WASFAA Executive Council Meeting
November 7 & 8, 2013
Reno, NV – Silver Legacy Casino
Present: Laura Hughes, Leonard Walker, Terri Eckel, Ed Wagner, Melissa Moser, Mindy Bergeron,
Wendy Olson, Phong Moua, Sun Ow, Suzie Petersen, Cathy Bio, Jeff Scofield, Oscar Verduzco, Frank Green, Monique Theriault, Kevin Jensen, Jack Edwards, Ashley Salisbury, Kay Soltis, Barbara Bickett, Catherine King-Todd, Adam Hatch, Ashley Munro, John Bender, Abril Hunt, Sandi Guidry
Call to Order 1:04
Frank thanked everyone for being present and covered housekeeping items and meal logistics for remainder of our time in Reno. Also reminded everyone of consent agenda.
Review of Minutes from August 2013 EC GoTo Meeting – Terri
Terri sent out draft in August and incorporated edits at that time. No additional edits – Terri will post to website.
Review of To Do List:
· Jack to revisit Monique’s inquiry re: Strategic Planning (SP) Measuring Tool at Nov. meeting – DONE
· Wendy to create the year-to-year income comparison report – DONE
· Wendy to make some adjustments to budget so that Training income and budget is clearer – DONE
Fiscal Planning (FP) - Wendy
Wendy reminded everyone that the budget is supposed to be balanced and that committee chairs need to request budget adjustments when necessary. Budget is meant to help expenses stay in line and should be referenced by committee chairs.
Wendy reported some changes to the budget and referenced the “Budget Adjustments History” document. She explained that $1440 had been decommitted from Communications Committee and that training committee income is down by $2000. To make that work, she had to adjust dues income up by $560. Asset reserves as income remains at $16366, but will probably be significantly reduced when the end-of –year budget vs. actual is reviewed.
Wendy and Mindy need to spend some time together to make these adjustments work, particularly given some Training Committee uncertainties.
We have $263,782 in liquid assets and $675,956 in other assets for a total of $939,738 as of November 4 as reported by Mindy.
Biggest expenses for EC can be presidential travel – Frank did not travel to all conferences this year and that saved costs.
We are in good shape financially now and going into the future.
Motion to accept Wendy’s proposed adjustments to budget:
Jack made motion
Jeff second
Discussion:
Adam said he thinks there will be additional income for web training due to late payments.
Vote:
All AYES
Frank mentioned that he should have mentioned that there are two proxies for voting - Nevada (Sandi voting for Jesse Stasher) and Idaho (Laura voting for Roxanne Merle).
Wendy said she got budget requests for 2014 from some committees. Reminded everyone that this process is meant to keep us on track. Mindy and Wendy will be reviewing some of the 2014 budget line items and will finalize before year’s end.
Steve asked what’s dependency on asset reserves. Wendy said none.
Frank explained that FP committee reviewed this extensively earlier today and said that budget is continually changing and adjusted. We’re being conservative and not overspending.
Adam has some work to do in detailing his expenses from this year, but his challenge is making a budget for the next year given the out of sync timing for budget year vs WASFAA year and the responsibilities of his committee.
Motion to approve proposed 2014 budget:
Mindy moved
Kevin second.
No discussion. All approved.
Wendy explained that she completed historical review per Frank’s request so that we could plan better. 2011 conference loss was due to room block issues for Hawaii conference. She will continue to update this document.
Retention for records is 4 years. Cloud back up storage usage update was given by Ashley Salisbury in FP meeting. All current documents have been moved to cloud.
New Business for FP:
Rates for job postings will remain the same at $75. Rate for conference proposed $285 for conference for 2014. Rate for a follow up webinar for R2T4 - proposed rate is $20.
Motion to have 2014 conference rate be $285 + $50 for membership:
Monique made motion
Second Jack
No Discussion. All AYES.
Motion to offer $20 rate for follow up R2T4 webinar:
Terri made motion
Jack second
Discussion – Monique asked for clarification – Adam explained ALL would get the reduced rate.
Vote: All AYES
Treasurer’s Report – Mindy
Mindy reported that we are doing well financially. We have one investment with Vanguard and one with Charles Schwab. Schwab has been fluctuating quite a bit this year but most recent statement showed a $7000 increase.
Biggest challenge thus far was getting everything transitioned to her, but she’s got full access to everything now and is in charge.
Added potential liabilities line item for pulling out of contracts for hotels for events such as conference and MLI/SI. Also added line item in the income section for unrealized gains/losses on some securities, they aren’t liquid.
She’s become more adept at QuickBooks and can now give some detail on expenses from previous years/events. Training and Conference have asked for some detail. Encourages more to seek out detail on their specific committee budgets if they need it.
Been working with Tracey Corta to do 2012 taxes. Working on second extension. Tracy is reviewing previous year books for us as well. We’ve been charged a $50 late fee for some required reporting to the state of California where our non-profit address is.
Frank asked how can we avoid that late fee in future. Mindy said that she can keep track to avoid it and Wendy suggested that it be added to the timeline.
Jack clarified why Schwab and Vanguard are so different in terms of yield on investment and explained that we are not permitted to move $ at any time we’d like.
Ed asked where she’ll put the liability for MLI when it is no longer a liability because MLI is over. Kevin said it would be moved to an expense.
SITE SELECTION – Leonard
Summer Inst. – originally planned for Seattle University (SU). They can’t accommodate M-F. Suggestion made by SU that we move the start of SI earlier to start on Sat. or Sun.
Abril concerned that people may not attend because it’s a long week and will have to go to work right after. Kay said it could be shortened if research time is eliminated. If we move to NASFAA CORE training it could be done in less than 5 days.
Laura asked if we should survey the membership about whether people would want to attend on Sat. or Sun. Ashley Munro said she doesn’t have a preference, but even if it ends on Thursday, people may not be able to get home Thurs. night and would have to find another place to stay anyway. Jack said NASFAA conference starts on June 29th and that’s a potential conflict.
Frank said that we would be using the NASFAA CORE and that would allow them to be formally certified and it will be at no cost to participants. Instructors would also be certified. Still coordinating logistics.
Leonard asked to do more research since he’s just learned of the option to start earlier at SU. Frank asked that the discussion be tabled until Leonard can do more legwork on logistics.
Nichole wants to know who has taught under CORE and would like to coordinate a conference call with anyone who has. Catherine, Barbara Bickett and Jack have all taught under CORE.
Conference Rotations:
Steve came up with proposal long ago that each state needs to have a conference within 10 years. There was a time when conferences were in CA every other year. Suggested that there be well attended events/states every other year. Suggesting that 2016 conference be in AK instead of WA. Here’s current plan:
2013 AZ
2014 NV
2015 CA
2016 AK
2017 WA
2018 ID
2019 OR
2020 HI
Kay questioned why we are having the conversation at all. We’ve got the latitude to switch things up as long as we have a conference in each state within a 10 year period. Steve said that p & p’s state that. Frank said that we’re looking to book hotels/locations further out now. Wendy said we don’t want to be locked into a definite strict schedule. Sun said that she likes idea of having the latitude and it keeps us fiscally responsible.
Leonard asked for direction on how to proceed with conference locations and site selections. Jack told Leonard to see what makes sense in terms of locations and proceed accordingly.
Strategic Planning – Jack
Jack said that SP Measuring tool will be distributed to everyone. He said it’s important for committees that do events (MLI, SI, Conference, Training) to be mindful of the committees tie to the measuring tool and to provide data.
Membership Survey needs to be conducted in near future so that we can tie it to the SP. We’ll begin working on it soon so that it can be sent to membership in spring of 2015 prior to the conference. Previous surveys will be reviewed (Survey Monkey).
Research has come forward and wants to be sure that committee chairs, EC voting members and state presidents report out so that info and data can be incorporated into SP to better prepare for and plan for future. Example, state presidents will report out committee members so that WASFAA leadership can see who might be good volunteers for WASFAA.
Distributed Template for State Presidents & Committee Chairs:
Steve said there’s a lot of good information that state presidents have that can help with planning. For example, we’ve never asked for state presidents to set goals. What do they hope to get out of being on WASFAA EC? Frank said that we really need info from State presidents.
Franks wants everyone to use the new reports for the Feb meeting.
Steve said that the quarterly state president report is not as comprehensive as the End of Year report, but there’s a lot of info that would be useful. Cathy said appreciates how it separates your role as a state president vs. role as WASFAA EC member.
Wendy not clear on difference between reporting on “Your State President Goals” and “State president goals for your state during your service year” on the template. Frank suggested that we use these and see how it goes in February.
Monique said it would be helpful for everyone to have the SP Measuring tool. Jack said that it is accessible via appendix F. Kay reminded everyone that at our transition meeting we were informed of where SP and SP Measuring is located.
Adam said that examples of expectations should be given to State presidents. Steve said this is not to be confused about what’s happening in State Presidents Group. They have their own goals.
Kevin said to add reference of parts of SP on the template so that everyone knows where to find things in the SP and can better understand what they are doing.
Frank said that at Feb. meeting, we’ll spend a couple of hours insuring that we all know what we’re doing with the new report format.
Jack will send out soft copy to everyone. Delete old forms from the flash drive that Frank gave us in April. Jack will be sure that the correct forms are sent to everyone when they are due.
Frank thanked everyone for doing their part in writing comprehensive reports and he said future WASFAA leadership will thank you as well.
Training Committee – Adam
Suggestion to have states nominate trainers so that training chairs have good people to choose from.
Melissa suggested that potential trainers be included in the state presidents reports.
Monique said that she’s not sure Adam’s suggestion will be successful. Adam said that we’ve got to do something because we know our states better than he does.
Catherine King-Todd said WASFAA has been challenged with this for years. Since training is a big part of our mission, we need to take this seriously and do whatever we can to help with it. Cathy said it is difficult to solicit trainers and to set real expectations for what trainers are supposed to do.
Leonard asked what do you do when a trainer isn’t any good. Kay said that exposure to training and repeatedly training generally makes a person a better trainer. Kay suggested that we have people co-chair so that they can learn the ropes and the more they train, the better they’ll become.
Abril said that over 60 people expressed interest in volunteering via the volunteer form. All committees could gain from that interest, training in particular.
Laura said classified class can’t always travel due to their limitations in employee status as hourly employees.
Adam said Volunteer Development database is critical, but he doesn’t know those people as well as those coming from their own state. Abril said she does reach out to volunteers.
Laura said not all people that want to volunteer can pay reg. fee. Also, potential trainers don’t always have the confidence to train and think they have to know everything. We should communicate that to potential trainers that they don’t have to be experts.
Jack asked if trainers have to be in WASFAA region? Adam said they have to be members.
Barbara said that there are many trainers that work for Devry that could potentially train for WASFAA.
Jack said we will add trainer info to state president’s quarterly report. Also, Abril’s suggestion is also a good one – use Volunteer Development database.
Conference – Sandi
Committee has been meeting. Planning another silent auction. Est. 300 attendees. Has asked Justin Draeger and Jeff Baker and NASFAA trainers. NASFAA trainer forms have been completed and still waiting on reply.