Hi Zoe: When I was on the Board I was looking into web-meeting solutions. There are several that would work and are very reasonable. Laptop or PC, WebCamera, Connection to internet and possibly a phone line -- The whole meeting could be run from home and I bet for the whole year, the cost for the service would be less than the airfare of all the Board Members and additional non-Board members who attend expenses paid, for one meeting, probably less. Additionally, they could provide members the opportunity to sit in on the meeting as well -- not too much extra if I remember correctly. 2 Issues I thought would be a problem: Trying to convince people that this method of meeting would cover all the bases necessary for a successful meeting and AKC's stance on electronic meetings (not entirely clear on this point). Additionally, I thought this might be an option that could be utilized by Board members to have meetings outside of the regular quarterly face-to-face meetings. It was extremely frustrating to only have email contact amongst the group and singular telephone calls in-between board meetings. I also found it very wearisome that the Executive Committee would not meet unless "extremely necessary" to complete club business that came up -- case in point, trying to get the budget approved for the IS after the April Board meeting -- it was pushed off 3 months til the next full Board meeting, thereby hamstringing the committee. I don't know many organizations which complete business with one meeting every quarter, but the GSDCA does. Perhaps it is because there are a couple of Board members who do not like having to Ratify business completed by the Executive Committee because they didn't have input on the topic (that was one complaint I heard during my time). It's as if this committee is not a truly functioning part of the organization. At least that was my impression and experience during 2008. I realize we have had problems with past Exec. Committees not functioning properly (ie business completed/decisions made without the Exec Committee members meeting to discuss it), but a properly functioning Exec. Committee should be operating monthly. Anyway, good luck on the Board. Maybe your IT experience can assist the GSDCA in moving further into this century. Kathaleen ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2009. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================