[minutes submitted by Vicky Garland, vice-chair & acting secretary]

Pursuant to due notice, the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Native American Convention (BoDD), met in quarterly session at MTSU, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Saturday July 19, 2003. The meeting was called to order at 10:20 A.M.

Attendance:
TNNAC Board members: tom kunesh, Chair, Vicky Garland, Vice-Chair, Dale Mitchell, Floyd Ayers, Two Dogs Ron Williams, John Smith, John Hedgecoth, Tommy Veal.

Guests: David Teat, Chelie Britt and son, and Diane Caldwell.

Meeting Called by tom kunesh,
1. tom- Update on return request mailings, 5 were mailed certified letters
Ruth Allen, Jason Godsey, Trudy Austin, Mike Mangrum and Alva Crowe.
2. Vicky- turned in Ruth Knight Allen's packet to the BoD.
It was discussed, discrepancies in TCIA Indian Card roll numbers.
tom- Take off Ruth's roll number and use her Birth Certificate as proof of Indian preference. All Members Agreed.
tom- Will change the date of Ruth's TCIA activity and include she is verified for Indian preference.
tom- Vicky make copies of cover. Turn in mailing envelope with mailing date.
MEETING 10:43
3. Approval of Agenda. All members agreed. 6 Ayes
4. Minutes of May meeting,
Cleata's name misspelled, Change closing date of Nominations to July 26th, publish candidates info on web page after nominations close,change Candidates to Voters.
tom- Please acknowledge Tommy Veal from Knoxville area Caucus. he received tom's letter, tom apologized because he did not get the Minutes in time or a reminder to mail letter to both east and west Tennessee caucus chair persons. Ask David to resubmit his Genealogy packet because April resigned and did not return that.
Two Dogs- made a Motion to look for a replacement for the TNNAC Chair.
John Hedgecoth- Seconded.
tom- All in favor, 3 Ayes and 1 Nay (Vicky)
Vicky- made motion to approve minutes with changes.
John Hedgecoth- Seconded.
tom- All in favor, 6 Ayes
5. Discussed changing the bylaws about Caucus chairs rolling over on TNNAC board. As they did in 1999.
Tabled that until tom has time to check it out.
6. David- Commission Nominees should personally be invited to TNNAC meetings.
tom- Tommy Veal and John Hedgecoth remind us of that.

Check in from Areas:
7. Memphis- John Smith- Suggested that they use the Prescott Church that Alice set up. He explained that more people would show up there.
John Smith- made the nomination to have the Memphis Caucus in the Church basement.
Vicky- Seconded.
Questions,
tom- Why? John explained that more people would go if it was in Memphis instead of Millington.
tom all in favor say Aye. 5 Ayes
WEST- Humboldt TN
MIDDLE- Shelbyville TN
NASHVILLE- Inglewood, outside Nashville.
EAST- Kingsport TN
KNOXVILLE- Candy Factory moved to room holds 70 people( John Hedgecoth)
CHATTANOOGA- State Office Building

SOCIAL- Two Dogs- Middle Tennessee Social went off very well. 75 people
MEET/GREET- Dale Mitchell- about 20-25 people showed up.
MEET/GREET- EAST- tom- 13 people there, men ask a lot of questions.
Ask about federal HB467
CHATTANOOGA- Two Dogs- Working on it.

8. tom- received John Anderson's letter back so he hand delivered to John's office. Received confirmation that Ruth Allen and Jason Godsey received their letters.

Took Break.

9. Treasurer's report.
tom- Voted to pay Vicky's brother Johnny his $2.00 we still owe him. Motion passed
tom gave Vicky $2.00 to give to Johnny the Printer.
Balance $134.00
5 certified letters
Ruth Allen
Jason Godsey
Trudy Austin
Mike Mangrum
Alva Crowe
Cost of $48.50

Vicky- made a motion to pay tom for the letters.
Dale- Seconded.
tom- Questions.
Two Dogs- Receipts.
Motion passed
tom- $132.00
- $48.50
Total- $83.50
tom- Donated .50 cents so
Total- $84.00
Donation- $ 25.00 Ayers and Associates.
Total- $ 109.00

10. GENEALOGY
LIST.
tom- Donna Bivens
Ruth Allen
John Hedgecoth
John Anderson

Vicky- Jimmy Reedy's- All of His
Dale Mitchell's
David Teat's- Signatures and Nomination
Ruth Allen's- Genealogy proof

April and Cleata on Genealogy committee. April resigned. Cleata didn't come. Ask Vicky to hold records for now. Motion passed
Ask Joe McCaleb to keep records for us.

David Teat- suggested we ask for certified copies of Birth and death records from now on.
Chelie- Don't need to ask questions in front of public.
tom- Rogers Clinch was accepted as Indian and in Aniyunweya, It was later found that he was not Indian and had no Indian Blood. People were taken in.
Vicky- Do you accept Ruth's birth certificate?
tom- Yes I will accept it.
tom- Ask public to leave room.
Have problems with addresses of someone.
Floyd- Working in addresses he understood why mail would not be delivered to a highway address.

TNNAC will not accept P.O. Boxes only street addresses.
Vicky was asked to find out where this person resides.
Why we can not deliver mail there.
Check and verify by 24th.

11. Legal Issues
Floyd- Are we covered by legal services?
tom- Would contact Fred and find out.

12. Signatures East
tom- John Hedgecoth and Two Dogs verify signatures from that area.
Vicky- Verifying Middle signatures
Floyd- John Smith is here he can verify West Signatures. The motion was passed that John Smith would work on West Tennessee.

13. Nomination Packets
tom- I would try to mail those on the 29th. To the following offices.
Governor's office of Appointments
Speaker of House
Speaker of Senate
Fred Standbrook
Rep. Mike Kernell
Sen. Thelma Harper
TDEC office

14. April's Resignation
Vicky- Made motion to accept April's resignation.
John Hedgecoth- Seconded
tom- All in Favor- Motion passed

15. TNNAC BOARD
Floyd- Motion to make Dale Mitchell TNNAC board member from Nashville.
John Hedgecoth- Seconded- Motion passed

16. Secretary/Treasurer
tom- Suggested Dale be Sec./Treasurer
Floyd- Made Motion
Tommy Veal- Seconded- Motion Passed

17. ASSISTANTS
Dale- Made suggestion that Sandi Perry assist in Nashville.
tom- Check with Edna and see if it is okay with her.
Dale- Yes I will do that.
tom- That is a caucus decision.
handled by area Caucus Chairpersons

18. Standing Rules
Resignation from TNNAC may be part or whole. Resignation of officer and remain on board, but resignation from TNNAC board removes person from caucus responsibilities.

19. Delegation Status
tom- We did not have time to fulfill all motions made at last meeting. We do apologize. But area caucuses can take care of most of those.

20. Caucus Chairpersons
Discussions were made about Knoxville and East Tennessee Caucus Chairpersons.
Dale- Motion to move John Hedgecoth as Chair and Tommy Veal to the East Tennessee Caucus.
Vicky- Seconded- Motion Passed
Discussion about Knoxville, David Teat gave his suggestions. It was decided that:
Floyd- Made a Motion to appoint Archie Reynolds as Chairperson for the Knoxville Caucus, with Lawrence Sampson as Vice-Chair and Jack Brogden as Assistant.
Tommy Veal- Seconded.
tom- Questions.
Vicky- Will Teri Ellenwood help advise since she has been through a Caucus before.
David- Teri said she would Advise.
tom- Any More. Call for vote.
All in favor of Reynolds for Chair of Knoxville say Aye. Motion Passed
All In favor of Sampson for Vice-Chair say Aye. Motion Passed
All in favor of Jack Brogden as Assistant say Aye. Motion Passed

21. Old Business
Proposed bylaw change.
To Amend TNNAC purpose.
Dale- Motion to accept amendment.
John Smith- Seconded- Motion Passed

22. Attendance Records.
We have a 2001 attendance sheet on all Commission Nominees.
David- All Committee, Boards, Commissions should adopt rules and be accountable to the Indian Community.
tom- TNNAC do a press release Stating, Start keeping records of meetings attended by Commissioners and Nominees and Board members in 2003, will then report in 2005.
All three groups, TCIA, TNNAC, and the TNIAAC should put up on their web pages who attends their meetings.
John Hedgecoth- Made Motion TNNAC begin Recording 2003 TCIA/TNNAC/TNIAAC meeting attendance and report to the people in 2005 on the TNNAC web page
Floyd- Seconded- Motion Passed

23. Caucus Voting
Vicky- Each area Caucus will be electing for their Grand division, So if we all use the nominees in the top 4 slots of the ballot sheet then some areas are going to be short on delegates.
tom- No, then he went to talking and said yes we will. So Delegates are picked the same way. A new Ballot sheet will come out.
Delegates have 1 vote in 1 caucus area.With up to 5 Alternate Delegates to replace absentee delegates.
Nominees are included as delegates in the Area Caucus Attended.
Motion made and passed

24. Other State Boards
Nominees to other boards must have the 21 signatures just like Commission Nominees. Also closes on July 16, 2003. If not turned in they will not qualify to run for the boards. Motion Passed

25. New Business-
David- Talked about the Convention and Ms. Van's suggestions.
David- Voiced Problems within TNNAC.
Written protocol on TNNAC correspondence. Do not use Titles for personal mail.
tom- David supply TNNAC board with such protocol papers.
David- How to resign? Protocol in standing rules, return everything.
He thinks we need to handle our paper work better. All Agreed.
David- Val would like a letter of support from the TNNAC board for Southern Exposure.
John Smith- Made Motion for letter of endorsement by TNNAC for Southern Exposure.
Dale- Seconded- Motion Passed.
tom- Floyd take care of that.
Floyd- I would rather ask Joe McCaleb if he would.
tom- Ask Joe then.

26.Val had a list of suggestions.
A. Resignations go to Chairman. YES
All agreed.

B. Caucus areas right to choose. NO
Caucus areas choose who the Chair and Vice-chair and assistant is at the Caucus along with 15 delegates. At the time of the area caucus. Then if someone quits the next person in line moves up. Until we run out of people that participated in the area Caucus the LAST TIME. At which time we then seek outside help.
Vicky- TNNAC already has a protocol in place to replace absentee Caucus people. It is in the TNNAC bylaws Article 4. Membership, 3. All AGREED

C. Submit that Candidate investigations be free of Bullying Tactics.
tom- What are they talking about.
Vicky- I think it has to do with how you turned down someone, and it became a battle of words online.
All Agreed to Skip it.

D. Submit that TNNAC change its bylaws/standing rules to make caucus persons go to meetings. We can make a suggestion that our board members participate in area meetings. Not a Law. - NO.

E. Caucus area pick their replacements. -NO
Already Handled in B.

F. Caucus meetings more often. - NO.
A caucus is (A meeting to select candidates)
We have a convention every other year, so one caucus every other year to elect representatives to go to the convention works out fine.

G. Meet/Greet
About attending Meetings.Refer to D.

Issue #1and #2
Infrequency of legitimate Caucus Meetings. And irregular attendance by delegates at Meet&Greets- NO to many meetings
Meet/Greets meaning- are a way for the area Indians to meet their representative on the Indian Commission, Be it a Commissioner or a Commission Nominee.
Caucus meaning- A meeting to elect Candidates.
Legitimate Caucus- Once every other year sponsored by TNNAC for the 7 areas of Tennessee to elect Candidates to go to the Convention.

Issue #3
Elected people attendance rules.
TNNAC already has this in place. Article 4. Membership(6)

Issue#4 I guess, it says Subsequently.
Back to Resignations.
Shall be handled by Chair.

Issue #5.
TNNAC Board members
Attendance Again. Look up Quorum under Article 6. Meetings.

26.Nomination to Board
Dale- Made a Motion to include Sandi Perry to the Board as a Alternate from Nashville, pending Edna Fay's approval.
Floyd- Seconded. Motion Passed

27. Proposed Bylaw Change: 1st Reading Floyd:
Board members shall serve for two year terms.
Upon expiration of caucus members term, such members continue to serve until a successor member is elected by the caucus.
The terms of At-Large members shall expire on the day following the second regular April, May, June meeting during even years. Motion Passed

The Meeting was concluded at 7:15. With reminders of the next meeting on Saturday August 16, 2003 and Saturday September 6, 2003 at MTSU.