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Pacific Northwest Chapter
Meeting
Kenmore, Washington
August 24, 2008
In attendance were: Cheryl Landes (President), Scott Smiley (Treasurer), Ed Rush (Vice President and President-elect) and Maria Sosnowski (Secretary), and Sheila Ryan (Treasurer-elect for 2009-2010), Gayle Davies, Cathy Martz, and Veronica Hughes.
For the record, officers for 2008 are Cheryl Landes, Ed Rush, Scott Smiley, Maria Sosnowski, and Colleen Dunham.
Officers for 2009 will be Ed Rush, Nancy Gerth, Cheryle Landes, Sheila Ryan, and Maria Sosnowski.
The meeting was called to order at 9:10 a.m.
1. Minutes
The minutes from the Spring 2008 meeting were already approved via email.
2. Previous Action Items
Scott looked into the tax ID number issue (which turned into the incorporation vs. RC (Resource Center) issue discussed later) and also let national know that our chapter can provide local assistance with the 2009 ASI meeting. Scott suggested that we re-create the Wordstock booth at ASI so that other indexers can see how we implement that marketing idea.
Cheryl did not yet follow up on updating our chapter bylaws. This item will remain on the Action items list. There was some discussion about the process to update our bylaws, and Scott said that his understanding is that we revise the bylaws, then submit to ASI for approval, and then send to our membership for a vote.
3. Reports
Treasurer – Scott Smiley provided the treasury report that was included in meeting attendee’s packets. He explained the income and expense items on the 2008 financial report, and the finances for the Spring and Fall meetings in 2008. Our expenses have exceeded our revenues by $200 so far this year, not including the fall meeting. The spring meeting broke even, and the fall meeting is expected to have a loss of approximately $400. The raffle held at this meeting raised $96.
Scott raised the issue of the need to address the fact that the meetings are losing money. He pointed out that attendance at the last few meetings has been lower than in the past – there have been only 20-something people at each meeting, where 2006 meetings were in the 40’s. We discussed various ways to raise revenues from the meetings, including charging the board members and speakers 50% of the fee rather than giving a total waiver, charging more for the meetings, changing the format/frequency of the meetings, and stop offering meals as part of the meetings.
Scott indicated that the biggest costs of the meetings are speakers’ fees/costs, facility, and food. We discussed the various ideas proposed. Ed made a motion to change the meeting to have one formal meeting each year in the fall, and an informal meeting in the spring. The informal meetings would be things that would have no cost to the chapter, such as a peer review or panel discussion at a local library that would be free and open to the public, or something that would take place at someone’s home. This was also a way to encourage people to attend ASI meetings rather than having our spring meeting compete with people’s time/money to attend ASI. Maria and Ed both felt that this would make the meetings feel more valuable to members because the formal programming would happen only once a year, making it more likely they would attend. Also, it would ease the burden on the VP to come up with programming and speakers for two meetings a year. There was some discussion of making the meeting more of a day-and-a-half length. Scott seconded the motion, and the 4 board members present all voted yes.
As part of the change to having only one formal meeting each year, we decided that the spring informal meeting will be in Seattle in 2010, and the fall 2010 formal meeting will be in Eugene.
The board also discussed raising the fee for the meeting. Scott indicated that the fee hasn’t changed in several years. Maria indicated that she wasn’t aware of any other professional all-day educational programs that were nearly as cheap as ours are. Cheryl made a motion to raise the fee for members to $95, Maria seconded, and all 4 board members present voted yes.
Then we discussed waivers for officers and speakers. Scott said that there were 27 people registered for this meeting but only 20 of them were paying. Had all 27 paid the meeting wouldn’t have run at a loss. He suggested making the waiver for officers and speakers 50% rather than 100%. Cheryl said that she agreed for officers but not for speakers, who generally are bearing the cost of coming to present at the meetings. Scott made the motion to change the fee waiver for officers to be 50% of the registration fee. Ed amended the motion to have the waiver be 50% of the basic registration fee (in light of the possibility of having future meetings with a basic fee for the basic program and additional, optional fees for additional programming). Cheryl seconded the amended motion, and all board members present voted yes.
We also discussed ways to raise more money for things chapter members want to pursue. Suggestions to make the raffle more effective included posting notice about it well in advance of the meeting, allowing people not present to have a chance on items they are interested in by having them let someone who is present buy tickets on their behalf, posting pictures/descriptions of items on the website, and putting a free ticket in each registration folder so everyone present is involved. Judi Gibbs has volunteered to run future raffles, so these ideas will be passed on to her.
There was also a mention that for something specific such as the publisher’s honor roll, we could ask members to send a donation.
4. Leadership development
Cheryl and Scott both talked about the difficulty we are having in finding someone to be the VP. One issue raised is that we are scrambling to find someone each fall when instead we should be bringing the newer members into involving themselves with the group and educating them about the officers and what they do and getting them involved in projects so that they feel ready to take on the commitment of an officer position. We need to each make sure that there is a description of each position, which would be more detailed than what is in the bylaws. That description would be an enumeration of responsibilities that would be passed along to the next person to take office so that they have some guidance. Maria indicated that she had that from Mary Harper and that she continued to add/amend it. Scott said that he will do that before he turns over the treasurer role to the next person. Cheryl and Ed each need to write up something for their offices. Sheila Ryan offered to get the position descriptions from the Golden Gate chapter in CA where she used to be the treasurer.
Suggestions include having the officers introduced at each meeting with a brief description of their duties. Also, putting a description of their duties and terms and need for new people in the newsletter. This would be a good way to raise awareness among the newer people. Maria will contact Gail and Cathy about including this type of information in the next newsletter.
Each board member will think about people they think are ready to take on the VP position, and Cheryl will post to the list that we are looking for a candidate. Cathy Martz offered to make sure that post gets put on the Eugene peer review list in case any of those people aren’t on the chapter list.
5. Change in banking rules issue
We talked about the options ASI has presented to deal with the changes in the IRS rules post-9/11. We have the options of either letting ASI/RC handle the finances and continuing to use their tax ID number, or incorporating and getting our own tax ID number. After June 30, 2009, we will no longer be allowed to use the ASI tax number for our chapter.
There is concern with potential pitfalls, mistakes, liabilities and costs if we were to incorporate.
A quick poll indicated that 7 of the 8 people present thought that we should go with the ASI option rather than incorporate, with one person abstaining. There is some concern that the details aren’t really known to us, and that RC would have to get some better procedures in place. Scott will follow up with Annette Rogers at the Resource Center on some of the questions about details of the process. The board postponed voting on this issue, but did decide that if we do decide to choose RC, the check to them needed to be cut before the end of 2008 to avoid the issues of having to get new signatories for the bank.
6. Institutional memory
We talked about ways to help with continuity and promote the “institutional memory” of our chapter. Veronica offered to scan the archives and make them available electronically on the website. Maria will put her and Elspeth Pope in touch with each other so that they can work out the details of how to do that.
We talked about having a standing Program Committee to gather program ideas for future programming and maintain that list so that the incoming VP can be given the information to make meeting planning easier. The list could include topics as well as potential speakers and any information about the speakers that would be useful (such as their preference for which city to speak in). Cheryl volunteered to be this person, and the board appointed her to be the coordinator of the Program Committee. Maria has a list of possible future topics and will forward that to Cheryl.
7. Admin loop
Sherry proposed that we give the Volunteer Coordinator the job of maintaining the membership on the admin loop. Scott moved that the loop should consist of these people: all current officers and those who left office within the past year, committee coordinators, candidates for office (who should be removed if they are not elected), and any ASI board members from our chapter. Ed seconded that motion and all board members voted yes. Maria will inform Sherry Smith, the Volunteer Coordinator, of this change to her role.
The board got a brief summary of the ratings each program received and a general indication of the type of comments.
Action items
Maria will pass on the raffle ideas to Judi Gibbs.
Cheryl will follow up on updating our chapter bylaws.
Scott, Ed and Cheryl will write up the position descriptions prior to the next person taking office.
Maria will contact Gail and Cathy about including officer position information in the next newsletter.
Cheryl will post to the list that we are in need of a VP for 2009.
Scott will follow up on our questions to RC about them handling the chapter finances.
Maria will put Veronica and Elspeth in touch with each other so that Veronica can start work on scanning the archives.
Maria will provide Cheryl with a list of possible future meeting topics.
Maria will let Sherry know about the decision on maintaining the admin loop.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:40 a.m.
These minutes were approved by unanimous vote of the four attending board members on September 9, 2008.
Addendum to minutes: On 12/22/08 we obtained a new EIN pursuant to the directive from ASI that each chapter establish their own EIN. The new EIN, under the official name "Pacific Northwest Chapter of the American Society for Indexing" is 26-3885984. In making the transition in treasurers from Scott Smiley to Sheila Ryan, the bank requires this addendum to the minutes, including Sheila Ryan’s address as the official address for the account: 4533 SE Monroe Street, Portland, OR 97222. These minutes were approved with the addendum by the Board on January 24, 2009, with yes votes by Ed Rush, Cheryl Landes, Sheila Ryan, and Maria Sosnowski.
Respectfully submitted,
Maria Sosnowski, Secretary