AAWCC Board Meeting
January 27, 2006
Lane Community College
Minutes

Present:  Jan Woodcock, Carol Schaafsma, Julie Huckestein, Janet Lodge (arrived at approx. 12:30), Shannan McGaha, Lorna O’Guinn, Denise Swafford, Ann Baumgardt, Jackie Bryson, Cheryl Goyer, Dawn DeWolf (during lunch)

Minutes prepared by:  Julie Huckestein

The meeting was called to order at 11:05 a.m. by Jan Woodcock.

Approval of minutes:  The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.  Motion by Jackie; seconded by Denise. Motion passed.

Board reports:
Secretary—no report.

Membership—Simone and Shannan met.  The membership list has been updated through the early registration deadline of the conference.  There was some general discussion about whether membership certificates should be issues every year.  Lorna reported that most people who attend the conference don’t seem to care about receiving a certificate.  A proposal was made to mail a certificate upon registering for a workshop or conference or upon completion of the membership application form.  There was discussion about whether a certificate should be e-mailed or mailed via postal service.  One idea was to e-mail the certificate as a PDF allowing the new member to print the certificate at their convenience. 

It was agreed that Shannan would use the current membership form and change the wording to reflect a free, lifetime membership for anyone who agrees with the mission of the organization.  Another idea was to send the membership form to campus contacts for distribution to the women at their campus as a way to increase membership.  Ann will check with Cherie Maas at PCC to see what her plans are to mention the state organization to PCC members.

Motion:  New members will get a certificate the first time they join—it will be something visible and tangible and indicate lifetime membership.  Current members will receive a new certificate either through the campus contact or another medium along with a letter explaining the new membership process.  It was agreed that the change in the by-laws would be marketed during the summer conference, fall conference, and OILD.  Motion by Lorna; Second by Cheryl and Shannan.  Motion passed.

It was decided that the state board needs to develop a short summary of the differences between memberships in the national, state and local organizations.  Julie and Ann said they would develop some language.  Ann will look for any past information and forward to Julie. 

Shannan asked when the marketing for the summer conference would go out.  Denise said that something would go out in March.

CommunicationsDenise will ask Margaret to get timelines to us for the Spring newsletter.

Web—Jan asked Cheryl to review the meeting minutes to see what needs to be updated on the Website and Cheryl agreed to do so.  Cheryl also agreed to update the new dates for the fall conference, summer conference, OILD and Race for the Cure after the Fall conference.  Cheryl asked all board members to notify her if they notice other items that need to be updated. 

Cheryl provided some background information on the web page provider Hevanet.  Cheryl said we currently pay $25/month for 30mb of web space.  She said that Hevanet is expensive compared to other providers and that we may not have the amount of web space we need for the archived documents, photos and video.  Cheryl distributed a handout with several other options. The primary difference between Hevanet and others seems to be price and web space.  One positive aspect of Hevanet is the service that is provide.  If we change providers the webmaster would have a bigger role and would have to maintain some of the things that Havenet is currently providing.  Board members asked whether or not we were listing members on the current site.  Cheryl said the current members are in the “quiet” (private-board only) part of the site.  The board agreed that regardless of any change in provider, that member names should remain confidential.  The board asked Cheryl to do some more research but it was agreed that the following criteria were important to consider when selecting a provider:  price, customer service, security and privacy, stability and billing.  Cheryl will bring a recommendation to the next board meeting.

There was discussion about the upkeep of the board lists when board membership changes.  In the past, the practice has been to have board positions expire at the end of the conference.  It was agreed that board positions would expire on December 31st with new board members taking office on January 1st of the year following elections. 

Motion:  Board member positions will run from January 1 through December 31 of the year of the expiring term of the position.  New board members will take office effective January 1st of the year following the election.  Moved by Denise; Second by Ann.  Motion passed.

Archiving—Jan handed over the archiving material to Jackie in November.  The goal is to build the history, get it updated and save as many of the documents on the web.  Jan would like for the web page to list archived items directly below current items—similar to the archived newsletters.  It was felt that having the archived information on the website was beneficial for tracking past board members, past conference agendas, etc. 

Jan has already collected much of the history and typed up a page for each major conference, board members by year, etc.  It would be good to also have the year, place, main music, theme, etc. logged somewhere.

There was a question about the OILD information.  Jackie said she thought Miriam Jordan had some of the old material in a box.  Jackie will check with Miriam and get the OILD box for our records.  Jackie said that there were some other boxes of material that the board might want to go through to determine if the documents should be saved or tossed.

Board members felt it would be a good idea to have copies of the history Jan had collected.  Jan agreed to send copies to all board members.

Jackie and Shannan will work together to get the information ready for the archiving on the web and send to Cheryl.

Jan and Jackie reported that the OILD posters need to be re-done because of their age and condition.  Jackie will work with former OILD attendees to purchase new poster boards and convert the current posters to new boards.  A suggestion was made that the new boards be similar in size and have a closing/folding mechanism to protect the photos.  It was also suggested that the annual budget include a line item for archiving costs. For this year the amount will be $500. 

Motion:  Jackie is authorized to spend up to $500 for costs related to OILD posters.  Moved by Denise; seconded by Cheryl. Motion passed.

Jackie reported that Siv Serene would coordinate picture taking at the next conference.  It was decided that the archivist would be responsible for coordinating photo taking at all conferences and events.  A review of the by-laws found that this duty was already reflected in the archivist position. 

Jan and Jackie will send all current photos and CD’s to Cheryl and/or Margaret.  Margaret generally forwards any material she receives to Cheryl for placement on the web.

There was general discussion about the board only “quiet” part of the web and the need for an updated list of personal information for board members.  A list was distributed to update the quiet site with board information.  Cheryl will update the quiet portion of the web and Julie will update the list and e-mail it to board members.

President-Elect—Carol asked about whether there is a connection for the campus contacts at the summer retreat or if the only contact was at the fall conference.  Currently the only in-person contact is during fall.  Carol asked about how to contact the campus contact group.  Cheryl said there is an e-mail group on the web. 

Carol said she e-mailed Mount Hood about their request to have a board member visit to explore expanding their membership.  She has not had any response from them.  Julie said she will be at MHCC on February 9 and 10 and could possibly meet with them if it could be arranged.  Carol said she would contact them again. There has also been a request from Blue Mountain to become a formal chapter.  Denise said she would be happy to send them the material and information from the Rogue start up.

President—No report.

Past-president—Julie reminded the board that there was discussion in November about the state chapter being nominated for the AAWCC model awards program at the April AACC convention.  The nomination form will be prepared by Mildred Bullpitt and a subcommittee of the board (Jan, Julie, Dawn-past/past president).  At the November board meeting there was general consensus for the state chapter to pay for Jan to attend the conference in the event that the state receives the award.  Julie recommended that we formalize the approval.

Motion:  The state chapter will provide a budget for Jan or her representative to attend the AACC conference in April held in Long Beach.  Moved by Denise.  Second by ???  Motion passed.

Julie and Janet reported that they may attend too, using college professional development funds from their respective campuses.

Conference Registration—Lorna reported that there were 203 people registered for the conference and 2 people cancelled.  Lorna provided a list of 5 individuals with outstanding balances from the conference.  Lorna has been unable to contact one of the individuals and has had some response from the other four.  Lorna asked to forgive the fees for Melody W. and Rene M. (neither attended—emergency and cancellation fee).  She also asked that we forgive the fees for Pam C. and Robin Y. if they did not attend.  Lorna is following up with Pam C. and Julie is following up with Robin Y.  Lorna said that Kal R. attended the conference and has agreed to pay.

Motion:  Forgive registration fees for the following individuals if they did not attend the conference; Melody W., Pamela C., Robin Y., Rene M.  Ann moved; Shannan seconded. Motion passed.

Conference program—Ann reported that Shannan was working on evaluations and was halfway through completing the summary.  As soon as the results are available Ann will send the feedback to the session presenters.  Ann is putting together a sample thank you letter and samples of forms and the to do list for the future conference program chair.  She shared she learned that the program committee is more effective if it is kept small. 

2006 Conference—There was discussion about the need for a volunteer coordinator.  Lorna suggested that we have the following subcommittees next year:  silent auction, volunteers, program (keynotes and breakout sessions), logistics (hotel relations and AV), OILD/NILD reception, Speaker and presenter thank you notes.  Another suggestion was to assign duties by college and create more participation as well as capturing volunteers from summer conference and OILD.  Lorna will bring additional recommendations to the next meeting.

Lorna said that Diana Abu-Jaber is willing to present at this year’s conference.  Her fee is $6,000; but the publicist is willing to reduce the fee if we will book early.  The board was not ready to make a decision so Lorna will share this with Diana’s publicist.

Financial Report—Janet distributed the financial report and reminded board members that it is now prepared on a fiscal year basis.  Current status shows a profit of $2,545.94 from the summer conference; $2,034.14 from OILD; $495.71 from the fall conference.  The overall balance in all accounts is $27,657.27.

Future planning:
Theme for conference—Ideas for next year’s theme were briefly discussed.  Next year is our 20th anniversary. One idea was to invite people back from the past 20 years. 

Julie mentioned that the conference theme 20 years ago was “Celebrating Womanhood:  The New Attitude”. (Thanks to Jan’s collection of history!)

One suggestion for a theme was…”20 years later…we still have attitude” or “20 years of attitude.”

OILD—Denise reported that 26 letters are going out next week.  Some of the presenters have already committed—Mary Spilde and Mildred Bulpitt.  Jan asked board members to let her know if they have recommendations for speakers—especially women in top leadership positions.  Denise said that Jennifer Joss-Bradley would be willing to do a session on emotional intelligence.  Pamela Fisher was mentioned as a possible presenter. 

It was agreed that the board would participate in the first activity and meet prior to OILD.  A board meeting will be held on Monday June 26th at Silver falls from 9-1 followed by greeting of OILD participants then dinner.

Summer conference—Vicki Willis will be presenting “Leading when you are not in Charge” on July 13th from 10-4.  Vicki is charging $300 plus expenses, but Denise would like to pay her more.  The event is tentatively scheduled for SWOCC.  Dorm rooms would be $34 plus $18 for meals.  Denise reported that we made $2500 last year.  The board expressed some concern that the location would not be on the beach.  Denise said she would explore other location possibilities and get back to us. 

Scholarships—There was general discussion about the impact scholarships could make on increasing membership and extending options for campuses that are not participating in activities.  Jan said it seems that participation in OILD makes a difference to future commitment to the organization and would like to offer two scholarships to OILD.    Janet asked that we have a general discussion about scholarships and recommended we allocate them as a total; instead of allocating in specific budgets.  The discussion will continue at the next board meeting with primary focus on offering scholarships to schools lacking participation at events in the past.

Board retreat—It was agreed that a board retreat directly before OILD would be unmanageable.  There was a lengthy discussion to explore possible dates.  The group was unable to find any weekend June-September.  The group agreed on May 19-21.  Janet and Carol had some ideas for possible locations and will forward to the board.

Next meetings

April 14            12-4                 Board meeting:  Umpqua CC
May 19-21                               Retreat Friday eve. To Sun. a.m. --- Location TBA
June 26            9-dinner           Board meeting, greet participants, dinner:Silver Creek Falls

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