National Association of Secretaries of State
Administrative Codes and Registers Section

2004 Summer Conference
1st Business Meeting

Sheraton New Orleans Hotel
New Orleans, Louisiana

Friday, July 16, 2004

Attendees:

Governments Represented: Montana, Idaho (4), Delaware (2), Georgia, Washington (2), Maryland (2), Pennsylvania, Kansas (2), Virginia (3), District of Columbia, Oklahoma, Florida (2), Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, Federal Government, Utah, South Dakota, West Virginia, New Mexico

Non-Governments Represented: Loislaw, LexisNexis (2), Weil Publishing, Bureau of National Affairs

1. Call to Order

ACR President Kathy Lubke (MT) called to order the first business meeting of the 2004 summer conference at 2:00 p.m.

2. ACR Welcome and Roll Call

Kathy welcomed all attendees and thanked them for coming. Kathy asked attendees to write down their names and states on the paper being circulated. The list of attendees will be used to determine whether a quorum is present at the second business meeting to be held on Monday.

The Honorable Rebecca Vigil-Giron, NASS President-Elect, addressed the group. Secretary Vigil-Giron thanked ACR for its support and encouraged comments from ACR.

3. Treasurer's Report

Jane Chaffin (VA) distributed the treasurer's report covering the period July 2003 through May 2004. The report shows a balance of $17,570.20 as of May 2004.

Jane reported that the ACR checking account was transferred from Merrill-Lynch to a non-interest bearing NASS subaccount at United Bank in early June 2004 because of the $150 annual fee assessed for managing the account.

Kathy stated that a microphone system had been purchased for under $200 to use at the ACR meetings instead of paying recurring rental fees.

A question was raised about whether ACR directly receives any of the money that ACR member corporate affiliates provide to NASS conferences. It was noted that ACR benefits by most of its summer meeting costs being absorbed by NASS.

4. Committee Reports

Nomination Committee

The Nominating Committee consisted of Dennis Schnepfe (MD), Lynne Angle (MO), and Kris Shomper (PA). Dennis reported that the 2004-2006 nominees are Dennis Stevenson (ID) for president, Jane Chaffin (VA) for vice president, and Julie Yamaka (OR) for secretary-treasurer. There being no nominations from the floor, the nominations were closed. According to ACR bylaws, the officers are voted on at the second business meeting.

5. Old Business

Federal-State Survey

Dennis Stevenson (ID) thanked FORMATTA for developing the survey in an e-forms format that could be submitted online. Dennis stated that about half of the states have responded to the Federal-State Rulemaking Survey and less than half have responded to the Rule Review Survey.  There was a discussion about ways to get information from all of the states before publishing the survey. Dennis suggested that the Executive Committee members telephone the states in their regions and fill out the form while asking the questions over the phone. It was noted that it is more difficult to get responses on the Rule Review Survey since those surveys often must be sent out to other agencies. The deadline for submitting the surveys was extended to August 15 in an effort to include updated information from all states. The goal will be to distribute the survey by September 1.

There was discussion about ways to produce revenue from the survey.  Ken Hansen (UT) suggested that the survey could be customized to the user now that the data resides in a database format. For example, summary reports containing selected data could be retrieved. Another suggestion was to place a state from the survey on the ACR website as a sample.

Proclamations

Kathy stated that proclamations had been prepared for Alex Mull (DE) and Ruby Creech (NC) who have left their positions. Kathy asked if anyone else knew of a former ACR member who should be given a proclamation. Ken suggested preparing a proclamation for Linda Miller (IN) who served as a regional representative for many years before her retirement.

Dues

Kathy advised ACR that NASS brought up the issue of payment of dues at the winter conference.

6. New Business

Winter Meeting

Kathy informed the attendees that the NASS winter meeting is scheduled at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, February 4-7, 2005. Topics for the winter meeting agenda were discussed and members were asked to contact Dennis with ideas.

7. Adjournment

Kathy adjourned the first business meeting at 2:40 p.m