Directors Present:
Bob Stone, Jack Murrell, Lee Besing, Fred Lanshe

Directors Absent:
Hall Duncan, Chuck Thompson

Meeting called to order by Mr. Stone at 10:25am. A quorum was present.

Minutes of the February 1999 meeting were distributed in writing. Move by
Mr. Lanshe, 2nd by Mr. Murrell to approve the minutes as printed. Motion
passed.

No minutes were received from Mr. Thompson covering the February 1998 Board meeting. Mr. Thompson was absent due to family medical emergency.

Mr. Stone announced that Mr. Hall Duncan has resigned from his Director
position due to personal reasons. Mr. Duncan is willing to continue
working with REACT International on an informal basis. They will be
contacting Radio Shack along with Bob Leef, Fred Lanshe and a member of the
Dallas County REACT Team who works for Radio Shack.

Report by Mr. Besing on election results. Three regions conducted
elections, (3, 6, and 9). Region 3 received 16 ballots for George Holmes.
Region 6 received 11 ballots for Frank Jennings. Region 9 received 5
ballots for Ron Faulkner. There were no other ballots. Since there were
no other ballots, the above candidates were declared winners. There were
no invalid ballots received.

The following teams voted:
Region 3: 3153, 2802, 2651,4998, 2804, 2457, 4675, C614, 4634, 4962, 2194,
4962, 2194, 4959, C204, C222, 4946

Region 6: 2869, 4967, 4258, 3366, C10, 4784, 2503, 2904, 4677, 4956, 4700

Region 9: 2627, 4270, 4757, 4853, 6006

Mr. Frank Jennings was present during this meeting and was formerly seated
as a director at this time. There are now 5 possible votes to be counted
during this meeting.

Discussion of current policy and procedures and the fact they were no
longer aligned with the current bylaws. Mr. Stone asked Mr. Murrell to
over see the rewriting of these documents to bring into alignment with the
new structure.

11:00am 11:50am Closed session of board, discussion of situation with RI
HQ Office Staff. Separate minutes kept of that meeting due to dealing
with personnel matters.

Recess at 11:50am for Lunch. Meeting resumed at 1:35pm
 
 

Present: Mr. Stone, Mr. Murrell, Mr. Besing, Mr. Lanshe, Mr. Jennings, plus
guests.

Motion by Mr. Murrell, 2nd by Mr. Stone, to accept Mr. Thompson's
resignation as director from REACT International. Motion passed.

Discussion on subject of vacancies on the board. Proposals to appoint
the following persons for regions 2, 5 and 8 to serve 2 year terms.
Region 2 David Moore, Region 5 Larry Fry, Region 8 Jesse Mauk.

Motion by Mr. Besing, 2nd by Mr. Lanshe to appoint David Moore to region 2,
Larry Fry to region 5 and Jesse Mauk to region 8. Motion passed.

Mr. Jesse Mauk was present and seated on the board at this time. Now have
6 possible votes.

Report by Bob Leef regarding FCC actions affecting GMRS radios.
Non-emergency communications on 462.675 were reinstated.

Affiliate Program: Mr. Lanshe reported that we get 10-15 leads from Pop
Com Magazine for potential new members. PRC is planning to offer exchange
advertising with other CB or industry magazines and publications.

Mr. Besing asked what benefits RI offers to potential and current affiliate
members? Mr. Mauk suggested that we needed to change the term “affiliate”
to "member at large" sort of like the term "used cars" is now "pre-owned
cars".

Motion by Mr. Mauk, 2nd by Mr. Besing to change the term to “member at
large”. Motion passed.

Discussion on procedure for processing Member-At-Large (MAL)’s through
State/Region Council when problems arise. Mr. Stone would like to form an
ad-hoc task group to study this issue. Mr. Besing, Mr. Jennings and Mr.
Lanshe agreed to serve on this committee. Other volunteers will be
solicited to assist from the existing membership committee and convention
attendees. Mr. Mauk suggested we make an announcement during the open
board meeting on Wednesday afternoon to solicit help from the attendees.

Discussion on Junior REACT Program. Currently we have 127 Junior members
and 37 who didn't renew yet. Mr. Stone and Mr. Fry discussed various
ideas to attract the interest of the younger crowd. Mr. Fry asked if we
could add a section to the web site to attract the Junior crowd. Mr.
Besing suggested we need to ask the juniors what they would like. In the
80’s many teams had “junior teams” with representation on the adult team’s
board of directors and held their own junior meetings and activities.
Mr. Mauk will talk with the Juniors during the convention week to find what
ideas might work best with their age group.

Mr. Larry Fry arrived 2:30pm and was seated as a director at this time.
Total of 7 votes now possible.

Mr. Stone suggested that we set the age of 14 as minimum entry level for
the Junior Program and that each Junior either have a parent in the team or
a sponsor member active in the team. Mr. Fry discussed Wisconsin Team’s
usage of the Junior Program. Discussion on responsible parties to be
responsible for behavior and liability of a junior member while acting as a
REACT member. Ad-hoc committee formed for duration of convention with
Jesse Mauk, Larry Fry and Bob Stone. Discussion on allowing lower ages
if parents were members of team. Teams should be able to set their own
guidelines.

Meeting recessed at 3:20pm until 9am Wednesday.

__________
July 14, 1999 09:00am
Board Meeting

Directors Present:
Mr. Stone, Mr. Faulkner, Mr. Jennings, Mr. Fry, Mr. Holmes, Mr.
Mauk, Mr.
Besing, Mr. Lanshe

Directors Absent:
Mr. Murrell

Visitors Present:
Mr. Bob Leef, PR Committee Chair

Mr. Stone called the meeting to order. Mr. Stone briefed the new
directors on the office situation. Mr. Jennings to visit the offices
during July 28th through August 6th to investigate and report back to Mr.
Besing for e-mail distribution of said report to the full board. Mr.
Holmes and Mr. Mauk will need to provide e-mail addresses to Mr. Besing for
this purpose.

Discussion on Junior REACT Program continued. Discussion on recommending
minimum age limits of 12-14 years. No decisions made, referred to Ron
Faulkner, George Holmes, Jesse Mauk and Larry Fry for investigation during
the convention. Linda Faulkner of Ontario was asked to serve as chair for
this committee.

Discussion on the Affiliate member program. Mr. Jennings suggested we
consider a corporate affiliate program of Silver (100-500), Gold (501-1000)
and Platinum (1000+).

Motion by Mr. Jennings to discontinue the Affiliate Program, as it is now
structured, at the end of 1999 and to establish a policy of referring leads
to teams, councils and regional directors. 2nd by Mr. Besing, motion
passed. This action cancels previous discussion regarding “Member At
Large” name change.

{note: the above motion was reversed later in the week by board action Lee
Besing, secretary}

Mr. Holmes shared his experience with a trucker on the way to this
convention. The trucker suggested REACT should be working with truck stops
to post the locations of REACT Teams in each state and with State Rest
Stops. Mr. Fry suggested that this idea would be best implemented at the
Council level to prevent teams from being listed where they are not in fact
monitoring the radio for calls. Mr. Besing mentioned the
Hotel/Motel/Food Directory he had seen at Denny’s Restaurant on the way to
the convention and suggested we should ask the PR committee to look into
getting REACT info published in these directories. Mr. Holmes mentioned
the Rand McNally Road Atlas. Discussion concerning the date sensitive
nature of all REACT Team directories and the shelf life of these
publications which could cause invalid information to be passed out when
old versions of the atlas are used as reference. These ideas referred to
the PR Committee for possible actions.

Mr. Faulkner asked that we have the PR committee proof read our PR
materials with an eye toward international usage and get away from the “USA
terminology only” attitude.

Credentials Committee asked that the board review three situations
involving delegate credentials which had some questions associated with them. The board reviewed each case and voted to approve the delegates from Seacoast REACT C412, Tobacco Valley REACT 3625 and St. George REACT 4928.
Motion by Mr. Mauk, 2nd by Mr. Jennings. Motion passed.

Mr. Stone announced the need for the board to fill the four officer
positions of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. He
announced that Mr. Chuck Thompson had agreed to stay on as Vice President
and General Counsel if the board would reappoint him. Motion by Mr.
Faulkner, 2nd by Mr. Jennings to appoint Mr. Thompson as VP and General
Counsel. Motion Passed.

Mr. Stone then proposed Ms. Chris White as Treasurer. Much discussion
ensued. Mr. Besing mentioned there were two candidates being mentioned
for this position, other than Ms. White, specifically Mr. Ed Greany of
California and Ms. Marilyn Fields of Maryland. Discussion on Dr.
Bricker’s success in shepherding REACT’s investments with an 8%+ return to
date. No decision reached at this time for filling position of Treasurer.

Discussion on retaining Mr. Besing as secretary. Motion by Mr. Faulkner,
2nd by Mr. Mauk to appoint Mr. Lee Besing of Texas as Secretary for the
next year. Mr. Stone objected to having any director holding dual
positions as an officer of the corporation. Much discussion resulting in
Mr. Stone withdrawing his objection in relation to Mr. Besing’s proposed
appointment in the absence of another qualified candidate. Motion passed.

Meeting recessed at 11:15pm
 

__________
July 14, 1999 12:15pm
Board meeting with States without Councils

States present: Hawaii and Oklahoma

Announcement that Honolulu REACT C-10 was joining the Pacific NW Council.
They had tried forming local council without much cooperation from
neighboring island team. Not much chance to form team on the main island
due to economic conditions being poor right now.

Hawaii mentioned that RI used to mail the REACTer to island in package and
they re-mailed locally using the bulk mail. Now RI mails all first class
mail to each member direct. Could save money reverting to past practices.

Bob Kaster reported from Oklahoma saying down to four teams, may be losing
Garvin County REACT who has been having internal problems. Discussed
which areas might support a team and problems in finding folks to get them
started. Reported that the teams in OK City area were working closely
during recent tornadoes.

Discussion on membership ideas to help form new teams. Discussion of
advantage of recruiting members from
amateur operators due to the low cost of ham equipment compared to
commercial GMRS radios.
 

__________
July 14, 1999, 02:00pm
Board Meeting with Council representatives

Total of 13 states represented during this meeting:
Florida, Walt Young
New York, Morris Dassa
Southern California, Jesse Mauk
Minnesota, Leland Johnson
Illinois, Al Hansen
Pacific Northwest, Dick Gamble
Pennsylvania, Fred Lanshe
New Jersey, Dick Cooper
North Carolina, George Holmes
Wisconsin, Larry Fry
Indiana, Jack Murrell
Canada, Ron Faulkner
Northern California, Jim Galbreath
Texas, Lee Besing

Common problem is attracting new, younger members. Walt Young reported
that even ham clubs in Florida are having the same problem. Discussed
their experience with recruiting younger members or folks who only wanted
to use the repeaters.

Florida reported they are bidding for the Y2k convention in Kissimee.
Adding back in contests for newsletter, placard and web sites. They will
have one of their DCAT vehicles on display during the Y2k convention.
 

__________
July 15, 1999 08:00am
Board of Directors Open Session

Meeting called to order by Bob Stone. Mr. Stone discussed the recent
restructuring of the Board to add regional directors instead of electing at
large directors. We expanded the number of directors from four to nine
regions. The new directors have the following four responsibilities:

1) Guide the Councils and the Teams, to serve them.
2) Provide Leadership to the Councils and Teams
3) Help ensure that the Councils and Teams follow the applicable laws
and
regulations, including REACT International’s policies.
4) To provide substantive ideas that the Teams and Councils can use in
their week by week, month by month activities.

The board does not view itself as people who are going to run REACT. We
have had enough of that in the past. In addition to the nine directors
who will serve as the guides to REACT’s future. There will be four
operating officer positions to run the routine daily operations of the
corporation who will report to the board of directors for policy changes
and guidance. These four are President, Vice President, Secretary and
Treasurer. Mr. Stone read a description of job duties for each officer
position, saying the President will be an ex-officio member of the board,
reporting to the board but not having a vote on the board.

Mr. Stone reported that Chuck Thompson has agreed to remain as Vice
President and General Counsel for the corporation.

Mr. Jennings read the list of states for each region and Mr. Besing
identified each director’s responsible areas

Committee Reports:
Registration Report: 88 registered members have checked in, 13 councils,
36 teams with a total of 46 voting delegates. 3 teams are representing
councils and do not get dual votes

Membership Mr. Besing reported that membership has been the top topic by
the board, from Junior to Affiliated to other membership issues. No other
report.

Amateur Mr. Sahler reported that he and Alfred Fronefield were
re-appointed co-chairs for the Amateur Committee. No other report.

GMRS No report

CB Radio Jim Koritzky reported he was re-appointed for CB committee chair
and wants to rebuild connections with the trucking industry and other
agencies, especially in the remote areas.

Life Member Mr. Gamble reported that he submitted a written report to the
board. He read the letter to the attendees. Active 259 members, Deceased
81, Dropped 48, Removed (for cause) 6, Undecided (at time of update) 6,
Unattached 134. He has three new candidates, one recently deceased. Total
was 534 Life members plus the three will be 537 Life members as of the date
of the convention. Mr. Cooper (NJ) asked if the list of unattached Life
members would be made available to councils and the board replied yes.

Site Selection Mr. Jennings reported that Florida Council developed a bid
package within six weeks for the year 2000 convention. The committee has
approved the bid to hold the 2000 convention in Kissimee Florida during the
4th week of July, the 26th-28th. REACT transmitting into the 21st Century.

Training Alfred Fronefield is serving in Macedonia at present but is
scanning in all current printed documents into electronic format for
modification and updates. Mr. Besing gave a brief report on his behalf,
explaining that Mr. Fronefield had planned to be at the convention like
last year, but the US Army gave him 45 minutes notice to pack his bags and
ham radios before being shipped to Albania and later Macedonia.

Publicity Bob Leef reported on some plans published in last REACTer,
mostly concerning obtaining a new spokesman and other membership oriented
items. They are looking for national sponsorships, equipment insurance,
and a manufacturer to market a channel 9 priority scanning CB. Boston
PBS to do show “Visionaries” and we have located a REACT member in Boston to work with them.

Mr. Stone reported that Hall Duncan has had to resign as Outside Director,
but will continue to work together with Mr. Stone and other directors on
public relations ideas. Plans include contacting Tandy Corporation.

Computers report by Lee Besing. Mr. Besing reported that work was being
done, had been done in fact, by Johnny Stowers of San Diego to convert the
existing File Express Database over to the more modern Access97 database.
We have added new fields, which the directors or other members have
suggested, such as e-mail, web addresses, new team fields for meeting
places and times. Regarding web site, there is a new computer store
on-line for members to purchase items which has accurate pricing and would
allow the computer committee or office staff to maintain the categories,
items and other administrative functions. After the new database is
established, we will be converting the Team / Council contact page to run
on software called “Cold Fusion” to pull the data live from a database file
rather than hard coded web pages. This will allow the information to be
more accurate and timely. E-commercial.com, the company partially owned
by director Besing, is the host for the REACT web site and mail server and
will be establishing sub directories for each council where they can
establish their own web sites under the REACT web site.

Awards report by Leland Johnson. K40 awards were selected by the
committee for 2nd and 4th quarter 1998 for the team and member levels, plus
1st and 2nd quarters during 1999. They selected a 1998 member of the year
award winner and team of the year award winner. No council was selected.

Remainder of committee reports postponed until tomorrow's open session.

Meeting recessed at 10:25am.
 

__________
July 15, 1999 2:45pm
Board of Directors Meeting
All directors present

Discussion on filling the position of President. Mr. Besing suggested
that Mr. Harry Hawkins of Saginaw, Michigan, be considered for this
position. Mr. Hawkins was invited into the meeting for an interview by
the full board. Discussion on problem of remote managing the office.
Communication solutions suggested included the extensive use of e-mail,
normal mail, telephone and fax, plus the help of nearby directors when “in
person” visits are required. Mr. Hawkins provided his background with
REACT, his education and military background to be printed in the next
REACTer magazine.

Motion by Mr. Besing, 2nd Mr. Lanshe to appoint Mr. Hawkins as President
for REACT International. Motion passed unanimously. Mr. Hawkins was
asked to rejoin the meeting and was told of the board’s decision to appoint
him as President.

Discussion about office position of Treasurer was held. Mr. Ed Greany of
California was proposed for the position of Treasurer. 2nd proposal was
Marilyn Fields, CPA, of Maryland has offered to assist with bookkeeping and
tax returns. Additional discussion of Christine White’s qualifications to
assist either the President or Treasurer.

Motion by Mr. Mauk, 2nd by Mr. Besing to appoint Marilyn Fields, CPA, of
Maryland to the position of Treasurer if she will accept. Mr. Stone and
Mr. Jennings to interview her during their visit to Suitland at end of
July. Motion passed unanimously.

Proposal by Mr. Faulkner to ask Mr. Greany to audit the books as needed.
Board agreed that this would be good, but no formal decision reached
pending interview with Ms. Fields.

Mr. Stone announced that he was willing to serve another year as a
director. But he did not wish to remain as Chairman of the Board.

Motion by Mr. Besing, 2nd by Mr. Lanshe to appoint Frank Jennings to the
position of Chairman of the Board. Motion passed unanimously. Mr.
Jennings assumed the seat effective immediately.

Discussion about missing director, Mr. David Moore, Mr. Jennings to contact
him at home to confirm his appointment and willingness to meet the
obligations of a director, including attendance at board meetings.

Motion by Mr. Mauk, 2nd by Mr. Holmes to allow the Award Committee to
pursue the idea of a recognition pin for individual award winners with K40
for approval and funding. Motion passed.

Mr. Jennings read list of committees.

Site Selection Jesse Mauk
Selma Dassa
Convention 2000 George Holmes
Walt Young
Highway Safety Ron Faulkner
Ron McCracken
Training Ron Faulkner
Alfred Fronefield
Public Relations Fred Lanshe
Bob Leef and Ron McCracken
Computers Lee Besing
Dick Cooper
Awards & Recognition Jesse Mauk
Leland Johnson
Junior REACT Larry Fry
Linda Faulkner
Communications Jack Murrell
Amateur Radio Henry Sahler III, Alfred Fronefield
GMRS Radio Charlie Land
CB Radio Jim Koritzky
Government Relations Bob Stone
Wayne Lewis, Frostburg MD
Voluntary Agencies Fred Lanshe
Paul Bowling, Arrundel Co MD
Membership Frank Jennings / David Moore
Tom Currie, Louisville Metro
Life Membership Frank Jennings
Richard Gamble,
Bylaws -- Frank Jennings
Johnny Stowers, San Diego
Rapid Deployment Teams Fred Lanshe
John Knott, John Fisken, Bob Lumpkin
{Note: two other committees added later Lee Besing, Secretary}

Discussion on dates for the winter board meeting. Target date February
18th thru 21st with the meeting to be held at Suitland, Maryland. All
directors were placed on notice that they may have to carry all or a
portion of their expenses for attending the winter board meeting.

Mr. Fry reported on Team in Wisconsin who reported to D&B that they had
over $110,000 in assets and were charging accounts to the team’s name.
Mr. Fry as State Council President, asked the charter be suspended and
revoked. Mr. Besing reported that Mr. Thompson had written a letter to
the party advising them their check for charter application had bounced and
therefore their charter was revoked immediately. Mr. Fry asked for there
to be a procedure in place to handle such gross violations in the future
while the required 45-day notification period was implemented. Discussion
about referring such cases to the Vice President and General Counsel for
recommendations and action to handle legal actions against such parties as
needed.

Meeting recessed at 5:10pm until 8am Friday.
 

__________
July 16, 1999
Board Meeting 8am

General discussion on Florida Proposal and agenda for Open Session,
protocol for it.

Open Session 8:30am

Opening comments, housekeeping comments by Julie Brendle.

Mr. Stone announced that he was retiring as Chairman of the Board and that
his successor was Frank Jennings. Mr. Stone presented Mr. Jennings with
the official gavel, copy of Roberts Rules of Order and Lee’s tape recorder
to help him with his memory. <grin> The audience then gave a standing
round of applause for Bob Stone.

Mr. Jennings stated that Region 2 director position wasn't firmed up yet
due to lack of contact with the proposed director, David Moore. Mr.
Jennings then introduced each director again and their states of
responsibility.

Mr. Jennings introduced our new president, Mr. Harry Hawkins of Michigan.
Mr. Hawkins gave brief comments. Our VP and General Counsel is Chuck
Thompson, from Texas. Our Secretary is Lee Besing, from Texas, and the
Treasurer will be Marilyn Fields, CPA, from Maryland. Mr. Jennings and
Mr. Stone will be meeting with Ms. Fields during a planned visit to the
office at the end of this month.

Mr. Jennings presented the copy of Roberts Rules of Order to Mr. Mauk to
assist him maintaining order in the meetings.

Mr. Jennings read the list of committees, identifying the responsible
director and committee chairperson. The remainder of the committees (those
who didn't give reports previously) gave their reports as follows:
Awards Leland Johnson reported that the committee has come up with an idea
of a K40 Award Pin for award winners similar to the Award Pin with Years of
Service Charm. They have contacted K40 and will be forwarding information
to them concerning the pin. Mr. Johnson introduced his committee Linda
Faulkner, Florence Hedges, Jim Koritzky, and Bob Kaster.

Rapid Response Team: John Fisken gave summary of what this concept was and asking for input of ideas from the field. He talked about the need to get people and supplies into a disaster area to respond with help during the immediate response period and the recovery period. Mr. Jennings talked about the need to commit our organization behind this program and to be consistent. Mr. Fisken wants two teams of 15 each in each region, one for immediate response and one for backup.

Life Membership Richard Gamble now has blank forms available for Life
Memberships to pass out to those who were asking about them.

Mr. Fry read a report entitled “Recommendation to Councils”. Councils
should take a careful look at the way they are using PR. Councils should
efficiently approach PR to the teams by furnishing materials to the teams
at no cost, such as brackets or maps for racks at highway rest areas.
They should designate what frequencies a local team monitors, CB, Amateur,
GMRS, etc. so that a truck driver or traveler would know that a REACT Team
was in the area.

Junior REACT Larry Fry talked about the age of our membership is growing
and we need to recruit younger members. While initially a minimum age of
14 was suggested, the board decided not to set any minimum requirements at
this time, but rather to study what was working with other teams at this
time. They talked about not micro managing the teams efforts to attract
Junior members, but to supply ideas and guidelines to help the teams get
started and maintain this effort. Some of the things mentioned were to
develop a program of training on radio skills, junior web site, computer
training and a possible game site on educational training that enhance team
training. Mention was also made toward amateur radio studies hopefully
with final outcome of obtaining a license. We need to retain our members’
children and recruit new groups of young people to assist in the rebuilding
of REACT. Emphasis on training the Juniors so they can someday fill
positions within the organization to keep REACT strong and healthy. Linda
Faulkner is the chairperson and would appreciate any input and suggestions.

Mr. Jennings announced that the current Affiliate program will be
discontinued at the end of our fiscal year, but replaced with a Member At
Large (MAL) program tailored to place emphasis on forming new teams in
areas where there are no teams at present. Other leads in areas where
there are teams, will be encouraged to join the local existing teams rather
than becoming a “MAL”. Details are still being worked out on this
changeover.

Mr. Jennings announced a proposed new Corporate Sponsorship program with
three levels of financial support. Silver (100-500), Gold (501-1000) and
Platinum (1000+) donations. These supporters would receive specified
free advertising and be listed on the official letterhead for the
organization. Mr. Stone stated that if you visit your local library, you
will find listings of corporations and foundations that are known to
provide grants for various purposes. Mr. Cooper spoke in favor of this
proposal. Mr. Leef suggested we needed to form a Ways and Means Committee
to study grants, Ms. Sally Ann Knott of Florida has volunteered to chair.
Mr. Boone of Medina County REACT in Ohio announced that his team recently
applied and got two $1500 grants for highway safety.

Mr. Ron Mayes, Kansas Council President spoke in favor of keeping the
Affiliate program alive. He gave the history of how the program was started
in 1986, the purpose of it and how it was supposed to operate.

More discussion about applying for grants from corporations early because
they have deadlines for applications. Several examples were given for
other teams who have received grants, such as Reli REACT who received
$25,000 grants in 30 days.

Mr. Bob Leef discussed the REACTer magazine, the current problems of late
delivery and poor quality, lack of paid advertising, etc. He suggested we
needed to obtain an editor for the publication. He suggested we establish
an oversight committee for the publication. He explained there were over
runs in publications that did not get used. More comments would be made
during the afternoon open board meeting.

Mr. Phillip Gardner of St. George County REACT from Trinidad & Tobago
mentioned that he had spent $5,500 in TT dollars to attend this convention.
They have been growing due to their Junior REACT program, but due to the
6.5:1 exchange rate, they cannot afford to register all of their members or
send many of them to the convention. He invited all directors to come
visit the islands, that it would be very affordable. He talked about
their Junior REACT and how they recruited from schools and did cook outs,
hiking and other youth oriented activities. They approach the Girl Guides
and other organizations to recruit new members. Mr. Gardner is a school
principal and helps recruit students from his school. They involve REACT
in the community events, carnival and other school sports such as baseball
and soccer teams.

Mr. Rich Ryan from Heartland REACT Omaha, NE, talked about needing to
rewrite the PR PSA spots for radio spots to reduce down from 60 seconds to
30 seconds. Their team is affiliated with two local TV stations to relay
information into the newsroom during bad weather to control rumor control
when there are reports of suspicious clouds. This causes the TV news
crews to keep giving REACT free publicity.

Mr. Besing mentioned that a Texas team had obtained a $500 advertisement
donation from the LaQuinta Inn in the form of ten room nights. They had a
concert on June 18th (Friday) and hosted the State Council’s meeting the
next day. All attendees to the meeting were able to stay for free when
they drove as much as 600 miles to attend this meeting. The Texas Council
also joined a group, Another Way Texas Shares, which was an alternate to
United Way. In 1999 they expect to receive $1500 from AWTS to be shared
with local teams to promote REACT.

Mr. Holmes reported what his team, Onslow County REACT, helps a local TV
Station, the Salvation Army and a major grocery store with their Christmas
Cheer program. The REACT members provide traffic control for the event
that is held in five cities and counties. Their uniformed members appear
on the news twice a night in their coverage over five different areas and
nights.

Mr. Bob Kaster talked about OK REACT’s PR efforts to fax PR releases to the
local media every time they conducted an event. Recently they did a
highway safety break and was asked to do a 30-minute interview with a local
radio station and that was later broadcast on the air. He brought a copy
of the audiotape with him for folks to listen to.

Mr. Jennings covered some of the topics to expect on this afternoon’s open
board meeting. This would be the time to bring your placards and
delegates will be able to make motions and vote on issues.

Tri-City REACT, said that Dee had to ship in more t-shirts due to folks not
ordering them in advance, and it cost her shipping.

Mr. Walter Young talked about how radio stations use 3x5 cards are used by
radio disc jockeys to fill empty times, 20-30 second holes in their
broadcast while they are changing records. Suggested teams try
submitting short, concise releases instead long ones, to get more frequent
coverage.

Mr. Henry Sahler reported his team had a team member working for a national
electronics firm who donated $1000 to their team since their employee
volunteered over 100 hours. There were no restrictions or “strings”
attached to this grant.

Mr. Mayes, Kansas, talked about the by-laws changes, some past history, and
comments about having new faces on the board and officer positions. He
suggested that appointees be temp appointments until an election can be
held rather than the board appointing someone they preferred rather than
the one their region might have preferred. He suggested that the board
needs a “candidate committee” to find suitable candidates for filling board
positions as the elections approach. Mr. Jennings discussed the reason
for regional directors to better represent their regions and have the
members in those regions to know whom they are nominating or voting for.

Mr. Besing thanked the local hosts and Gary & Luann Lonowsky for their help
with his car troubles getting solved by local mechanics. Both mechanic
shops, BG&S Transmission and Green Frame & Axle shop both treated him with respect and reasonable pricing and timeliness.

Meeting recessed at 11:25am until 1pm.
 

__________
July 16, 1999, 01:00pm
Florida Council’s Bid for 2000 Convention

Mr. Walter Young presented a video from the Chamber of Commerce, plus other handouts.
He described the facilities of the hotel and neighboring
businesses, airport to hotel arrangements. They are offering special
programs for the Juniors. Registration will be $60 for adults by May
15th, $75 after that date. Off site registration is $90, but hotel prices
are typically $99/night and up if you don't use the special convention
pricing they have obtained. They will consider setting a $25 fee for
registering Junior REACT members. There may be other fees involved for the
children where field trips or other exercises are involved. They are
reinstating competitions for newsletter, placard, web sites, and other
categories they come up with. One suggestion from the floor was a Team
Scrapbook competition. Discussion of obtaining group rates through the
Orange County Florida Tourist Bureau for Disney, Seaworld and other
attractions. Normal rate is $47/day for adults to get in Disney. You can
reach the committee chair, Walter Young, via e-mail at
Wyoung@react.mpcs.com or by phone (407)254-1202.
 

__________
July 16, 1999
02:00pm
Open Board Meeting

Meeting opened by Mr. Jennings with a moment of silence for all those REACT
members who have passed away.

Credentials: 15 Councils, 39 Teams in attendance (3 of which are council
delegates) so there are 51 possible votes.

Councils: Florida Council of REACT Teams, Inc., Illinois REACT Council,
Indiana REACT Council, Inc., Iowa State REACT Council, Maryland State
Council of REACT Teams, Michigan State Council, Minnesota REACT Team
Council, Nebraska State Council, North Carolina REACT Council, Northern
California REACT Council, Ohio REACT Council, Pacific NW REACT Council,
Ontario REACT Council, Texas State Council, Wisconsin Council of REACT Teams

Teams: C010, C057, C143, C261, C412, C475, C546, 2503, 2515, 2620, 2718,
2736, 2983, 3073, 3310, 3625, 3653, 3880, 4094, 4208, 4252, 4364, 4365,
4552, 4577, 4651, 4700, 4714, 4759, 4778, 4784, 4794, 4813, 4853, 4894,
4899, 4928, 4950, 4971
Computer Committee: Dick Cooper reported that he was the new chairperson
and the members were from Trinidad & Tobago, Canada and the USA, including
Texas. He announced we are close to having on-line secure purchasing from
the REACT Web Store. He asked for everybody to complete a form with his or
her team/council’s web or e-mail address. Mr. Besing is offering free
web space to the councils if they want to build their own site. The cost
of the secure on-line credit card processing is $130 plus $12/month for
access to the Authorize.Net processing service. This would be using RI’s
existing merchant (credit card) account.

Awards Committee: Leland Johnson reported there were blank K40 nomination
forms on the back table. Monitoring would be emphasized.

Site Selection Committee: Selma & Morris Dassa, Norma Angel, Cheryl
Palmer, Florence Hedges, Lori Ann Winchel and Roberta Ernston. Jesse Mauk
made the report and said there would be blank packets available for
interested councils or teams.

Motion by C-10 , 2nd 4784 that a Ways & Means Committee be formed and added
to the list of standing committees for REACT International. Discussion on
purpose and goals of this committee, sources of funding, corporate
sponsorships methods of financially aiding the organization. Motion from
the floor passed unanimous.

Motion by Mr. Mauk, 2nd by Mr. Holmes to accept this proposal. Motion
passed unanimously.

Motion by #4252, 2nd by 2620 to form a Publications Committee and added to
the list of standing committees for REACT International. Primary
responsibility is administering the REACTer. Secondary responsibility to
review and make recommendations to the board for all printed items
distributed by REACT International. Bob Leef recommended Stuart DeLuca
from Austin as chairperson. Amendment to add review of video materials.
Motion passed from the floor unanimous.

Motion by Mr. Lanshe, 2nd by Mr. Mauk to approve this motion. Motion
passed unanimously.

K40 awards committee has three recommendations for the board’s approval.
The committee wants to restrict nominations so those winners in one year
are not eligible for nomination in the following year. The committee
wants to filter all nominations through the councils to verify monitoring
hours, etc. before going to REACT International for forwarding to the
committee. The third was to create a new category of award for Junior
REACT member and to reduce the Council to an annual award. Motion #C-10,
2nd by 4700 & 2983 to approve the committee’s recommendation. Discussion
about some councils having infrequent meetings and the possible delay to
the process. Amend to delete council review approved by original maker
and 2nd. Motion passed unanimous from the floor.

Motion by Mr. Lanshe, 2nd by Mr. Murrell to approve the proposal from the
floor. Motion passed unanimously.

Recommendation by Bob Lumpkin, Maryland Council, that REACT International
affiliate itself with the Sheriff’s Association, Trooper’s Association and
Association of Emergency Management Managers. It was decided that we
would forward this suggestion to the Voluntary Agencies Committee Chair for
study and recommendations for possible action by the board or officers.

Motion by Air Capital REACT 4208, 2nd by 4784 to change the period of
awards back to the calendar year. Purpose to allow time to process the
awards in time for presentation at the following year’s convention. Motion
passed unanimously from the floor.

Motion by Mr. Lanshe, 2nd Mr. Faulkner to approve the motion as proposed.
Motion passed unanimously.

Motion by Pacific NW Council, 2nd by all delegates, to give a big round of
applause for the newly seated board.

Walter Young, Florida, added more comments about the Y2k convention plans.
He stated that there would be free transportation from the convention hotel
to area attractions. Question raised by 4853 regarding the Y2k Convention
payment arrangements so that folks could make partial payments or by credit
card. Referred back to Florida Council for consideration, but it was said
that we cannot use RI’s merchant account to process payments for a
convention since RI isn't responsible for conducting the convention.

Discussion concerning region #2 director. Due to Mr. Moore being unable to
attend the convention for personal reasons. Suggestion that we needed to
appoint a director who was attending the conventions. Motion by Mr.
Jennings, 2nd by Mr. Mauk to appoint Dick Cooper as regional director for
region #2. Motion passed.

Motion by #4700, 2nd by C010, to accept the Florida bid for Y2k.

Motion by Mr. Fry, 2nd by Mr. Besing to approve the bid from Florida
Council. Motion passed unanimously.

Mr. Besing noted that since Mr. Cooper had been appointed to the board,
that we should change the Computer Committee Chair back to Mr. David Moore
of Kentucky, but we will still allow Dick Cooper time out to play with the
computer (committee). Motion by Mr. Besing, 2nd by Mr. Cooper. Motion
passed.

Morris Dassa, Reli REACT, talked about getting grants and the importance of
applying. Florence Hedges, Indiana, complimented the hosts and attendees
for a happy, smooth convention.

Meeting recessed at 3:50pm until 8:00am the next day.
 

__________
July 17, 1999, 08:00am
Board Meeting, closed for discussion of personnel matters

Meeting called to order by Mr. Jennings, Chairman of the Board.

Subject was concerns by board members regarding sufficient backup staff for
the offices and the planned office visit on July 30, 1999 by Mr. Jennings,
Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Stone. Discussion of the board’s need to search for
possible candidate(s) to serve as Office Manager with experience with not
for profit volunteer organizations in a management capacity. Should have
competence with Office 97 (Word97, Excel97, and Access97), desktop
publishing, Quick Books 6.0, and be familiar with sending and receiving
Internet E-mail. Motion by Mr. Faulkner, 2nd by Mr. Mauk to authorize Mr.
Lanshe to open a temp mail box and/or fax number through a Mail Boxes Etc
type of business in the Suitland area for receiving resumes for office
manager. Motion passed.

Mr. Jennings directed Mr. Besing to write up three corporate resolutions:
1) changing bank signatures on all accounts to reflect the change in
officers,
2) authorizing the changing of locks and alarm codes for the offices in
Suitland,
3) authorizing Mr. Stone, Mr. Jennings and Mr. Hawkins to review and
take
any actions they felt necessary to correct the perceived problems in the
office.

Discussion on subject of REACTer magazine to study costs involved in
placing a section of National Communications magazine vs. continuing our
separate magazine. We don't have firm costs on being included in this
magazine. Mr. Besing suggested we might be in both if the cost is
effective, but we still need to take immediate action to ensure the next
issue is published, perhaps by getting Mr. Stuart DeLuca of Austin, Texas
to put out the next issue. Motion by Mr. Mauk, 2nd by Mr. Faulkner to ask
Mr. DeLuca to put out the (Convention Issue) July / October issue. Motion
passed.

Mr. Jennings stated that the Publication Committee should be tasked with
investigating the possibility of including REACT info in the National
Communications magazine. Motion by Mr. Holmes, 2nd by Mr. Cooper to prepare
a report on our actual costs involved in producing our REACTer plus costs
involved in being included in the National Communications magazine.
Motion passed. We need this report by September 1st.

Mr. Faulkner raised question about mailing the REACTer to Canada and other
remote sources via first class bundle to one destination for local
distribution. Mr. Jennings stated that the board would work to fix this
problem and make sure the database has the ability to exclude addresses if
specifically asked to do so.

Subject of corporate sponsors and levels of contributions. Discussion on
function of the Ways and Means Committee. Mr. Holmes asked if we had
applied for grants recently. Mr. Besing explained that we had in the past,
but have placed such applications on hold until we clear up our current
situation.

Mr. Stone admonished the board to quit micro managing the tasks that the
operating officers should be performing. The board should be to set
necessary policies and guidelines for the operating officers and to rebuild
the organization through interaction with their regional councils and teams.

Mr. Cooper asked how each director would contact the teams and councils in
their regions. Mr. Holmes stated one of the biggest complaints in the field
was that you could never get a director to visit in your area. Discussion
by Mr. Besing that in the past, if a director was directed to visit a team
or council, the board covered the expense. If invited, the party invited
would cover it. If the director just decided to visit, the director
covered the expense. Mr. Hawkins asked that we try to break the mold and
look for ways to increase visibility by the directors with the teams or
councils.

Mr. Hawkins asked that Mr. Besing to contact the Ways and Means Committee
Chair to direct her to investigate the grants and financial sponsors.

Motion by Mr. Faulkner to rescind the previous motion that canceled the
Affiliate program, 2nd by Mr. Holmes. Motion passed.

Meeting adjourned 9:15am

__________
Minutes respectfully submitted by Lee Besing, Secretary

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Lee W. Besing, Secretary (Term 7/1997-7/2000)
REACT International, Inc. http://www.reactintl.org
Voice (210)656-7657 Fax (210)637-6611 San Antonio, TX
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REACT International, Inc.
5210 Auth Rd. Suite #403
Suitland, MD 20746
Phone number: 301-316-2900
Fax number: 301-316-2903
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