TxGAP Board Retreat
Monday, February 1, 2016
Austin Marriot South: Austin, TX
Attended: Dana Mordecai, Melissa Williams, Andrea Yen, Alounda Joseph, Matt Painter, Philip Guerrero, Rebecca Gavillet, Stephanie O. Larralde
Absent: Janeen Wood
______
8:40am- Dana called the meeting to order.
8:40-9:00am- We discussed the importance of using our google drive. Everyone must start saving everything there.
9:00am-9:20am- Tour of the hotel site for Summer Institute
9:20- Goals for the Year Suggestions:
- Melissa would like to have a board member spotlight. She would like to drive more content to our members. Potentially start with Rebecca since she is committee chair of the summer institute. She wants to make us more relatable to our members. She also feels that we should spend a little more to give to our presenters to show them how much we appreciate them.
- Philip would like to see a professional development certificate. Making a 3 to 4 year project. Leadership certificate or for serving in a committee a year. Potentially give a certificate to everyone who attends a webinar. He would also like to see more follow through from the board. He also suggested getting an administrative calendar so that we can be held accountable. Stephanie mentioned that she could work on creating the calendar and assigning the tasks at our deadlines.
- Alounda would like to set some active goals to increase membership. We would also like to see who our members are and who we should recruit.
- Dana mentioned we need to look at our website. Currently we only have space for 500 contacts and 10 administrators and we are at the limit so we need to do some clean up. Dana suggested that Melissa and Janeen need to get together to get schedule this out. She also wants to see us decide the next conference early enough to announce at our Summer Institute. She also suggested that we need to update our by-laws, specifically the Travel policy along with adding another face-to-face meeting for the board.
- Goals in a nutshell:
- Increase relationship and connection to our members. (Board Spotlight & Educational Content)
- Recruit more members.
- Grow accountability and structure of the executive board. (Administrative Calendar)
10:00am- Conference Call with EPS
They have provided presentations to conferences and blog content.
EPS Background- They have been around for 25 years and they provide recruitment resources. Lead generation, communication plans, research projects, copy design, and video editing.
How have they have worked with NEGAP in the past? They have done blogs and presentations on lead generation and best practices. On the website they helped with the design of the website and they also videoed their presentation and provided it to their members.
How was content decided? They did an audit of their website and then decided what content was needed. Whoever was responsible for the website was responsible for posting their content. They do not get administrative access. They send ideas of content and we get to choose if that is relevant. They suggest we need to provide more education to our members.
Discussion of proposal:
Board feels we need to counter to get more than $1,000 because our platinum sponsor for conference is $1,500. Potentially $2,000 or $2,500. We also want to know what we are getting from them exactly. We feel that maybe they can expand and recruit more members for us through a communication plan with the list that the Research Committee is developing.
Takeaway:
Dana willrequest email and video examples of the content from EPS and from NEGAP. The board will vote on partnering with them on the next phone conference (1st week of March).
11:00am- NAGAP Grant Administration
We were to create a new membership packet. Do we need a brochure of who we are and what we do? Does it have to be a brochure or can it be a digital copy. Board decided that we should print something so that we have something physical to take to events and give it out.
Addressing the enforcement of the membership of NAGAP and TXGAP. What we decided is we are going to include NAGAP in print piece, and the new member packet, and in our custom question of membership form.
New membership packet promotional item:
Board decided that we should not get a TxGAP pin. It was suggested that maybe a note pad or something different. Board also suggested that maybe we can give the members options of what they would like to give. Board would like the membership committee to come up with options for a promotional item. The budget initially will be approximately $750.00.
Takeaway:
Melissa will make the brochure to give to prospective members. Janeen will come up with some options of promotional items to give to new members.
12:32-Financial Review
Dana mentioned that we need a financial report each month. She would also like a review/reconciliation at the end of the year in regards to charges and receipts. Melissa suggested creating a folder on google drive to put receipts. The CPA will do an audit at the end of the year, not only taxes. We would also like to see a budget created. Alounda has a template and will send to Philip.
Currently we have $10,613.32 in the bank and only $176.39 in PayPal.
State Tax Exemption Plan
We need to finalize our plan. We need to get with Jerry Love our CPA to get everything straightened. out. We have been getting paid back for all our state taxes that we have been paying but we still need to go back and get more state taxes back that we paid.
Takeaway:
Philip will submit monthly financial report/ reconciliation to board for approval. Dana and Philip will work on the budget. Alounda will send email to Jerry (copy Dana and Philip) and get the process starting in getting back the taxes and finalizing everything.
1:00pm- Administration Review
Board Succession Plan
The charter states that the term of each board member was to be 3 years after the initial elections so we reviewed our succession plan and made a minor adjustment to the treasurer’s term that had not been updated to 3 years.
By-Law Review
NAGAP sent us policies that we need to abide by therefore we need to do a by-law review. We do need to add a “Conference Chair” to our by-laws. Dana is going to forward to us the merged document of policies and our bylaws and we need to review within the next 30 days.
1:30pm- Committee Review
Professional Development Committee
Matt mentioned that the PD committee is currently in limbo. He hasn’t been able to contact Marcus on the webinar platform. The forums hasn’t really taken off like we wanted it to. He has received contact from some of our members in their interest in being on the PD committee but hasn’t reached out to them because he is at a standstill. Dana suggested and board agreed that maybe we can take a different approach with professional development this year which would be to assist the Conference Committee with the review of proposals for presentations.
Takeaway:
The professional development committee will assist with the screening and support the presentations for the summer institute for this year.
Research Committee
Andrea showed us what they have been working on which is a tool on Tableau that shows all the universities in Texas that offer graduate degrees. If they are public, private, non-profit, for profit and if they offer masters or doctoral degrees or both. The board also decided that we could promote this data at our chapter meeting at NAGAP.
Takeaway:
Dana asked Andrea to see if she can come up with a disclaimer on the data and if changes are needed then to email our general email account. The board would also like to see this grow into who are these people? Get contact info…and who is a member and who is not.
Marketing/Communication Committee
Dana suggested getting a member to start assisting with all the marketing and communication tasks. The board suggested maybe having the committee handle social media posts, member highlights, and the creation of a communication calendar.
2:30pm- Summer Institute Committee
Rebecca had her first committee meeting last week. There were 10 on the call and 12 showed interest. They will be using google docs to save everything in the Summer 2016 folder. The only committee that doesn’t have members is sponsors. All members have to help with registration. Some members will be presenting and were encouraged to find a colleague to present. Rebecca challenged the board to find at least 1 person to present or present ourselves. Both Rebecca and Melissa came up with some communication deadlines. Feb. 11 & 23rd focusing on presentation proposals since deadline is Feb. 29th. Matt would like to review all the proposals at the same time. Dana would like registration to open up before NAGAP so that we can present that to everyone. In March, Rebecca will have more concrete ideas by then. She plans to meet with the committee once a month and once with every committee and as needed. It was also suggested that during the Summer Institute we should break up and have a committee meeting to learn more about the committees. Stephanie will edit the Scholarship Application and the rubric. Dana will be contacting sponsors. Rebecca will look for some options for an off-site event on Thursday. The board doesn’t have a preference if on site or off site.
Next Phone Conference: Wednesday, March 2nd @ 2:00pm
3:15pm- Meeting Adjourned