meeting minutes - 2020

President Paul Mimms called the meeting to order at 6:32 pm on April 13, 2020. 

Roll was taken.  The following persons were present:  

Donna Bishop

Raymond Bishop

Judy Burch

Sarah Calhoun

Dianna Dawne

Joe Doggs

Amanda Dovin

Leonard Gross

Lindsey Henson

Charles Johnson

Ray Miles

Paul Mimms

Kenny Norton

Mary Pendleton

Lori Reber

Jesuita Tabor

Erika Wolf

Our special guest, Cheryl Gajadhar

President Paul Mimms welcomed all to the meeting. 

Members were reminded that the June summer camp has been cancelled.  July and September camps are still up in the air.  The ACB convention has also been cancelled; there will be a virtual convention instead.  At this time, the MCB convention has not been cancelled.

Two topics were discussed during this meeting:

1)   Relief area for the October 2020 MCB convention in Springfield

2)  Our new website

Ken spoke to the membership regarding the relief area at the Springfield hotel.  He mentioned that the 20 by 20 (400 square feet) area set aside for dog relief has quite a bit of landscaping that takes up a good amount of the relief area.  A number of other options were discussed, including an area of cement, the area already designated for dog relief along with another additional area, an area with mulch, an area with pea gravel, a large box with wood chips and a big trash container for waste, and a professional dog waste clean up company.  Ken said that the cement area with hosing available would be the cheapest option.  In the end, it was agreed that Ken will check into some professional companies and get figures on what it would cost to have them come in to clean up the relief area(s), as well a speaking with hotel staff.  He will keep in touch with Paul regarding his findings.

Regarding our new website, Paul brought the membership up to speed regarding the situation with Look Media and the website they were building for us.  Paul asked the members to look at our new website that is being built.  The web developer is Cheryl Gajadhar.  In seven days Cheryl has built the website as we have requested that Look media did not complete to our satisfaction in two months.   

Cheryl described some of the features of the new website.  Some members have already perused the site and have found it very accessible.  Cheryl has created it in mind for those who use desktops, tablets, mobile phones, and various screen readers and screen enlargement software.  The site is very navigable with headings and links arranged throughout the site in a logical manner.  For those with vision, Cheryl has created a beautiful color scheme as well.  There are pictures scattered throughout the site and they are labeled.  Anyone who has pictures can send them to Cheryl and she will add them with descriptions.  There is also a site map link that can be clicked on and navigation is very easy there as well.  The temporary site is https://mo-gdu.org.  The permanet site will be up in a few days once we have our domains. 

Cheryl said that she still needs to put our icon at the top.  She is very open to suggestions and encouraged members to contact her with any suggestions they may have. 

We will need to resubscribe to the Show Me Paws email list.  Judy agreed to manage the email list.  Sarah will work with membership applications. 

There followed discussion about the possibility of holding a Happy Hour, or Coffee Break, group phone call where members can talk about anything and everything concerning them and their dogs.  It will be a time when everyone can talk and just hang out.  

Following discussion, it was agreed that the group will get together via the MGDU phone line on the third Tuesday of each month at 6:00 p.m.

The meeting was adjourned following this discussion.

Respectfully submitted,

Judy Burch, MGDU Secretary