(16:00 EST, via conference call)
First joint meeting of the current and incoming board of directors.
Proceedings:
- Meeting called to order at 16:00 EST by Secretary, Livia Labate
- Board Members Present: Russ Unger, Andrea Resmini, Livia Labate, Christian Crumlish, Jeff Parks, Dan Klyn, Shari Thurow, Dorian Taylor, Ian Fenn
- Staff Present: Tim Bruns, Noreen Whysel
Introducing the 2010-2012 Members of the Board of Directors
Ian Fenn, London, UK
Dan Klyn, Michigan, USA
Jeff Parks, Ottawa, Canada
Dorian Taylor, Vancouver, Canada
Shari Thurow, Illinois, USA
Beginning on October 1, the five new board members will join Andrea Resmini, who serves on the board through October 2011.
Roles and Responsibilities
Today’s meeting focused on reviewing roles and responsibilities of the board of directors. Russ explained he’s been president also focusing on events, working through planning and issues for IDEA 2010. Russ also noted that we decided that Executive Director position wasn’t providing us with the value we needed so we terminated it.
Livia explained that she’s Secretary (responsible for organizing and collecting minutes for board meetings) and took on Treasurer position once Jonell stepped down earlier this year to ensure the streamlining of financial tasks and back-office activities was completed in preparation for the new board (rather then holding special elections for treasurer who would have require significant on-boarding). Livia will compile a detailed document to assist the new Treasurer in their transition.
Christian explained that his role became a member services focused role, trying to stay on top of questions, issues and concerns of the membership, helping route the right people to resolve them. Christian also took some of the treasury duties when Jonell stepped off such as international wire transfers. Currently working with Nicola on alternative option to our membership system (transitioning from MemberClicks to aMember systems)
Andrea explained he’s been involved with two key initiatives: the Volunteer wiki and the Journal of Information Architecture, focusing specifically in making the IA Institute visible in the academic environment. Andrea will share document that describes board members fiduciary responsibilities.
Jeff brought up the idea for all to meet and discuss transition during the IDEA conference in Philadelphia. Russ reinforced that having a retreat would be highly advisable for the new board to get started, and recommended using some of the past board members for facilitating.
Noreen described how she started as a member in 2003 and in 2005 when the institute was looking for someone overseeing operations she took on that role. Tim described how he started in last February to help with membership management and working with Christian on the initiative to have a more cohesive back-end and front-end membership systems. Tim responds to any issues that happen during member registration.
Shari asked about who has oversight over the website (IT responsibility). Christian explained it is currently shared by the board but that is not a recommended approach.
Initiatives
Noreen is collecting a summary of initiatives to share with all so we can go through each initiative during our next call.
Transition Plan
Most important: transferring bank ownership, accountant details, supporting strategies
Next: choose roles
Board Member Will Evans has resigned. Christian described the need for the new board to consider if a special election will be necessary or if the number of board members is sufficient for this term (see by-laws, the number can be variable. As long as there is a Treasurer, Secretary and President, no other directors are required by law, thought they may help fulfill the mission of the institute. This decision is entirely up to the board of directors).
Recommend reading the by-laws. You have the power to change it, recommend doing so early. http://iainstitute.org/documents/iai_bylaws.pdf
Pay attention to the election process given that some of the membership seems unhappy with the current process. Also worthwhile considering alternatives that can help the board process, for example, proposing candidates to run for a particular role, etc
Invite advisors; either by consensus or individually.
Livia pointed out in response to Ian that there should not be any reasonfor impeding people from becoming Treasurer now who live outside the US. We are transitioning a lot of the minutia and clerical activities to Supporting Strategies (back-office management firm), but advised that we have not had luck with banks and if there is a better banking option with an institution that may have better communication, specially with a group distributed geographically, that the new board might want to consider that transition.
Christian offered to have 1:1 conversations with departing board members and recommended that all do the same as a way to get acquainted with the various aspects of the directors’ roles. Livia seconded that this approach was helpful in the past.
Livia recommended considering the pace of the board communications (how comfortable people are with keeping discussions alive through basecampe and email, versus having more frequent meetings, etc). Asked all to post when would be a convenient time to meet in the future. For the remainder of this boards’ term the meetings will occur on Mondays, 4pm EST.
Next Steps
- New board will read the by-laws and collect any questions for the next meeting.
- Andrea will share the document with board information and all new board members will review and collect any questions for next meeting
- Noreen will finish compiling the document with initiative status for review during next meeting and making any updates to the inventory of systems used by the IA Institute.
- New board members will start thinking about positions and how to select President, Secretary and Treasurer soon.
Meeting adjourned at 16:56 EST
Minutes submitted by Secretary, Livia Labate.
