WASFAA Executive Council Minutes
February 21, 2014
San Diego – Handlery Hotel
Present: Mindy Bergeron, Terri Eckel, Sun Ow, Ashley Salisbury, Jeff Scofield, Leonard Walker, Jack Edwards, Frank Green, Kevin Jensen, Steve Herndon, Wendy Olson, Oscar Verduzco, Kay Soltis, Nichole Doering, Barbara Bickett, Sandi Guidry, Laura Hughes, Adam Hatch, John Bender, Catherine King-Todd, Monique Theriault, Abril Hunt, Ashley Munro, Helen Faith, Roxanne Merle, Leonard Walker,
Call to Order: 8:32
Review of Minutes from November EC meeting
Terri sent out draft of minutes back in November and has incorporated all edits. No additional edits.
Review of To Do List:
- Mindy to search for documents/minutes that substantiates that Treasurer-Elect is an officer and voting member of EC – at present, Treasurer-Elect is a non-voting member. Frank said that it would require a bylaws change and a vote of membership to change. Jack feels that it should be a voting position. To be discussed during Kevin’s President Elect report.
- Terri to check Survey Monkey for previous membership surveys and inform Steve of what she finds - DONE
E-Votes Since Last Executive Council Meeting:
1. New Ad Policy for Blog Posts. Policy proposed:
Draft: WASFAA BLOG AD POLICY:
WASFAA welcomes and invites submissions of sponsored articles, essays, photographs, information or ads of general interest to all members. Submissions should be brief and the communications committee reserves the right to edit submissions, which are subject to editorial approval. It may not be possible to publish all sponsored articles or ads submitted. Articles should be no longer than 3500 words.
Sponsored articles will be expressly attributed to the Sponsor. Articles for the Blog will remain on the Blog for 1 month.
The cost is $125 for Blog Ads/Articles and submissions received before December 31, 2013 will be available at a reduced cost of $50.
Monique makes motion to approve the Blog Ad Policy as described above.
Oscar – second
Ayes – 12
Motion passes on 11/22/13
2. Destroying/Clearing Ballot
Kevin moves to destroy ballot
Melissa – second
Discussion – Luhui amends motion and makes clarification that ballot should be “cleared” rather than “destroyed” so that the ballot template can be retained.
Frank concurs that we do mean “cleared”.
Ayes – 5(not sure that Secretary was copied on all votes)
Motion passes on 12/27/13
MEETING BEGINS
Frank congratulated new elected officers.
Ashley is representing AK and is voting member for this meeting
Adam Hatch is voting for Cathy Bio
Helen Faith is voting for Oregon President
Sandi is representing Nevada. Jesse is no longer Nevada president, he’s MIA. Scott Nielsen is Past President and is also current NV president.
FISCAL PLANNING – Wendy
Had good meeting yesterday.Reminded that budget revisions need to be approved. Can’t exceed budget – checks won’t be written if budget is depleted.
2013 budget completed – we’re doing well financially.
Treasurer’s Report - Mindy
Books have been reviewed and 2012 taxes completed. Tracy Corta has been great to work with. Review of books is done every other year. For the off year, Wendy will gather EC folks to review internally. Jeff has been great in reviewing check book and has asked a lot of great questions. We paid approx. $2800 to have taxes done and books reviewed.
We have too much money in our bank accounts – too much to be insured. We’re allowed $250K, we need to move the excess funds to either another account or another bank or perhaps move to investment. Schwab investment isn’t doing as well as we thought it would. NASFAA seems to have more money in different accounts.
Jack asked that he and Frank be informed of what Mindy learns at the NASFAA meeting on Tuesday. We want to know why WASFAA isn’t reaping the same benefits as NASFAA. Kay said she thinks that it has to do with volume. Mindy said we transferred some funds and Jack pointed out that we have the most invested in comparison to other regional associations. Wendy said in January we were down $5800 approx. That made sense as market was down and we see losses with NASDAQ, etc. Sandi asked if we are able to see other associations’ investments. Kay thinks we can’t – only ours and NASFAA. Sandi asked if states can invest with NASFAA, at present, Jack said no. Wendy said we should look at a year’s worth of history and not just one quarterly statement.
Wendy went on to explain that she looked to see if there were any adjustments for 2014 – none yet.
Wendy referenced revenue report: We’ve done well and made money in most areas with exception ofTraining – but that’s expected because we know that we need to subsidize training. Having a positive income stream is important to us. It’s definitely been a positive year in terms of keeping expenses down. And it’s great that we didn’t have to use asset reserves.
Referenced Decade Budget comparison. Wendy explained that she had to add in expenses for conference site liability. Steve reminded Wendythat it is important to project reserves. Wendy shared the calculation for calculating asset reserves:
It is WASFAA’s current policy to strive to maintain in asset reserves 2 years of the most recent 3-year average of operating expenses plus contractual obligations:
2 X $270,890= $541,780
+ $26,240 for Sister Dale Brown Summer Institute
+ $50,000 for California Conference of 2015
= $618,020.
We should have approximately $600K in reserves. We have approx. $900K, so we are in good shape.
Insurance documents need to be reviewed to insure that we have ample insurance for our association and events.
SDBSI – Nichole
Nichole proposes that there be no change to rates even though the site is less expensive. Proposed rates are:
Basic Track
Single $700
Double $575
Commuter $510
Intermediate/Clock Hour Track
Single$525
Double$400
Commuter$325
Motion to accept Nichole’s proposed SDBSI rates made by Terri
Second by Mindy
No discussion
All in favor – Motion passes
Nichole reports that June 22 – 28 are dates for SBDSI at UNR. She said there are 13 session components for CORE training. Content is about the same. Advantage is that faculty and attendees will be able to test for the NASFAA credential at no extra cost. There aren’t a lot of people taking advantage of credentialing. Hope this will help. She is still looking to fill some faculty tracks. In terms of numbers – intermediate track should glean more numbers. Kay said advertising is really important – be persistent and state presidents will need to help with this.
Wendy said she hoped that we would have great attendance at the intermediate track. Wendy wonders if they were in the intermediate track to save some $, Laura said that they really seemed to be appropriately attending the correct track. Nichole said that many of the intermediate folks had already attended the basic track. Laura said that she sees some going on to MLI.
Nichole asked about having each state represented for faculty. Still working on it and would also like to have more males. Bumps up against the NASFAA conf.
Uncashed checks – Wendy reminded everyone to cash expense checks. Fiscal Planning will work on a policy re: uncashed checks.
Steve commended Mindy and Wendy for their work on our fiscal records. Steve said EC has been budgeted $55K for meetings and EC business. Steve pointed out that we’ve tried to plan meetings far out in advance. Incoming presidents already have locations picked out and a budget to work with. Example – Barbara should have good understanding of what her budget is and why. Might warrant a conversation about that in the future and to include this issue in P & P’s.
Sandi said that presidents have to keep in mind that they inherit ½ a year’s budget when coming in.
Leonard gave history of why we’ve had to change doing conferences/meetings 4 years out. We aren’t as big as we used to be – lenders are gone. Because of the change in industry the uncertainty of numbers was too risky. HI example – we lost $18K.Now that the economy is better and we can better estimate numbers,it’s time to think about booking a few years out. Barbara and Kevin really need to talk about places for their events NOW.
Frank said EC needs to start making decisions about locations, particularly for SDBSI, and the committee chair doesn’t get to decide. Nichole said that would be a welcome relief.
Monique asked for what is needed for SBDSI. Leonard said a room for 150 people, 8 meeting rooms, and a place people to eat and sleep. CA contracts are lengthy, Reno contracts are simple, but we don’t want to continue to go to the same location every year.
Conference locations going forward:
2014- NV
2015 – CA
2016 –AK
2017 – WA
2018 – ID
2019- OR
2020 – HI
2021 – AZ
2022 - NV
Frank said that the new template for quarterly/EOY reports is on the website now. Jack reminded everyone to tie goals to SP. Jack commended Monique for her great work on her report and the way she laid things out. Jack said he’ll be using the reports to inform NASFAA for his WASFAA report.
Jack brings up the core questions that should be asked on surveys (membership, conference, etc). These were brought to Strategic Planning by Research Committee. This is a work in progress – 14 core questions were handed out. It’s tied to goal 3 for Research Committee. Steve said that he solicited surveys from the committee and also asked 3 past presidents. These need to be put in place for next year – we are trying to set precedent and establish consistency in our surveys. Frank said that these core questions need to be put in the PP.
Wendy asked if we should have a printer since we spend a lot on printing. They are pretty portable but they aren’t good for volume printing.
Motion that core questions be incorporated into PP made by Jeff
Second – Sandi
Discussion - Monique asked if we would have some additional time to review. Jack explained purpose of the questions again – consistency. Frank said that we need to decide on this today.
All in favor – motion passes
Frank asked Kevin to update PP.
STRATEGIC PLANNING – Jack
Jack wants everyone to be familiar with Appendix F. He said it’s important that everyone review and be sure that their End of Year (EOY) report is tied to Strategic Plan. SBDSI will need to submit theirs ASAP after the event is over.
Frank reiterated that the EOY reports are VERY important to us. He broke everyone up into groups so that everyone is familiar with the new format. Frank said that the format is new, but if it isn’t working, please let Research Committee know.
Jack said that not all committees are included on App F. That’s OK, but if you do have a goal on your report that does have some measure associated with it, be sure to include those metrics. Steve said that there would be some additional edits to App F and he’ll update, send to Jack and Jack will redistribute to everyone via email.
Sandi asked - are we doing both quarterly and EOY? Only EOY EXCEPT for SDBSI and Conference. Those events won’t be done at the time these are due, so those committees should do quarterly and then follow up with EOY at later date.
Kay recommends that Appendix F be attached to our reports for easier access.
TO DO - Jack needs to add APP F to quarterly and EOY reports.
Jack said measure tracking tool is not quite updated yet. If anyone wants to make an amendment to reports already submitted, go ahead and revise and send out to EC but be clear about the fact that it’s a revision.
Monique asked if the final report should be condensed or should it have everything. Jack said the EOY report should have all of the detail. Frank concurred. He said that committee chairs glean a lot from what has been done in the past. Keeps us stronger as an association.
MLI – Kay
MLI was a fantastic event. Kay reviewed survey results from past events. Didn’t feel like they were getting enough bang for their buck. Survey results for this MLI were better and it was affirming to hear the good feedback. Attendees received great materials and “Now You’re the Director” book. Mary Stan Augustin printed the materials and it didn’t cost WASFAA anything. They utilized all of the time for training – even dinner for etiquette training. They asked attendees to NOT bring their computers. Wendy asked if thumb drives aren’t working these days because they forget about them. Had 2 guest speakers and they provided great handouts/powerpoint.One was on HR and one was on at risk students. Wendy commented that it’s good to see our numbers up. Attendees stayed because they had evening activities to do. There were several commuters who chose to stay because of those activities.
Training – Adam
He’s got some survey info to breakdown and analyze. He brought in $3K with fall training. Mindy asked about training manual. Adam said it is being worked on and he’s been discussing with Steve.
Terri brought up issue with Survey Monkey(SM). Terri explained that it’s a nuisance to have to hand off and change signon and password to Past President when elections are held. Often a training survey needs to be conducted at the same time that the elections are being held. Terri suggested 2 SM accounts if it isn’t cost prohibitive.
Kevin looked into SM options online and suggested another version of SM that might serve our needs. SM Enterprise accommodates an association. It’s $65/user/month. This has all of the analytics that we’d need. He thinks it is a good investment.
Jeff said that it seemed reasonably priced to just have two of what we have now.
TO DO – Ashley to research SM capabilities and we’ll bring this back to Fiscal Planning for vote.
Adam said that this should be resolved because we’ll always have this issue.
Jeff asked if it’s a nominal fee, does it really have to go to FP and EC?Steve said it will be critical next year because of the membership survey, and diversity component of that survey.
Sandi suggested that we use survey monkey for EC votes. Frank said he’d have to learn how to do that.
Sandi said that there may only be a need for 2 EC members – Secretary and Past President.
Wendy said that it would be cheaper to have 2 separate SM accounts rather than the Enterprise version. Unsure as to how much we are paying now. Mindy said May to May is $200/yr.
Jack suggested that we only pay for additional SM for Nov/Dec for elections. Frank asked that FP work on a proposal and to put on agenda for April mtg.
CONFERENCE – Sandi
95 registrants now. Agenda will go out next week. Expect jump in registrants when agenda out. WASFAA wasn’t approved for NASFAA training. We’ll have 4 ED trainers. Jeff Baker has not committed yet. Bruce Honer and another ED trainer have confirmed. They are doing 6-10 sessions. Selected charity is CASA. Still need to figure out what we’ll do with proceeds for silent auction. Justin will be there on Sunday.
Frank’s last EC meeting will be Saturday morning. Tentatively SP 8-9 FP 9-10. EC from 10-5.May have guests from NASFAA.
Leonard needs to know whether Kevin needs a room for his transition meeting.
Newcomers session will be at noon on Sunday. Frank will assign seats for lunch so that his EC mingles with newcomers.
Awards/Scholarships – Laura
Has 4 applications already for scholarships
Nichole – brought up issue with limitations for her with travel. Her school will not cover registration and airfare.Wendy asked if she needs to be there any earlier than Friday night.
Sandi said that bags and badges need to be finalized.
Sandi suggested that the State Presidents take charge of silent auction. Kay is facilitating this. Plan is to have each state president secure 3 items and each EC member must bring a minimum of 2 items. State president will communicate that to EC members from their state. Kay is working on form that will be given to donators for tax purposes. Effort to formalize what’s been provided will be included on spreadsheet. CC payment will be accepted and checks. No cash. Items should be sent to Nick at Truckee Meadows.
Jack asked if perishable items can be shipped directly to the hotel in our names. Sun said yes. Sandi prefers that people send their things ahead of time, but if you bring with, complete Kay’s formal form and have photo as well.
Monique suggested using the “Drop Box” rather than having to maintain an Excel spreadsheet. Kay and Mindy said that may be hard for some because they don’t know how to use Drop Box.
Mindy has the squares from last year for CC payment.
Kay said State presidents asked if there was a way for people who aren’t at the conference to bid on auctions. Not really… they can designate someone to bid on their behalf.
People need to pay for and pick up their auction items that evening. Laura asked if there is a plan b if they don’t pick up. They were shifted to registration table in AZ. So do that again? They’ll figure out a plan in Reno.
Jeff asked what will we do with the proceeds? Last year 10% went to charity and the rest went to scholarships. Jeff said OK, but we need to award scholarships if we do that.