Out of Date
-- if you want a "news" section, the WebTeam can give you one.
The New Forum Council of Chapters Section Is Now Operational
Why is this so important? It is the most democratic forum for the Council. Any Chapter Represenative (or Chapter President or Board Director) can comment ("Reply") or start a new discussion topic here. Use the Forum link in the right-hand sidebar to go quickly from any Council webpage to the Forum. If you can't Reply or start a new topic its because you haven't received your Forum password yet. Here are the instructions for Forum Login and getting your Forum Password.
Look under the Discussion board and you will see discussions on the Council Initiatives and proposed Council Regions. Please participate in the discussion.
Click to the Forum on the sidebar, over there: ===>>>
May 22, 2014
What Happened at the 1st Council Meeting
The Inaugural Council Meeting agenda was completed, that is: the Council Standard Operating procedures were approved, the officers were elected (Chair, Julie Becker; Vice-chair, Neta Villalobos Bell; and Secretary, Scott Davis. Three Initiative topics were adopted for Council focus: 1) promoting landscaping with native plants, 2) enhancing educational field trips, and 3) developing strategies & advocacy for land use planning to address habitat loss. Representatives assigned to these topics are to re-write the wording of their topic as an Initiative title and develop an initiative work plan and timeline. The need for discussion regarding initiatives and coordinating them within the context of existing FNPS Committees, the FNPS strategic plan, and other efforts was acknowledged.
This was the Agenda for the inaugural Council Meeting at the FNPS Conference on May 15, 2014.
May 20, 2014
Why Does the Council Have Initiatives?
Some Chapter Reps have envisioned the Council's purpose to help Chapters do their work better and use what other Chapters have learned, so that we aren't always reinventing the wheel. They understand the collective power of the group to centralize resources and spawn ideas that help Chapters. This is indeed a primary purpose (see Resources for Chapters in the entry below and the tab above).
Another purpose of Council is to coordinate the work of the state FNPS and the Chapters toward implementing the FNPS strategic plan. The plan isn't just words on paper, it is to focus FNPS members and Chapters to accomplish a few specific tasks this year. Think of it as getting the group pointed in the same direction so that we can use the collective brains, brawn, and resources of many to move a heavy stone.
Big groups like FNPS often have trouble focusing and work weakly on too many fronts at once. Sometimes it's good to just push through on a few fronts with a united effort. Chapters are more passionate about some things than others, so we polled the Chapter Reps at the inaugural meeting to see which issues in the FNPS strategic plan they cared most about. These are the three proposed Council Initiatives:
1) promoting landscaping with native plants,
2) enhancing educational field trips, and
3) developing strategies & advocacy for land use planning to address habitat loss.
Here are the Initiative work groups from the participants at the May 15 Council meeting.
Since the point is to focus and coordinate efforts, the first important step is for each Council Initiative group to go to the FNPS Committees that is work on their topic with the questions: How can the Council and the Chapters help in this effort? What are our unique capabilities and resources of Chapters? How can Chapters enhance their own local work by focusing on this topic?
The next step is to define these general and vague topics much more clearly WITH THE FNPS COMMITTEE that is working on this topic. Because we are the Chapters, we will define tasks appropriate to Chapters. This hasn't happened yet; the groups need to meet to define clearly what they are to do. We are creating bridges between Chapter work and state work to get us working better together.
Join the discussion about all this and help us get well organized. The discussion will soon be posted on the Forum. Read more about the Forum, so you understand how to be a part of the discussion and how to vote on the Forum.
May 20, 2014
Resources for Chapters
One of the primary functions of the Council is to be a resource to Chapters. Good things Chapters are doing should be easy to find on the Council website. These resources will be built on the ideas, materials and links you send to us. We have starting with the rather extensive resources that have long been on the FNPS website in the FNPS Handbook. We are featuring two new pages: Speakers & Field Trips, including the excellent work the Communicatons Group did to create a Speakers spreadsheet. You will find all this under the Chapter Resources tab above. It's just a beginning and perhaps weak in some ways, so we welcome your suggestings on making this Resources for Chapters section really useful to Chapters.
May 6, 2014
First Council Meeting May 15
The Council will have its first meeting at the FNPS Conference on May 15 at 5:00-6:00pm (the FNPS Board Meeting follows). Do we have an agenda? Do we have a slate of 3 individuals who agree to serve as President, Vice President and Secretary (and on the Board as the the Council Directors)? Will the Reps pass the provisional SOP? Will the Council have an initiative, an agreed topic, for its work during the first year?
May 1, 2014
Paying Sales Tax
Instructions for e-Paying Florida sales tax for items sold by Chapters have been updated in the FNPS Handbook.
http://fnpshandbook.wikispaces.com/Chapter+Finances (toward the bottom under: "Applying to e-Pay Sales Tax")
OK. That's not very exciting. But if you have to do it, you are going to be so happy that we navigated those endless tax pages of irrelevant information to find the few tidbits you need to get it done. You're welcome. 
April 29, 2014
Did the Bylaws pass? Was the Council of Chapters officially born?
NEWS FLASH!
I am pleased to announce that the Results of the vote by the general membership to approve the 2014 FNPS Proposed Bylaw Amendments are in. They are as follows:
Yes: 473 (427 online; 46 mail-in ballot)
No: 7 (6 online; 1 mail-in ballot)
Abstain: 7 (4 online; 3 mail-in ballot)
That is a 97% landslide of approval. In addition, this is the most participation we have ever had in the history of voting on any issue by our members. Congratulations, and good work everyone. Let us keep the ball rolling, as there is still much to do in order to ensure the success our new governance system.
