OVP Report

The Department of the Operations Vice President consists of 12 committees, plus the NSS Operations Manager and the NSS headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama.

In this report, I provide the name, address, phone number, and e-mail address of the chair of each committee or organization, followed by their report. The committee and subcommittee chairs have provided the information in this report, although I've made some spelling, formatting, and minor editorial adjustments. If necessary, my comments are provided in Italics following the committee's report.

The Executive Committee funded for a part-time paid Bookstore Manager position. This will relieve Camille Mueller, NSS Operations Manager, of these duties and allow her to devote more time to running the office. The Bookstore Manager would work for the NSS Operations Manager and a job description will be written for inclusion in Section 9 of the Board of Governor's Manual if this position is approved at the Board of Governor's meeting.

The contract to hire someone to catalog the NSS Library in Huntsville has been completed and we're actively looking to hire someone. The deadline for applications is March 31, 1999. The National Speleological Foundation has provided a $5,000 grant to pay the individual. A copy of the contract is provided to board members only.

On the agenda is a motion to create a new committee in my department. This committee, the Market Analysis Committee, will be responsible for researching the market for all NSS publications before funding is provided to produce the publication. The committee would work closely with the Special Publications Committee, who would forward proposals for publications to the Market Analysis Committee. The committee would perform the analysis and provide recommendations to me whether or not the publication should be produced. A nomination for chairman of this proposed committee is on the agenda.

I'm pricing tabletop displays to use as the NSS traveling display. I hope to purchase one by early April. Costs for the displays run approximately $1,200. Colin Gatland will produce the graphics for the display.

The Audio-Visual Library rental policy went into effect January 1, 1999. The rental fee is $6.00 per slide show or video. To date, there has been no decline in the number of rentals each month and we are checking out the same average number of shows as we have in the past. To date, only one has complained about the rental fee. A motion is on the agenda to have all rental funds go to the Audio-Visual Library Restricted Fund.

The coupon entitling 30 percent off of first-time convention registration for new NSS members has been completed and printed. It became effective January 1, 1999 and will be included in all new member packets. The Co-chairmen of the 1999 Convention in Idaho have been informed to be aware of these coupons. A sample coupon is at attachment 2.

The NSS Employee Handbook that is provided to all NSS employees has been revised. The previous handbook had been written by John Wilson and many of the items covered in it had changed.

A new, standardized NSS Employee Evaluation form was created to document the employee's work performance. The Board of Governors Manual stipulated employees receives annual evaluations, but no standard format existed. John Wilson provided written evaluations, while Tom Rea provided verbal evaluations. A copy of the evaluation form is at attachment 3. An operating instruction describing this form and the evaluation process has also been written.

Non-return of shows from the Audio-Visual Library has been a problem. We have had several members and groups check out shows and not return them. Some have been contacted numerous times without success. Alex Sproul assisted in the preparation of the return policy for inclusion in Section 9 of the Board of Governor's Manual (attachment 4). Due to these problems, shows will no longer be loaned on credit and all shows must be paid for in advance (cost of shipping and rental fee). Also, those who do not return shows, per the attached policy, will lose their library privileges, and possibly be charged a fee to replace the shows.

Archivist:

J. Reynolds Duncan, Jr.
153 Atria Drive
Toney, AL 35773-9515
(205) 852-4522
jrdandIld@aol.com

My plan to complete the review and cataloging of the material that is not in the filing cabinets was delayed by the ice storm we had here over the holidays. The time I had planned to do this work was taken up with clearing downed trees, etc. I have responded to several requests for information and was able, in each case, to find the requested information and furnish it to the requesters.

Audio-Visual Committee (Slides):

Colin Gatland
1151 Crestwood Hills Drive
Vandalia, OH 45377-2714
(937) 890-0339
pitdropper@aol.com

This year I will again put together the "Best of..." series of slide shows, compiling the Best of 1999 NSS Slide Salon slide show. This series is one of the more popular shows that get checked out for viewing by the grottos.

I have also been approved to utilize up to $1,000 for upgrading some of the outdated graphics currently in use on various slide shows. I plan on starting with the "Best of..." series first, then continuing with other shows at a later date.

I have been in contact with some Missouri folks who want to create a slide show about Missouri caves. I am hopeful of being able to integrate that show into our NSS AV Library sometime in the future.

I also have in mind creating cassettes of all the current slide shows that have intact scripts. I would like to harness the help of various grotto members to meet at my studio at various times to narrate a slide show. This cassette can be used manually or with a sync cassette unit (which the AV Committee has). This would streamline the viewing of the slide shows considerably and add a bit more of a professional touch. The only real expense to the committee would be the cost of cassettes, which are pretty cheap nowadays.

Well I would say that the biggest thing accomplished would be bringing out the fact that we need to come up with more money to maintain and update our current AV library. Whether this is by raising the rental fees, which was recently enacted or by discovering that there is an AV restricted fund no one knew existed. Now all of a sudden there is an amount of cash originally earmarked for the AV Library that can be used to maintain and improve the library, both slides and Video.

Personally I believe that the original increase in the slide show rental fees was a necessary evil and contrary to the very few negative comments that have surfaced, is not a back-breaking burden to individuals or grottos. This money needs to be put back into the restricted fund so as to ensure a healthy AV Library for the future. I commend Mike Hood, NSS OVP, for sticking his neck out and making this decision after hearing various commentary on the issue, both good and bad. Whether this policy stands, is up to the powers that be. I'll continue to do what I can no matter what, to ensure a healthy and updated AV Library.

As of this writing, I have no real complaints, excepting of course how nice it would be to have an unlimited supply of cash for unlimited improvements to the AV Library. As addressed above, what I perceived as a rather low rental policy (regarding slide shows) has been addressed and rewritten to reflect what I believe is a more realistic policy. It is unsettling to open up a master slide show only to watch the slide mounts fall apart all over you, knowing that there might be budgetary problems which might prohibit you from repairing it.

It is hard to get folks fired up about creating a slide show. I have been trying to listen for people who might be thinking about creating one, and then I put a bug in their ear about possibly working with the AV Committee in developing a show. As I mentioned above, this has been the case with some Missouri cavers, which I hope will eventually happen.

Any further questions or comments can be either e-mailed to me at pitdropper@aol.com or I can be reached at (937) 890-0339. 1 am of course, also listed in the NSS Members manual.

Audio-Visual Committee (Video):

David Socky
6572 Woodbrook Drive, SW
Roanoke, VA 24018-5402
(703) 989-7693
sockydr@roava.net

Paul Stevens has agreed to organize and direct an NSS video program that can be used by grottos for beginner training. Essentially, it will be a basic "how to cave" program. I plan on participating in the production, and then will do the video and sound editing. The desired timing has a preliminary video finished in time for the Convention.

Borrowers of the AV video programs are encouraged to send in a 3x5 survey card which asks about the quality of the show, whether we should keep it in the library or not, suggestions for improvement, and so forth. So far, I have received about 40 to 50 of these cards. Before the convention I will compile all the comments, and a list of suggestions. From this data, we should be able to see how the AV library is doing from the perspective of cavers, but more importantly, we can find ways to improve the AV Library and the administration of the Library.

Late last year I supplied a montage of video footage on past NSS conventions to Carol Tiderman (for use by the Maine Convention staff). The video will be shown to the City Council and other public officials in Maine in preparation for the NSS Convention in that state. The purpose is to give public officials some idea of what the NSS and its yearly Convention is all about. Because this was a 'rush' project, the video I supplied was really rough — no titles, no narration, no music, just a bunch of scenes from past NSS Conventions.

What I would like to do is to produce a more professional show about NSS Conventions and what they are all about. Something like this could be a great marketing tool, making it easier to show local officials the benefits of NSS Conventions. Soon, I will be asking for help in planning, scripting, and writing a narration for such a video. It would be really nice to have some good basic ideas before the Convention in Idaho this year. That would allow me and others to obtain specific footage for an NSS Convention video.

The project above (NSS Convention video) is only a show about NSS conventions. I would also like to produce a video that tells the viewers what the NSS is all about. I know there is at least one program of this type in the library, but I imagine it is somewhat out of date. As in the Convention video, I will be asking for help in planning, scripting, and writing a narration for this production.

Discover Channel: Some time this year, the Discover Channel will air a program called "Storm Warning." It will be a program about a cave rescue under flooding conditions. As with the National Weather Service, at their request, I supplied cave footage, which included a lot of scenes of cave streams, near siphons, and other 'wet' scenes. Depending on how it turns out, this may be another good program to include in the AV library.

Due to work and other commitments, I have not been able to do any work on the new AV catalog. The printed form of the AV Catalog is complete except for introduction, table of contents, and index. Once the print form of the catalog is completed, I need to investigate how it will be printed, and how much it will cost. I am hoping to use the same facilities that the NSS Bookstore uses for their catalog. I have only just begun the on-line form of the catalog. I am now shooting for spring or early summer before the new catalog is finished.

Alex Sproul: A project for this winter is to database the video archives by subject, title, and producer, correlating them to cassette and time-code placement on the cassette. This project is "in progress."

I have collected and consolidated all the data that was available. A preliminary report is included at the end of this report, as appendix A. I plan on producing a more complete report in time for the NSS convention.

The scripting of the National Weather Service video about the dangers of flooding has been completed. At their request, I supplied a Beta SP copy of my caving footage in order to obtain the best quality video. They are in the process of editing the program, so I expect the final production will be done early spring. This could be another good video to include in the NSS AV library.

Paul Stevens sent his master copy of "Call for Help" to me for re-mastering. I imported the show into my nonlinear editor where I was able to touch up the color saturation (no more bleeding reds) and improve the audio quality. I also added a new opening title, and updated the background music. The comments I received indicate that the re-mastered video is a vast improvement, especially in regards to the audio.

At NCRC's request, I sent them a copy to use for their training program. I have also sent copies to the NSS for the video library. I made about 15 VHS distribution copies from the digital master. These copies will be for sale. Details on cost and distribution still need to be ironed out.

NSS AV Library rental income and costs
Compiled by Dave Socky (A V Co-chair)
December 5, 1998

Year	Slides	Slide Cost	Slide Income	Slide Net	Videos	Video Cost	Video Income	Video Net
1987*	No data				1
1988*	No data				14
1989	No data				116	$493.00	$580.00	$87.00
1990	No data				137	$582.00	$685.00	$103.00
1991	No data				214	$909.00	$1070.00	$161.00
1992	No data				205	$871.00	$1025.00	$154.00
1993	No data				195	$829.00	$975.00	$146.00
1994	No data				177	$752.00	$885.00	$133.00
1995	No data				No data
1996*	97	$456.00	$582.00	$126.00	169	$718.00	$845.00	$127.00
1997	160	$752.00	$960.00	$208.00	246	$1045.00	$1230.00	$185.00
1998*	143	$672.00	$858.00	$186.00	254	$1080.00	$1270.00	$190.00

Total net for Slides	$520.00		Total net for videos	$1286.00
Average net for slides	$173.00/year		Average net for videos	$143.00/year

* 1996 from 6/24/96 to 12/31/96 total was 66 videos. Extrapolated to 169 to cover whole year.

* 1998 from 1/0 1/98 to 11/05/98 total was 200 videos. Extrapolated to 254 to cover whole year.

* 1996 from 6/14/96 to 12/31/96 total was 35 slides. Extrapolated to 97 to cover whole year.

* 1998 from 1/0 1/98 to 11/05/98 total was 124 slides. Extrapolated to 143 to cover whole year.

* Did not use data from Paul Stevens for 1987 and 1988 because Library was just getting started.

Cave Files Committee:

Richard Blenz
8070 W Eller Road
Bloomington, IN 47403
(812) 825-2345
rblenz@ucs.indiana.edu

Headquarters Facilities Committee:

Greg Freese
8012 Strong Dr., SE
Huntsville, AL 35802
(256) 881-6544
gfreese@mindspring.com

Internal Organization Committee:

Evelyn Bradshaw
10826 Leavells Road
Fredericksburg, VA 22407-1261
(703) 898-9288
ebradshw@staffhet-com

It appears that 1998 has not presented us with the kind of controversies that beset us in the area of Sections. An Arts and Letters Section was approved. Only time will tell whether it has a mission that assures longevity. It certainly is legitimately related to caving and has an impressive list of members. From this distance, I have not heard major rumblings about the Lavender Cavers; they do plan to change their name to, if I remember correctly, a name that commemorates a prominent gay person probably not well known outside their group. I have seen their newsletters and these certainly are above criticism.

There have been no new surveys. Some Illinois cavers corresponded about becoming an NSS survey but others dissented. Since surveys have other options for association with NSS, options outside the Internal Organizations Committee, we do not try to change their choice.

Looking over my files, I see that we chartered eight grottos in 1998 and thirteen inquiries remain in the file. Some inquiries arrived late in the year and may yet come to fruition. But in some cases the principal who inquired was apparently persuaded that an existing nearby grotto would as well serve the inquiring group. That is good. Three or four (it's hard to be sure) had questionable elements or were opposed by individuals who saw no reason for more than one grotto in an area. There is a problem here. One member of a Kentucky grotto voiced this when he responded to a request for how his grotto felt about another Kentucky grotto. He commented that his grotto had not opposed a charter for another Kentucky grotto (fairly near to them) a year earlier because of assuming that it would have no adverse impact upon their group. This had not been the case; they did lose members and there was not much intercommunication. The situation also comes up in South Dakota, where cavers near the prime caving area are thinking they would rather have their own grotto than commute all the way to Rapid City for meetings.

Question: Would the vital need of NSS for growth (despite the opposition to growth held by a faction within NSS) be better served by developing structures that will build several small neighborhood caving groups in metropolitan areas with some mandated policies for intercommunication? Then if groups want to have their own neighborhood group where meetings can be attended by all, this can be done and there will be some city-wide council that oversees the arrangements and probably handles finances and a newsletter for all. If a city can have numerous youth groups and a coordinating council, why not NSS groups and such coordination?

A year ago we began collecting information to determine how many grottos accept nonNSS cavers and what their status is if they elect to stay associated with the local grotto. A summation from the membership statistics over several years strongly suggests that very few grottos adhere to the 100 percent NSS rule. I plan to include statistics from several past years in the study, if I can delve them up from the files. I have moved my target date for a formal report on the situation until after membership statistics for 1998 are on hand, so that we will have current figures to compare with the latest statements of grotto membership policies. Question: Is there some way to use a lower dues rate or an incentive dues discount for multiple years to attract non-NSS members to sign up, if at the same time we drop the policy that mandates that non-NSS cavers must be thrown out of NSS organizations? Magazines are always offering you special rates if you renew promptly. Can't we? There must be some way to get off dead center membership wise. Swooping in all those non-NSS in grottos would get us into 13,000 at least.

Internet Committee:

Joshua Abdulla
2744 Towne Drive
Carmel, IN 46032-9749
(812) 334-1294
joshua@caves.org

The NSS Internet Committee (IC) is responsible for the maintenance of the NSS web site, the NSS Office Internet Connection, and the various e-mail accounts used by NSS employees, officers, and volunteers.

* Continued marketing of NSS server to I/O's in order to gain more grotto/section/region pages.

The past several months have seen a large amount of growth and change for the NSS Internet Web Site (http://wwwcaves.org/). The biggest change occurred on December 28, 1998, when the IC unveiled a brand new web site for the Society. The new site includes much more information regarding the structure of the society and contains numerous links to the home pages of Society organizations.

Currently (January 5, 1998) there are 48 organizational home pages on the NSS server. This includes 23 grottos, 6 sections, and 3 regional associations.

Time is, of course, the biggest problem. Most requests for additions to the web site are evaluated within a week of receipt. Actual action on these proposals sometimes takes a month or more. This issue will hopefully be a little less obvious now that the web site is a little more organized in terms of layout.

Josh has done a lot of work on the web page and has been very open to suggestions. He has implemented many suggestions from me and others. The discussion board is receiving much use and is proving to be a useful tool. Another new feature we're adding is an internal organization web page award This award will not be an official NSS award, but will be presented to those I/Os who's pages are informative, timely, and creative. A committee, chaired by the NSS 0 VP, will periodically review pages and up to eight awards may be given each year. The award is a one-time honor and will be a distinctive logo/icon the pagemaster can place at the bottom of his I/0's web page.

NSS Bookstore:

The 1999 Catalog was mailed the first week of December and good sales have continued past Christmas into the new year.

Some of our Bookstore inventory is stored in the White House and the $ 10,000 insurance we pay each year does not include the contents of the White House. This is mainly On Rope and Cave Minerals of the World, which we do not have the space to keep in the office.

Ted Kayes, the Insurance Committee Chairman, has been able to get us the additional insurance coverage we need for not much more than we're paying now.

NSS Library Committee:

Although the committee chairman position is vacant, I asked Bill Torode, the Librarian, to provide a report. Following is his report A nominee for the position of committee chairman is on the agenda for this meeting.

I haven't purchased many books for the NSS Library during the last few years. This last summer, while attending the NSS Convention at Sewanee, Tennessee, I visited three book vendors and spent just over $1,000.00 on cave publications for the NSS Library. I have catalogued these books and have logged them into the library. I am in the process of putting the books up on the shelves.

I have been writing to grotto newsletter editors trying to receive missing newsletters. I have had some items that I wanted to purchase, but I guess that my budget has been spent until the new fiscal year.

NSS Operations Manager:

Camille Mueller
National Speleological Society, Inc.
2813 Cave Avenue
Huntsville, AL 35810
(256) 852-1300
manager@caves.org

I am glad to say that we are up and running on Ledgermaster. I still have not gotten us completely set up on computerized checks but I do have the check stock and the magnetic ink cartridge for my printer. Les sent our logo to CheckExpress to get it scaled down to the correct size and format for our checks. I expect to be printing computerized checks by the 1st of March. One thing that we will be planning is a Smith House's Spring cleaning. It was apparent to me during our October inventory that we needed to take a day to straighten up the inventory in the Smith House to make things easier for the next inventory. Another thing that is on my agenda is to document all of Avis' and my daily tasks into one easy to read manual. I am getting the accounting set up into a routine now so that will be a lot easier of a task than it was 4 months ago.

The benefits of the new accounting system are becoming more apparent everyday. The day to day accounting jobs are consuming about 4 to 5 hours of my day. I am devoting at least 2 hours a day to getting the months closed. This leaves me a little time to cram in the everyday operations management and bookstore related task. I am still trying to develop an easy way to reconcile bank deposits as the computer does receipts for bookstore items and sometimes our deposits are combined with membership (NSSTrak) receipts. I am constantly amazed at the amount of reports that are available in LedgerMaster. Every time I spend a few moments looking through the menus, I discover a new report that provides exactly the information that I need. The next project will be teaching Avis the ins and outs of the new accounting system so she can fill in for me while I am on vacation. Now that I know it a little better, I feel confident enough to teach her.

The bookstore catalog was mailed the first week of December. We tracked its progress across the US from the amount of book orders we received from a certain area. I was notified that in my mad rush to get it printed and mailed that I neglected to mention the photographers. I am working to get them listed and acknowledged in a forthcoming News. Sadly, sales are not as high as I would like to see them. I attribute this to the lack of attention to monthly bookstore advertising. The web page for the bookstore needs to be updated badly. There are a lot of things listed on it that are out of print (NCRC Cave Rescue Manual, Down to a Sunless Sea, etc.) or wrongly priced (Polo shirts). Plus a number of new items that are not listed. Josh has not had the time to go and update the material or the time to teach me how to do it myself Hopefully, Josh will have some time in the near future that he can teach me about the web page maintenance. We have continued to cultivate a relationship with Amazon.com to get our publications on their web page. In addition to the NSS publications, we have become their vendor for the NSS Cave Diving Section and other cave related books. In December, one of our big buyers, PMI-Petzl, split up. They returned a number of On Ropes and asked us to issue them a check for the refund. The first week of February, we received an order for 250 On Ropes from Petzl. Hopefully, their operation is back up and running.

Avis has spent a number of days working on getting replacement copies of AV programs that have been lost over the years. There are about 20 programs since September of 1996 that have not been returned. Avis has sent postcards and tried calling all of these people and has gotten no response. We are working on a procedure to mark their records so that they can no longer check out AV programs. The extra $6.00 that members are required to pay for AV Materials has not slowed down AV rentals. We have received only I complaint about the additional cost from a teacher who rented videos every 2 weeks.

None that can't be overcome. As I continue to learn more about Ledgermaster, the amount of manual accounting task will decrease.

Camille, Avis, and Bill continue to do a great job at the headquarters. A motion is on this agenda to establish the part-time paid Bookstore Manager position. This will ftee up more of Camille's time to devote to other duties. The A V Library rental and return issues were addressed in my report.

Office Automation Committee:

Phil Winkler
816 N. Washington Street
Wilmington, DE 19801-1510
(302) 571-1156
72426.1153@compuserve.com

1. Increase speed of database processing by increasing server memory and updating network cabling and hubs.
2. Investigate current processing modules to improve multi-user access.
3. Add AN modifications for overdue notices
4. Improve bulk printing capabilities
5. Add COA Account numbers for Membership Types to NSSTrak

Photo Archives Committee:

Karen Kastning
PO Box 148
Radford, VA 24141-0048
(703) 639-4666
kkastning@runet.edu

These remain the same. Long-range plans continue to be to establish a detailed database for the photo archives (starting with recent materials and working my way backward). Ultimately, I hope to have a very well organized photo archives for research purposes.

Since the last report, I have received one request for archive materials (early February). This is being processed.

No sizable or urgent problems. As I stated before, time is scarce at the moment, but I will be finishing my graduate degree soon and will be devoting a much greater time on inventorying and cataloging of the NSS Photo Archives' holdings.

Speleo-Museum Committee:

Craig Hindman
7600 Pindell School Road
Fulton, MD 20759
(301) 792-0742
ctiderma@ns.tssc.corn

There have been no donations to the Museum since the last report. The article in the NSS News generated some information on the location of some desired items. Have located a person willing to set up a Museum Web Page.

Purchase a digital camera, if funding is approved, for putting the Museum on the Web There will be a small display at Convention.

National Speleological Society

Operations Vice President’s Report

March 27,1999

Table of Contents:

Operations Vice President Report: