1.) Call to Order by Superintendent Brian Sheron. Attending were Senior Assistant Superintendent Marshall Abrams, Assistant Superintendent Edwin Rosado, Paymaster Tom Brodrick and John Paganoni. The agenda was approved.

2.) Committee Reports

a.) Paymaster’s Report: The bank balance is $3611.50

b.) Achievement Program Report: Mat Thompson received his Master Model Railroader.

c.) Potomac Flyer Report: The Fall issue is almost ready and will run about 30 pages.

d.) Layout Tours Report: Nick Kalis will be scheduled for November. Presently there is an opening for December. Tom will discuss the status of Assistant layout tour coordinator with Nick Kalis.

There was discussion on having 3 tours in one day. Tom was going to look up the locations of close geographical layouts using zip codes.

e.) Webmaster’s report: Marshall will start redesigning the webpage to be mobile-friendly on a time-available basis.

3.) Old Business

a.) Planning for 2018 MER Convention

Layouts not within PD boundaries — After some discussion Tom moved and Ed seconded the motion: “Priority in scheduling Layout Tours and Op Sessions goes to Potomac Division Members.” Passed Unanimously.

-Committees and Volunteers status

- Marshall suggested that MMR Panel be scheduled at convention on Sunday morning. We had such a panel after dinner at the 2008 convention, which PD sponsored. Noted for future consideration.

- Next LCC meeting: Brian is scheduling, Tom will host. Board meeting will follow.

b.) Member Survey

Ed led a discussion of the survey conducted during the spring. The Board discussed each item in the spreadsheet and report he had drafted to communicate the results of back to the members. Ed will revise these accordingly. The Board intends to publish a synopsis in the Potomac Flyer and make the detailed report available on the web page.

c.) Susquehannock Convention

PD was previously contacted by Susquehanna Division to borrow projectors for their convention. There has not been any recent coordination. Brian will check if our projectors are still needed.

a.) Request to Revise the Bylaws — Brian received an e-mail from Kurt Thompson, the vice-president of the MER, informing him that there was certain language in the PD Bylaws that was not consistent with the Regional Bylaws. Specifically, in article XII.3, our Bylaws state:

Kurt informed me that because there are members within our division that do not have e-mail, they would obviously not be able to be notified electronically of our annual business meetings in which we conduct elections, vote on Bylaw amendments, etc. Each NMRA Division member in good standing has the right to participate in Division business meetings, and thus the right to be notified of when and where those meetings will take place.

To correct this issue, the Board of Directors is proposing to modify the language in item 3 of Article XII by simply eliminating the word “electronically.” Thus, the proposed new item 3 would read:

For those members that do have e-mail, we will still continue to notify them of upcoming business meetings by electronic means. For those members that cannot receive notices electronically, we will notify them of the time and place of all business meetings through a USPS mailing.

Because the Bylaws can only be changed by a majority vote of the membership, we cannot change the Bylaws until the membership votes on the proposed change. However, the Board decided that we will informally implement this change starting now.

b.) Division Business meeting — decided to have meeting in morning and multiple layout tours in the afternoon, in March. The meeting would include either two clinics or a clinic and BoD panel discussion. The locale will center around Manassas if a suitable venue can be found. John will check availability and cost of meeting location near Manassas. Tom will schedule the layout tours.

c.) Update on annexation issue — Brian reported that MER sent email to affected members and none replied. Matter closed.

d.) Web Site Donation –Marshall moved that we donate $50 to EasyMapMaker.com, which has been extremely valuable in constructing interactive maps for use in conjunction with MER Crossroads. Motion approved unanimously.

Action items: