Re: AIS- Scientific Grant Proposals


Hello all,

According to my review of the various emails regarding this matter, Garry White made the motion on Aug. 1, and the motion was seconded by Bob Pries the same day. The motion has been open for discussion since that date. There have been several emails regarding the correctness of the motion, especially regarding the funds currently available. There was an email mentioning revising the motion but nothing has been done to either withdraw the original motion or amend it; just a lot of discussions and possible suggestions.

Michelle


Robert Pries wrote:
Jill; I seconded Gary's motion the same day he made it--Bob


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jill Bonino" <aistreas@earthlink.net>
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Sent: Sunday, August 3, 2008 5:14:50 PM (GMT-0500) America/New_York
Subject: RE: [AISdiscuss] AIS- Scientific Grant Proposals

Hi All,

I went to the original proposals from Gary from Miss Guo and Mr. Meerow...

Project #1--Miss Guo The two-year costs for this project are $2,280. This is well within the Scientific Restricted Funds of $4597.
Project #2--Mr. Meerow

The first year cost is $4,840
The second year cost is $4,125

I agree with Brad that we should not just approve year #1 for a project and then not be able to fund years 2 or subsequent. We may have done this in the past but it may not have been the best decision. As of now, we could afford to take the excess funds needed out of the General Fund to take care of all of Miss Guo's project and year #1 of Mr. Meerow's but not year two of Mr. Meerow's project. I am concerned that we will get the AIS Budget over committed and then something happens like a surprise insurance bill for next year (which has happened in the past) that wipes out our "cushion". John is correct that only $3000 of his $8,000 proposed expenses for revamping the AIS website are budgeted to come out of the General Fund which gives us less "cushion" than I originally thought.
My thoughts so far....Jill

PS Technically no one has seconded Gary's original motion for funding both year's of the two grant proposals, so there isn't an active motion out there to discuss...JB
-----Original Message-----
From: Brad <zebrairis1@aol.com>
Sent: Aug 3, 2008 1:29 PM
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Subject: RE: [AISdiscuss] AIS- Scientific Grant Proposals

Hi Will,

I don't believe there is any confusion on my part.  Since at least 2 members
of the Advisory Scientific Committee are also voting members of the Board
AND they submitted the Scientific Committee's recommendation in the form of
a motion, it is no longer just a recommendation.

Some of our Advisory Committees have restricted funds available with the
approval of the Board, but the motion assumes that General Fund moneys can
be spent without the necessary Budget authority to spend them. Not only does
it require 2008 General funds, but it assumes that General funds will also
be granted next year to fund the second year of these grants. I trust that
the Scientific Committee wouldn't be foolishly recommending only funding the
first year of two-year grants without expecting the Board to also fund the
second year. Additionally, I also believe that "sound accounting principles"
are legally required of all groups including non-profits. I also believe
that the AIS board is required to formally appropriate General funds prior
to considering a motion to spend them.

Jill, you are the expert here and I'm counting on you to "straighten me out"
if I'm wrong on any of this. I truly don't wish to foolishly inject any
incorrect thoughts over this because I'm in favor of both grants once the
money has been properly authorized.

I'm sorry if this is causing a lot of problems for the folks on the
Scientific Committee because I know this motion was submitted with total
integrity and I consider all of you as my friends or friendly acquaintances.

Cheers! Brad Kasperek

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org [mailto:owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org]
On Behalf Of William Plotner
Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2008 11:22 PM
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] AIS- Scientific Grant Proposals

I think that ther is some confusion....The Scientific Committee is an advisory committee and do not make the financial decisions. The Board of directors make those decisions. The Scientific Committee only suggests that

they are worthy.

All My Best

Will
A member of the Scientific Committee and not a member of the Board of directors.


----- Original Message ----- From: "Brad" <zebrairis1@aol.com>
To: <aisdiscuss@aisboard.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2008 2:08 PM
Subject: RE: [AISdiscuss] AIS- Scientific Grant Proposals


Thankz! again Jill,

As I suspected the scientific committee doesn't have budget authority to
issue BOTH grants at this time in spite of Bob's argument that they should
have this authority because they gave up some of their budget to the
electronic committee.

The scientific committee should have submitted a motion to increase their
TWO-year budget authority to cover the total cost of both grants at least a month before submitting a motion to approve these grants. If they had they would know whether-or-not the Board was willing to fund BOTH grants. Because
they didn't the Board is now being put in the untenable position of
violating sound accounting principles if we approve BOTH grants before the
deadline of September.

Since I support both grants if we can find and approve the money to fund
them, I would like to offer my option for working this situation.

1.) Since there is no way the Board can approve the current motion without
violating sound accounting principles, it should be withdrawn posthaste and be replaced with one to approve Jinyan Guo's two-year grant(it is unfair to
the grantee and a waste of our money to only fund the first-year of a
two-year grant)since the Restricted Scientific Fund currently contains the
funds to pay for both years. (I hope we could limit the discussion period to
only 7 days to keep things moving.)

2.) Next that the scientific committee be allowed to submit a second motion
requesting Budget approval to also fund Alan Meerow's grant as soon as the
their first motion goes to AISVote.  Alan Meerow should be contacted and
asked if he would still be interested in approval of his grant even if it is delayed by a few weeks. At this time there is no way to know if the funding
will be available unless someone or a group of folks on AISdiscus wish to
donate the necessary funds to the Restricted Scientific Fund.

3.) Regardless of whether-or-not the funding motion is approved, the
scientific committee be allowed to submit a motion to approve the Alan
Meerow grant when their budget motion goes to vote.  This motion can be
withdrawn if the budget approval motion fails, but the discussion can be
started.

Finally, that the Board members and Past-Presidents start an informal
discussion on asiconfer about whether-or-not there is a realistic hope of
approving the necessary budget funds for Alan Meerow's grant. I real do hope
we can find the funds to approve his grant.

If anyone has other options on how to solve this funding and time dilemma,
I'm sure everyone on the Board would like to consider them so please put
them of aisdiscuss.

All the best,
Brad Kasperek



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org [mailto:owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org]
On Behalf Of Jill Bonino
Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2008 12:30 AM
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] AIS- Scientific Grant Proposals

Currently, the Restricted Scientific Fund holds $4597 that can be used for
Grants.  This is short of the current request of $6160 by $1563.  As Bob
mentioned, the amount budgeted for the website update of $8000 (of which
only $5000 comes out of the General Fund) has not been used to date.

So far this year, Bulletin expenses (which is the AIS's largest expense) is
well within budget.  Income has also been close to what we estimated.

I would recommend approving the Scientific grants for 2008 only at this
point.  We can discuss the 2009 outlay in November when we discuss the
budget. Between now and the fiscal year end 9-30-08, our budget can afford
the overage of $1563 to approve the 2008 grant amounts.

This might involve an edit of Gary's motion to specify that the approval is
for 2008 only....

Jill

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Pries <robertpries@embarqmail.com>
Sent: Aug 1, 2008 3:02 PM
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] AIS- Scientific Grant Proposals

I was at the fall meeting when the budget was created. At that time we
allocated $5000 to the scientific fund to be added to $5000 that was already in the fund. We also had $2000 for Advertising. At that point the budget was balanced. But just before adjournment it was proposed that $9000 was needed
to redo the website. In order to balance the budget My committee forfeited
the $2000 and the scientific committee forfeited the $5000 to compensate for the change. To my knowledge there have been no proposals for the use of the
$9000 this year so I would assume we are presently that far ahead in our
budget and it seems likely that the proposals for its allocation will not be
realized until the next budget. Therefore I would suggest that the money
should be available for the science committee in this calender year if we so
choose.--Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad" <zebrairis1@aol.com>
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Sent: Friday, August 1, 2008 4:56:19 PM (GMT-0500) America/New_York
Subject: RE: [AISdiscuss] AIS- Scientific Grant Proposals

Hi All,

I believe this motion commits more money than the current budget recognizes
for research. Is this motion appropriate for changing our current budget?
Or
should a budget increase be approved prior to agreeing to spend more than
is
currently allotted?

What appreciate Jill and Roy's opinion on this.

All the best,
Brad Kasperek

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org [mailto:owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org]
On Behalf Of Robert Pries
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 10:40 AM
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Cc: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] AIS- Scientific Grant Proposals

I second the motion in the message below.

----- Original Message -----
From: "gary white" <in2iris@yahoo.com>
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Sent: Friday, August 1, 2008 11:58:18 AM (GMT-0500) America/New_York
Subject: [AISdiscuss] AIS- Scientific Grant Proposals

The Scientific Advisory Committee received two research grant proposals.
The
first proposal is by Miss Jinyan Guo, titled "Phylogenetic and
developmental
study of Iris subgenus Limniris section Lophiris and related species".
The
second proposal is by Dr. Allan Meerow, and titled "Heterogeneity,
ecological
specialization and introgression in a large population of Iris
savannarum".   Both of these proposals were reviewed by the committee
and recommended for funding by the American Iris Society. The total first
year cost is $6160.   Both are two-year studies.  The total second year
cost
is $6405.   Payments to researchers can be made in increments throughout
the
two-year period.

I move that the AIS fund both Miss Guo's research grant request and Dr.
Meerow's research grant request.

Gary White,
AIS Director
Chair of Scientific Advisory Committee

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