GSHRM Board Meeting Minutes
6 - 8 pm, October 13, 2015
Palmetto Ale House
Attended by: Vernita Harris, Patti Padgett, Laura Bogardus, Robyn Knox, Dawanda Evans, Lawanna Dendy, Samantha Smith
ACTION ITEM: Dawanda to contact QuickBooks rep, find out if there is a simpler process.
ACTION ITEM: Vernita follow up on meeting layout, bar location, and bartender situation with Vicky.
Action Item: Samantha to prepare a charity giving survey for Laura to email out to membership.
ACTION ITEM: Laura to post SHRM Foundation fundraising info on website, Facebook, newsletter. Laura will ask Dawanda if she will purchase $100 gift card to be given at January meeting.
ACTION ITEM: Wayne to identify a GSHRM volunteer to create and pass out SHRM Foundation receipts/raffle tickets for November and December meetings.
ACTION ITEM: Vernita will contact Jamie or Ray's assistant regarding Jamie Taylor's nomination form. Robyn will contact Jada Jacobs, and possibly Marilyn Messer about board roles. Laura will prepare the nomination slate for the membership vote, distributed October 31st.
ACTION ITEM: Robyn asked Laura to send out the Strategic Plan recommendation to the board for review, approval by email vote. Once approved, the Strategic Plan will be published on the website and sent to all members.
ACTION ITEM: Vernita will schedule meeting for Robyn, Vernita and Laura at Thornblade, Marriott. Also will meet to discuss the Transition meeting.
ACTION ITEM: Please respond to Vernita when she requests information for SHAPE.
Action Items carried over from September:
Action Item: Professional Development Committee (Wayne) to discuss feasibility of adding a form for potential speakers to complete on the website to express their interest in presenting programs.
Action Item: Vernita reminded everyone to consider a $25 donation to SHRM Foundation.
I. Meeting Minutes. Vernita greeted everyone and meals were ordered. The meeting was called to order. No changes to the September minutes were made. A motion was made by Patti to approve the September minutes. September minutes seconded by Samantha. Minutes approved.
II. Treasurer's Report. Dawanda provided an overview of the financial report (see reports submitted by Dawanda). There is $42K in the BB&T account and $31,000 in the CD. Total balance is approximately $73,000.
Discussed transferring money into an interest bearing account. Unsure of appropriate amount to transfer based on needed cash flow. Patti commented that there used to be a 10 year investment and a 20 year investment with two different credit unions; it was difficult dealing with several different banks; she suggests keeping accounts at one bank, such as BB&T. Vernita noted that the QuickBooks interfaces with the BB&T account, and she noted we had discussed in a previous board meeting that there are some issues to resolve with QuickBooks accounting. Dawanda said that BB&T and QuickBooks needs to match; ACTION ITEM: she plans to speak to the QuickBooks representative to find out if there is a simpler way to manage the accounts. She agreed that changing banks / accounting systems too often is difficult. Board discussed whether treasurer-elect should attend QuickBooks training. Vernita reported that QuickBooks was already not working properly. Robyn suggested use of an annual spreadsheet that is new each January, but not sure if that will work for tax purposes. Board discussed that volunteers without accounting backgrounds can find this role to be difficult, as there is a lot of inaccurate information in QuickBooks that cannot be canceled out. Another option is to hire someone with accounting experience. Samantha suggested that we fully document the point in time that we "start clean" so that we can be clear when taxed / audited. No action was taken.
The board discussed that a budget has not been set in the previous few years. There was discussion about setting a budget for 2016. No action was taken.
Laura noted that the proposed bylaws would expand the professional partner membership category. She noted that the board discussed increasing the dues fee for professional partners from $50 to $100. According to the bylaws, if dues are raised, the board has to approve the change, it must be announced and voted on by the general membership during the last quarter of the year preceding the change. The new dues structure would be effective the next calendar year. Laura recommended that the board not raise the dues for professional partners this year.
Patti Padgett made a motion to accept the treasurer's report as information. Lawanna seconded the motion. Motion passed.
III. Membership Committee Report. Vernita reported for Donna on the new member candidates proposed by the membership committee. Robyn made the motion that we accept the new members as presented based on her committee's recommendation. Samantha seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Laura and Donna are working on the SHRM membership audit. SHRM reported that there are 273 joint members. Since 5 have moved out of state, there are actually 268 with the potential for a loss of up to 21 more members that are on SHRM's member list but not on GSHRM's member list. Donna is working with her committee to outreach to these folks to encourage them to join / re-join GSHRM. Laura noted that there are 55 GSHRM members with SHRM Member ID numbers that are not showing on SHRM's member list. This is likely due to expired memberships. Laura has asked Crystal at SHRM to review those 55 members to determine if any should be re-added to GSHRM's chapter. Donna / Laura will follow up with the remaining members to encourage them to renew their SHRM memberships by December 1st so that they are included in our audit and we receive $25 incentive for each.
IV. Professional Development Report. Wayne was not in attendance and did not provide a report. Vernita provided an overview of the feedback from October 6th. Laura noted that the original plan of three attorneys and two GSHRM member volunteers to form a "mock arbitration" session did not happen. She felt there was a lack of communication and follow up with the presenters, which led to the program not being advertised accurately. The board discussed that we must make every effort to ensure that programs meet the expectations we set in the coming months. Laura and Lawanna reported on the November meeting progress. Laura suggested that Patti connect with Wayne about the December program; Patti responded that Wayne's committee is handling the speaker for December (Furman University president). Patti will connect with Wayne to ensure the Diversity Award presentation is set.
Discussed whether 2016 meetings are set or not. Prof. Dev. committee is working on this; however, we seek to align programs with the strategic plan. Robyn suggested that the 2015 Prof. Dev. committee plan the first three month's programs. The 2016 Prof Dev. committee could then set the rest of 2016 meetings according to strategic plan goals/objectives. The board discussed that meeting dates and times should be set in 2015 for 2016 meetings; however, topics do not necessarily need to be finalized in 2015.
Discussed extending the networking time before membership meetings start; however, the meeting end time will be extended. It is not a problem to let the bar extend until 6:15 or 6:20 pm. There is a new general manager at Thornblade that will not allow the registration area in the lobby at the bottom of the steps. The registration will be moved to the current networking area beginning in November. The bar will be moved inside the meeting room. The bartender (Sly) was rude to some GSHRM members. ACTION ITEM: Vernita follow up on meeting layout, bar location, and bartender situation with Vicky. This may actually help with our networking space. Or we could use the additional room upstairs for networking, and then move everyone into the dinner space.
V. Workforce Readiness Report. Lawanna provided a report. The November 3rd meeting planning is in the works. We need to really promote the event in order to get the membership engaged and attending. Everything has been submitted to HRCI and SHRM.
VI. PR Committee Report. Samantha reported that Cathy Rodriguez is working on the Twitter account to make it an organizational account rather than a personal account. Her team met to discuss the end-of-year donations to community agencies. Would like to do a membership survey. Patti felt that a survey may not be effective. Robyn suggested that we contribute for flood relief. Samantha will check out where the money is going via Charity Navigation. Lawanna suggested that we offer members the opportunity to give feedback. We should have Greenville Literacy Association (GLA) on the list. Laura, Patti, Lawanna provided some history of the connection with GLA since 2001. ACTION ITEM: Samantha to prepare a charity giving survey for Laura to email out to membership.
Lawanna explained Periscope as a potential for advertising our meetings. It is a great branding tool of live recordings. You can do a live poll, and then broadcast live information to the world, and engage members for future events.
Discussed SHRM Foundation donation from GSHRM. Last year we gave $2500: $385 from member giving (including board member gifts), $1000 from SHRM speaker honorariums, and $1215 from GSHRM account. In 2013, we gave $4000. The SHRM Foundation fundraising effort is part of the Professional Development Committee. No one has been identified to lead this effort since Tara Saitz stepped down. ACTION ITEM: Laura to post SHRM Foundation fundraising info on website, Facebook, newsletter. We will offer $100 gift card for winner of drawing. Laura will ask Dawanda if she will purchase the gift card. Will draw winner at January meeting. Drawing will include everyone who gives $25 or more to SHRM Foundation. ACTION ITEM: Wayne to identify a GSHRM volunteer to create and pass out receipts/raffle tickets for November and December meetings.
VII. Legislative Affairs Committee Report. Ray provided the Legislative Hot Topics and the Legislative report. Robyn reviewed Ray's committee strategic plan suggestions. GSHRM has a newsletter distributed twice per month and available on the website.
VIII. Diversity & Inclusion Report. Diversity committee nominations are open. Please nominate people - the nomination process is very easy! They are looking at an event for Diversity training, a "Fireplace Chat." Looking for a location with a fireplace. Working on a budget for that. Renea Battle is interested in being a member but not a committee director.
IX. Strategic Planning. Discussed Jada Jacobs as a nominee for Diversity Committee Director. Marilyn Messer said she would volunteer for anything we need her for. We need to have bios by October 22nd to be included on the election ballot. Ray has identified Jamie Taylor but she has not yet been officially nominated. ACTION ITEM: Vernita will contact Jamie directly to ask her to fill out the nomination form. Robyn will contact Jada Jacobs, and possibly Marilyn Messer. Laura will prepare the nomination slate for the membership vote, distributed October 31st.
Robyn provided the draft of the Strategic Plan. She noted minor changes to the introduction. A small change to the vision: added the word "business" to the vision. Next time we review our bylaws, we can update the vision. We added Values (see draft for verbiage). General objectives are in our bylaws. We added the last bullet, "To expand the reach of GSHRM...(see draft)" This could be added to our bylaws. Instead of areas of concentration, we identified 3 year over-arching goals that all committees are working toward GSHRM accomplishing. The goals extend to all committees. We aligned and measured these goals (see draft) and are working to set the baseline for goals. The strategic plan should be used by the committees to develop their own goals and activities that feed into the over-arching GSHRM goals. A focus area that was added was College Relations, which falls under professional development. We can discuss at the next meeting whether to elevate the College Relations to a board position. ACTION ITEM: Robyn asked Laura to send out the Strategic Plan recommendation to the board for review, approval by email vote. Once approved, the Strategic Plan will be published on the website and sent to all members. It will be available for viewing by members and nonmembers.
Meeting location. Thornblade is the most reasonable and typically has good quality food. There were some suggestions from the HR Conference survey to return to the Marriott, or closer to downtown. Thornblade quotes are inclusive but others are not. Plan is to do breakfast, lunch, and dinner meetings. Thornblade would do $18 for lunch and breakfast, all inclusive. Dinner cost would go up to $33, all inclusive. AV charges are discounted at 50% for next year (they were free this year). Robyn recommends that we stay at Thornblade for this coming year. Vernita shared a few concerns about Thornblade. The AV has been a problem; there have been a few communications issues with Vicky; the food is decent but not always terrific. The board noted that we do not have an annual contract for Thornblade; we could start out the first quarter at Thornblade and then move to another location. Marriott may be willing to match the Thornblade price. Patti suggested that it is good to have a variety of venues. Pattie suggested that we avoid a dinner meeting in May,and don't do a 1st Tuesday meeting on Election Day in November. ACTION ITEM: Vernita will schedule meeting for Robyn, Vernita and Laura at Thornblade, Marriott. Also will meet to discuss the Transition meeting.