MSU Alumni Club of Metro Chicago

MSU Alumni Club of Metro Chicago

Board of Directors Regular Meeting

Monday, May 13th, 2013

Meeting Minutes

Attendance:

Buddy Boor

Courtney Cawley

Harrison Kortz

Anthony Novara

Carly Crystler

Bob Benenson

Sarah Cantwell

Matt Cantwell

De Terrell

Call In: Josh Branham

Absent: Paul Saini

Introductions

Call To Order

Nomination of Harrison Kortz

-Recommendation by Vic for Board of Directors, Bob moves to nominate Harrison to the Board, seconded by Sarah Cantwell, all in favor.All approved.

Election of Board Officers

-Will elect offices by majority vote: President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer

-One year terms, may serve a maximum of two consecutive on year terms

-Motion by Courtney to elect Bob, Sarah seconds, all in favor.Bob approved for role of President

-Vacant position for VP

-Courtney moves to elect Sarah as VP, seconded by Bob, all approved.

-Courtney moves to elect Carly as secretary, second by Matt, all approved.

-Courtney moves to elect Matt as Treasurer, Bob seconded by Bob, all approved.

Regular Meeting Date

-current date is second Monday of the month

-Bob: don't think Monday is the best day of the week for mtgs, 3 day weekends, have been instances where the second Mon has fallen on a National holiday.Suggesting moving it to first Tuesday of the month as normal meeting date, but there is nothing in the bylaws that says it has to be the same day each month.If there is a month where we should have a meeting right before an event for example, we can build in flexibility to do so.We will have an attendance policy in place so that it is strict and put in place to improve attendance.

-Sarah: If you haven't seen attendance policy let us know and we can get you a copy.We will have call in options.

-Carly will send attendance policy to the entire board.

-Bob: want to be flexible, but also would like board members to gauge their own level of commitment and step aside if necessary so other board members don't have to carry weight of others.We did discuss meeting less frequently than once monthly, tabled that for now until we have committee structure established and highly functioning.

-Courtney: meeting location?

-Matt: In speaking to CFO and head of HR they were really excited and fine with us to use the room.We are open to use it whenever we want it.

-Courtney: there is flexibility, but we need to have notice

-Sarah: standing first Tuesday, at the end of each mtg regroup and decide on next meeting date

-Matt moves to hold meetings on the first Tuesday of each month, Courtney seconded, all in favor.Motion approved to hold meetings the first Tuesday of each month.

Committee Structure

-Need to get better organized to handle events better

-Committees function, plans are made, events are planned out, reports are made to the board a week in advance of meetings and we vote on what was presented.

-3 fairly broad committees which can have sub-committees.

-Programming or events, responsible for all sized events.Spartyball has functioned as separate committee, but will fall under this category.Will function as it has, but we need to plan Spartyball and all other events in coordination.All other event planning has to be balanced against Spartyball.Goal to build a bigger army, bring more ppl in, more volunteers, every single event would be fully staffed and have more than one person in charge of implementation, selling tickets, etc.

-Communications.Responsible for communication and marketing strategies.Website, Newsletters, Social Media and other outlets used for publicizing our work.Chicago has been selected to do a pilot program for Career Services at MSU.Trying to up their game in terms of materials, contacts etc.Want to create an Alumni Enrichment in a box. Tools and programs and info services on the web available to all of the clubs.Will place this project under communications.We are the biggest non-MI Alumni Club.Sarah - important to remember we have the board email on the website, there are a lot of career requests that come through there.The bulk of the work of the club historically has been done by the board.As we look to move to the next level this will become a critical piece to find people to take the reigns.

-Scholarship.Most of what we do is to raise money for the scholarship fund.We've had virtually no interaction or contact with the scholarship recipients.No personal connection to the candidates.Mike Ford has given us guidance.Courtney - we have reached out for SpartyBall to the recipients and invited them to attend, but they were more shy and didn't want the recognition.Maybe they can come to the Cubs game or something else to introduce them to the Board.So many other things we can do.Sarah - Summer Picnic is a good example.Great opp to engage local soon to be Spartans or Spartans moving back to EL, move planning to the scholarship side.

-Committees will be empowered to develop their own structure and subcommittees.Meet at least once a month.We know adding onto the load of obligations.We can decelerate a bit if they go well.Sarah - committees should take on Chairs.Of the mindset that board members can be committee chairs.Have some great networking events where we need to be out there actively recruiting.Looking to identify a chair or two for each committee.Programming, bar affiliate program, need to think of a way to make that manageable and profitable.Start thinking who can take ownership.Vic owned a lot of the club, lots of communication and ownership.Now have to continue doing all of those things, but let others have a lot of ownership.Matt - to get to next level, one person, tenppl can't do it all.Allow for empowerment of others to use their best skills to work together to create what we want.Bob- Believe in teamwork and collaboration, great delegator.Open the floor for discussion.Matt - in addition to what we have, regular reporting either after a committee meeting so everyone knows what's going on.Bob - each committee according to the rules will be required to email report to the board at least 5 days prior to the meeting.Sarah - we didn't mention that we hope that ever board member would participate in a committee, maybe not in a chair level, but be an active participant.D - The board rep who is not the chair then they are not necessarily the one who is responsible for communicating to the board?Sarah - correct, it will come naturally to join meetings and be involved.Buddy - how difficult would it be to create email addresses for each of the committees?Feel like there would be times to blast and get that.Carly - could board members attend committee mtgs less frequently once they are established?Bob/Sarah - Yes, most important to attend board meetings, and touch base with the committees.Bob - D, where would the best place for BA liaison to be in programming?D - possibly, will take better look.Probably communications.Sarah - Communications committee manages a lot of things like communication with Spartyball and whatever it may be.D - are the committees the same people as before?Bob - no, reinventing entire wheel, there will be some people who will stay on, but looking for new faces.Sarah - extra volunteers who are not on the board, probably 5-10 consistent. Carly - it will be nice to have some direction and leadership to provide for them by providing a committee structure. Matt - move to vote on establishing committee structure, seconded by Courtney, all in favor, approved.Bob - Meghan and Ellina already on Communication Committee, Buddy to join.Carly and Courtney to join programming, Anthony to join scholarship.All others to let Carly and Courtney know.Harrison will do scholarship.Paul will most likely do communications.Matt most likely to be on programming, Sarah will let me know.

By-Laws

Sarah - right now VP role is "if you want one you can have one" propose to make it an official role.The way the bylaws are currently written everything is in president camp, as we look to broaden that then President can be liaison, but VP can take on a lot of the responsibilities.Involvement of past president, move to create role of immediate past president, allow us to have formal recognition for all of the work that he has done.More of an advisory role.Final piece is at the very end section 803, the secretary can make edits to grammar without altering meaning.Those are the general changes proposed.Matt moved to approve three changes (as listed) to bylaws, Buddy seconded, all approved.

Management of Events

-Some have been very successful, some not.We learned the club had an operating deficit of $12,500 in 2012.We need to run a tighter ship, cannot afford to loose money on an annual basis.Our reserves dropped from $28,000 to $16,000 that is unsustainable.Need to have ppl take ownership of events, recruit ppl to work with them.Love the boat cruise, but cannot loose money on it anymore.Plan well in advance. Planners work with programming committee to have alternatives, come up with events that require less upfront costs to CHI Spartans.Matt - one of main roles, make sure that before we enter into any event that everyone knows what's going on, develop a budget, need more structure in that regard.IRS needs a lot of details, proposed budget for next few yrs, distinguish between club event and foundation event.Spend money to get foundation with non-profit status, $7,000 surplus to $12,000 loss.Can be prevented by doing upfront work and a treasurer who reports well to the board.Bob - blown away yesterday by huge deficit. Josh - use this as learning event moving forward, wasn't something that was unknown to the board conversations with at least one board member, brought to my attn lack luster performance back in october.Need to make sure there is a process in place to make sure this doesn't happen again. To some extent this could have been prevented.Wouldn't have been as much of a surprise.Bob - your right about that, should not be a surprise.Part of the reason we chose Matt is that we have total faith in his abilities and willingness to keep us informed.Also why we instituted attendance policy.Open for discussion.There are some upcoming events that people need to take ownership of.Sarah - updates, family student picnic scheduling for aug.Been hesitation to reach out to MSU for funding, but will say have been talking to Mike Ford who asked for $2,500 to co partner with us.If that comes through that will significantly help us. MSU Admissions will basically be sponsor for that event.Two other events on docket, Aug boat cruise, Bigten nights.Sox night will sell out easily, Courtney - fireworks night, Fri night, playing MN, been on Tuesdays.Sarah - Boat cruise is up in the air on if we do it and how to do it profitably.Need someone to help spearhead bigten 10k.Courtney - Paul is a runner, can ask him if he is interested.Need help with communication.Bob - last yr serious miscommunication.We are 6th, Michigan is winning right now.Courtney - Paid deposit for tickets for BigTen night.Bob - ask Ellina and tell them what you want to get out there.Want to get tickets to Cubs sold early as well.Courtney - tickets last yr $35 non member, $25 for MSUAA.Last mtg voted on $20 and $30.Bought 100 tickets, ticket itself is $10, hot dog chips soda is $6.25, total $16.25.Matt - raise to $22?Courtney - no tax in ticket price.Sarah - one of those events where we could do $22 because of package, beauty of group.We have to make sure we are covering the cost.Not opposed to doing $22 or $21.D - and making a few dollars.Anthony - $25 isn't that bad, Sarah - let's do $25 and $25 and $30.Courtney - will have Sox create graphic.Matt - can always lower the cost if we are not getting the numbers we are looking for.Courtney - will do pre-event party.Sarah - any costs associated with the party?Courtney - no, this event did not cost anything last year.Sparty can be about $650 to get him out here.We were the only school with a mascot last year.Bob will check back with Zach at Cubs for comparison.Have more options with Wrigleyville pregame and postgame events.Sept 3 this year.

-Bob: events, BigTenK and picnic, D to take on picnic, Anthony lives in suburbs and will also help out. August 10th.Sarah - let's talk to Paul about working the bigten 10k.Buddy is running it, but happy to help out.Buddy will spearhead and Sarah will man the booth.Boat cruise - been under attended and too expensive.Sarah - cash bar?Courtney - attended very first event as board member. It was a 50 person pirate ship.That year was so new, because it was so small marketed it the year after as it sold out and then bought a big boat and then didn't have the turn out.Mixed crowd.Looked empty the last two years.Sarah - are there any veterans here that we could ask them to sponsor it?Courtney - with support for Spartyball not sure if those ppl would want to do it.Bob - talk to some of his connections to see if they want to help.This could be our summer spartyball if we do it right.Need sponsorships.Could potentially get sponsorship from BigTen Network if things like the BigTenK go well.Sarah - willing to take on leadership of executing the boat cruise.Julie already did some legwork on potential boats.In the next week or so will draw up some numbers and email the club and then.D will help too.Sarah - maybe we look at cash bar D- or discount, specials Bob - tap into craft beer community.Sarah - will play with some numbers, project out 50 or 100 or so ppl.Will email the board and get a feel for what we thing.Anthony - what about joining with another board to create a joint event.No set date yet.Courtney - will help out with what she can.Matt - 2011 boat cruise lost $837, last year lost almost $3,000.Sarah - may not be a profitable event, but like to think if we do it right it can be.

501c3 Status Update

Matt - last mtg it was recommended we go through with the group who will guide us through the process, working out really well.Went through an action plan to be submitted.Need everyone's resume that has to be submitted with 501c3 application.Need to do a 3 year budget.Need to determine what will be club focused, what will be foundation focused.Foundation year end is end of May.this year we will file a retroactive 4990.Foundation group will complete this for us.Wording related to 501c3 status, sent out in a blurb to the board.$25 filing fee, Matt can cover.Time is of the essence.The sooner we get this in the better.By end of the week they will have everything and keep it going so we can get this in.If it goes through first level review it could be 3-6 mos, inventory goes to second level could be up to 9 months.The sooner we get it in the better we are.Send resumes to Matt by Friday.Matt motions to pass resolution for making amendments to Foundation Group plan, Courtney moves to approve, Sarah seconds, all in favor to approve.Need to get all bank stuff moved over.

Adjournment

Matt moves to adjourn meeting, Sarah seconded, all approved.Meeting adjourned.