VAEYC Board Meeting January 23, 2014
Present: Andrea Racek, Beth Peloquin, Melissa Riegel-Garrett, Sonja Raymond, Brenda Buzzell, Sandra Graves, Tara Stanton, Theresa Robinson
Introductions
Conference Update: Conference went very well overall. Good year in terms of money, and also in terms of reactions to the conference. Financials: We ended up with an overall profit of $16,500 for the conference. ($10,000 budgeted). We did not budget the conference coordinator funds, so part of Melissa’s salary went to this for coordinating the conference. Some expenses came in lower…. Heather Mattison volunteered to do the DPD’s this year. . Perhaps we can contract her to do it next year.
Brenda makes a motion that we give Heather a comprehensive membership for her work on the conference. Sonja seconds. No further discussion. All in favor.
Evaluations: overall satisfaction; 20% participation in the Survey Monkey. Used common evaluation tool in the workshops. We need to think through using this again – the time factor of putting in the objectives, making sure the right forms are with the right workshop…. We need to fix this. Discussion around feedback from the evaluations. Food a concern, generally understaffed… Highlight in RFP that attendees want to be moving. Rooms are small, and there is often no room to move. There is a NAEYC person who researches venue spaces. Melissa will have a phone call with this person. We have contracts through 2015. Should we consider having it at another location? At another time of year? Perhaps at Castleton when they are not in session?
Whole overall conference in our heads? Two flip charts: what worked, what didn’t?
We will consider changing Wednesday being the board meeting.
What worked: I loved giving away door prizes. Dan Habib – inclusion/special ed topics. Room hosts having Board available throughout. Breakfast meeting – good attendance and food. General registration (excluding those that didn’t pay ahead). Vendor set up; coffee in the back room a huge help. Pool at night. Pay It Forward Awards. Jeff Johnson.
What didn’t: Space is a challenge. Getting dessert at other end of building. Moving vendor space on Saturday. Room temperature was not controllable. Being a room host for a session you are not reg. to attend (inpersonal running in and out). Robins being at the book table the whole time. Some people at membership meeting may have felt they didn’t have a voice. Need more Board members on Saturday. Did some board members help more than other? 7:30 – 8:30 each morning intolerable for MRG. Stuffing badges.
What’s Next: Board meeting Thursday night? Board call the week before to assign last minute tasks (review scripts). UVM at registration during 7:30 – 8:30. Take shifts at the VAEYC table – written shifts/sign up sheets. Board members donate 1 workshop – if they only present one, they can help more with other tasks. Write scripts ahead of time.
Annual Meeting: Roberts Rules of order available. Can we use this annual time with our members differently – get feedback, let them know about new initiatives…. We need to have this agenda focus more on the membership. If we are going to talk about TEACH – have someone there to spark that discussion. Topics that pertain directly to the membership and seem tangible to them.
Email Melissa further ideas for next year.
2014 Conference: Melissa would like to coordinate the conference this year again. Brenda makes a motion that the ED continue one more year as conference coordinator. Theresa seconds. Discussion about Melissa’s time and if that is appropriate, and if she wants to do more work. Yes. All in favor. Motion carried.
Melissa recommends that we contract again with UVM. Some discussion around the proposal and fees involved in comparison to this year. Perhaps we can shadow them this year and learn how they do the registration . Sonja makes a motion that we again contract with UVM as conference coordination service this year for $6787.89 for the 2014 conference. Beth seconds. No further discussion. All in favor. Motion carried.
Board needs to look at the chart for conference responsibilities for this year, and plug their name in the chart sent in email.
Discussion of the ED Position: Andrea would like to have help and support and a subcommittee to better define what Melissa’s job is. Melissa is going to be doing more work than necessary as we hire the TEACH person and quality project people come on. We need to be clear. Andrea has spoken with Gwen (NAEYC) about getting job descriptions from other states. Andrea is looking to board members with experience in this area to help. Sharon is happy to help. Brenda can also help depending on when this happens. Pre-read all info and other job descriptions, then meet a couple of times, plan and get it together.
Discussion of Employee Benefits: We need to hire the TEACH position and the quality person, we will have 3 employees (aside from very, very part time mentors). Health insurance litmus: employees working more than 30 hours per week are considered full time, required to offer health insurance. First 4 employees are waived from penalty. If we add the TEACH person, there will be only 2 staff that are over 30 hours. Melissa’s suggestion is that we offer a paid time off benefit. Also, we should consider something for retirement rather than health insurance because it has a bit more cost control. The aforementioned subcommittee can work through some of this. Sonja will help with the benefits part and perhaps review after some of the work is done. Also ask Jack and Andrea Sambrook will be asked to participate.
ED salary for remainder of FY14: Melissa’ hours have gotten very complicated. Budgeted 27 hours per week for her hours. We anticipated spending $38, 0000 +. We are way under, Melissa tagged a chunk to the conference. There is now a cushion to now raise her hours now. In addition, the Board approved some short term hours – 5 hours a week for Shared Services. That is over. Start up funds from Henderson for T.E.A.C.H. also just upped her hours in December. She would now like the 5 hours back from shared services shared services bump— Lots going on: continue to support web-platform development, Race to the Top -- it would be good to be at the table, etc. Discussion around budget and amount of money that can be allocated toward more salary. Theresa makes a motion by 5 hours per week for the remainder of the fiscal year (May 31st). Brenda seconds. No further discussion. All in favor. Motion carried.
TEACH Update: See start-up timeline. Melissa sent out solicitations for the hiring committee. Jack said he would sit on the hiring committee as a VAEYC Board Rep. Melissa will be responsible for the staff – she’s the boss. Asked Jen Tucker (an active mentor), Amethyst Peaslee (RD), Susan Bergeron (TEACH advisory committee), to be on the committee. Resumes due February 10th, phone conversation to decide whom to interview. Then one full day of interviews for both positions.
Shared Services: Melissa had two more road shows to complete, but mostly wrapped up. Very warm reception, particularly in terms of the website, folks interested in helping with the content. This month folks who run a NH shared services site are coming over to help. VAEYC is going to move forward on trying to launch the website. We will help with folks who want to help with content, and also with fundraising. Some possibilities. Our Vermont funders are strapped because of the public education campaign…. For the website, the more open we are, the better – schools (they would have to join the group; we are hoping that the first 2 or 3 years will be free so that people can see if it is worth the real savings they are able to access)… As hosts, we can be involved in the decisions around who can access it. We are hoping for a launch at the October conference. Shared Source Pennsylvania will allow you to look at the home page, but not access links.
Meeting adjourned at 8:30.