Current Board Meeting Minutes

DULLES SHRM BOARD MEETING MINUTES
ARTEL, Inc.
October 9, 2006

Board Members Present:

Judy Carter, Legislative Liaison
Maggie Chan, President
Sarah Cower, Treasurer
Kurt Cowles, Past-President
Kimberly Esch, Registration Coordinator
Lisa Forester, SHRM Foundation Rep & Scholarship Coordinator
Joseph Gregory, Assistant Vice President, Membership
Denise Henderson, Communications Director
Nidhi Kanungo, Student Chapter Liaison
Cindy Loison, Director, Discussion Group
Amy Lourenco, Secretary
Lynn Padgett, Vice President, Membership
Mary Saily, President-Elect
Chas Sumser, Certification Representative

Board Members Attending via Phone:

Mary Walter Midkiff, Vice President, Programs
                                                           
Board Members Absent:

Andrea Evans, Assistant Vice President, Membership
Denise Hartman, Assistant Vice President, Programs
Evelyn Kaiser, Diversity/Workforce Education Director
Wendy Mack, Assistant Vice President, Programs
Judy Perrault, Director at Large

Agenda
The meeting was called to order at 6:08 pm.  

Minutes
Mary Saily moved and Kurt Cowles seconded a motion to approve the amended minutes for September 2006.  The motion passed unanimously.    

Succession Planning
Mary Saily presented the 2007 Board of Directors Ballot, as follows:

President-Elect: Sarah Cower
Treasurer: Tina Strasheim
Secretary:  Jamey McNamara
VP Membership: Lynn Padgett
AVP Membership: Joseph Gregory
VP Programs: Judy Carter
VP Sponsorship: Teresa Buchholtz
Communications Director: Denise Henderson
Registration Coordinator: Amy Lourenco
Certification Rep: Chas Sumser
Diversity/Workforce Education: Evelyn Kaiser
SHRM Foundation Rep: Benjamin Kane
Student Chapter & Scholarship Coordinator: Nidhi Kanungo
SIG Director:  Cindy Loison

Legislative Liaison is the only position with no one currently on the ballot.  Mary Saily will contact the individuals who attended this year’s trip to Capitol Hill to solicit interest.

There are two individuals who have expressed an interest in being Assistant Registration Coordinator, Andy Drescher and Linda Caporaletti-Hoyt.  Mary Saily will follow-up with them to find out if one is willing to serve on the committee rather than the assistant role.

Differently from last year, there is no AVP of Programs or Sponsorship.  Mary Walter Midkiff and Wendy Mack have agreed to be on the Programs Committee to help Judy Carter.  We hope to solicit committee members for Sponsorship as well.

We discussed electronic voting for members who will be unable to attend the November meeting where the vote will be taken.  The need for this was questioned as a mere 15% (around 35 individuals) of our membership is needed for a voting quorum.  We discussed the need for using SHRM membership ID number to ensure that folks are members and don’t vote twice.  Ballots will list each individual position as well as have a “vote yes to all” option.  Ballots will be due to Mary Saily by November 14 (the day prior to the November chapter meeting).

Leadership Conference
This event is being held November 9th through 11th at the Crystal Marriott Gateway.  National pays for 1 member of each chapter (typically the President) to attend.  Dulles pays for a second.  Judy Carter and Chas Sumser volunteered to attend and represent Dulles.

By-Laws Revision
SHRM National has signed off on our proposed changes.

Kurt Cowles moved and Amy Lourenco seconded a motion to approve the changes to the By-Laws and present them to the Chapter for a vote.  The motion passed unanimously.

The revised By-Laws will be presented to the Chapter at the October meeting (via announcement at meeting and newsletter article & mailermailer with link to website).  The vote will be taken at the November Chapter meeting.   Electronic voting will also be available for the By-Laws revision.

Membership
Membership presented updated statistics on our members through Q3.  We gained an additional 41 members in Q3.  Folks who joined later in the year provided less in the way of demographics than those who registered earlier.

15 of our 235 members haven’t attended even 1 meeting.  114 members have attended only a single meeting.  Lynn Padgett will send a list of 5-7 members in the second group for each of us to call, along with questions/talking points. 

Finance
Sarah Cower presented the Treasurer’s report, with a checkbook balance of $22,866.73.  There is also an additional $4,200 that she just deposited, for a true balance of $27,066.73. 

We discussed the Ameriprise Stock Market Certificate that is maturing on 11/16.  Sarah Cower would like to have a minimum of $5,000 in our checking account as working capital.  As we decide what to do with this money, we need to remember our commitments of $2,500 to the State Conference and $2,000 to our scholarship recipients.

Nidhi Kanungo will be researching the availability of high interest CD rates to non-profit, organizational investors.  (It is believed that the original research applied to individuals only.)

Joseph Gregory moved and Cindy Loison seconded a motion to move all monies from the Ameriprise Stock Market CD after its maturity date of 11/16 to the Ameriprise Cash Management Fund (money market fund).  The motion passed unanimously.

Mary Saily moved and Judy Carter seconded a motion to move $15,000 from the (above-mentioned) money market fund into the best CD identified and move an additional $15,000 into the checking account as soon as practicable (after 11/16).  The motion passed unanimously.

“Wish List”
We reviewed this list that Kurt Cowles had prepared, with input from the Board in 2005, and recently updated.  We have already accomplished many of the items on the list, including sending additional folks to the Leadership Conference, subsidizing student members, and increasing our donation to the SHRM Foundation.  We did decide to again increase our Foundation donation to a total of $2,000, which will give us CAP points for increasing our donation over the prior year.  (We’ve already donated $1,000 and will have an additional $300-400 from 50/50 drawings.) 

Other suggestions included paying a speaker, increasing the number of scholarships awarded, increasing our donations to Embry-Rucker, and giving additional monies to Katrina relief.  Please e-mail Maggie Chan with any new ideas.

We spoke about the 20th Anniversary of the Dulles Chapter, coming up in January 2007.  Lynn Lorenz and Don Nagley (2 of the founders of the Chapter) have offered to organize a celebration.  We talked about spending some money to publicize the event (which would have the long-term benefit of increased visibility and membership).  Mary Saily has used a PR person (Krista) who will send ads to all local papers and business journals.  After consultation with Lynn & Don (& perhaps Krista), we will propose a budget for this event.

Members in Transition
Amy Lourenco will, at the November meeting, propose a policy for subsidizing this group, including criteria for defining “in transition” and a process for tracking these members.  National SHRM’s policy of offering one free year of membership to members in transition, as well as their definitions, should be kept in mind.  One suggestion was a one-time $35 rebate for current members who are in transition (in essence, 1 free dinner).  [This item has been on the “wish list”.]

Capitol Hill Trip
Eight members attended.  Unfortunately, five of the 15 that registered cancelled the day before the trip.  Attendees met with staffers for Senators Allen & Warner, and Representative Wolf.  The topics that SHRM prepped them to discuss were employment verification, immigration reform and health care IT.  Attendees felt much better prepared than past attendees due to the extensive prep and were better received by the staffers.  We were told, however, that Spring would be a much better time for these visits (rather than end of session in Fall).

All who attended said they would attend again.  The provision of free transportation and the private tour of the capitol were factors.

Miscellaneous

• Amy Lourenco will provide details of the Holiday Party plans and progress at the November Board meeting.
• Lisa Forester requested help in reviewing scholarship applications.  Nidhi Kanungo, Joseph Gregory and Amy Lourenco offered to assist.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:08 pm.

Additional Notes After Meeting:

• Craig Petry has agreed to be the Legislative Liaison.
• Judy Carter will be attending the Leadership Conference, but Chas Sumser is not able to attend.  Since National SHRM will pay both hotel and registration fee for 1 Chapter representative, Dulles will incur no expense for the Conference.

Respectfully submitted,

Amy Lourenco
Secretary