a group buying proposal that would be valid throughout 2001 for all of our service and corporate members. They guarantee pricing would be lower than any other group buying organization in Wisconsin will receive and will be generally lower than any EMS service in the state can buy at (excluding a minority of extremely large services) Hunjadi priced the items and has found that they are extremely competitive and significantly lower than those advertised by other medical product companies. Meeker stated many of the prices are lower than what his 6,500 EMS run/year department is currently paying. Allen reported prices other than IV solutions and supplies were lower than they can obtain at her service. Playman indicated the prices to be lower than their current contract. Motion by Teale second by Allen to sign a contract with Matrx Medical for group buying at 2001. All in favor none opposed motion carries. Mailings and information to service members will be provided by the association and reimbursed by Matrx.

2001 Operating Budget: Hunjadi present the 2001 general operating budget to the Board and briefly explained changes over 2000. Motion by Madigan, second by Merrill to accept the budget as presented. All in favor. None opposed. Motion carried.  The conference division budget will be submitted for approval at the April meeting.

2001 Capitol Purchases: Hunjadi reported that approval in 2000 to upgrade some minor items on the Pentium II computer (hard drive, etc) have not yet been completed but will be shortly. He would like to replace the secretary’s 1994 four pages/minute laser printer with a faster model during 2001. He also suggested we sell some of these older items. Motion by McCarrier second by Playman to purchase a black and white laser printer as needed during 2001 and to liquidate unused office equipment as needed. All in favor, none opposed. Motion carried.

Meeker recognized the time and efforts of Madigan and Weir to the association. Both did not seek re-election and will be leaving the association Board with this being their last meeting.

Motion by Teale, second by McCarrier to adjourn. All in favor. None opposed. Meeting adjourned at 4:05 PM