Board Meeting Minutes, April 23, 2019

Board Members Present:  Helene Clayton-Deter, John Grohol, Matthew Holt, Debra Cobb, Eric Bersh, John Grohol, Jan Oldenburg, Judy Danielson, Danny Sands, Amber Soucy, Joe Ternullo, Sue Woods, Geri-Lynn Baumblatt, Sarah Krüg, Kathy Duckett

Board Members Not Present: Burt Rosen, Brian Eastwood

Committee Chair Present: Deb Gordon, Membership

Full attendance record available here.

Welcome and Level-setting                                              Danny Sands

Welcome to Eric Bersh, new secretary. Elected unanimously by the Board.  Meeting focuses on membership. Discussion of retention and growth.

Minutes from last full board meeting approved            Kathy Duckett

Treasurer’s Report (Financial and Membership)             Debra Cobb

Current bank balance: $122,000.  Number of members: 447.  Four new members in April.

Membership Report                                                         Deb Gordon

Introduction to her background.  Sends thanks to John Grohol and Debbie.  Retention critical.  Membership static (between 400 – 500/yr.).  Huge annual attrition rate. Membership Plan PowerPoint shared.  Discussed differences in retention rate, geographically.  Main discussion re: member survey (What do members value?  How to improve retention.  What annoys people?). Most important is our Value Proposition. Segmentation also important. One hypothesis: study how new members are on-boarded. Deb wants volunteers from Board and membership. There are opportunities through social media (Hear that Amber?). Geographic hub strategy very important. Discussed next steps (outlined in deck). Considering incentives and benefits.

Danny asks what should we be doing?  Survey could be a filter for evaluating various signature initiatives. Example: what if we had a “State of the Field” in participatory medicine as a white paper? Jan added that people like being in an organization they see moving forward. Need to get people involved and engaged in what Society is doing. Deborah thinks we should feed signature initiative kernels into survey. Judy asks from a competitive standpoint: is participatory medicine a unique concept? Danny concerned about adding to much to survey (scope creep). Wants to get survey moving without too much extra work for committee. Judy wants to know who is answering the survey questions?  What Society services are they aware of and participate in? What do they want more of? What is their level of satisfaction and likelihood of renewal? Deb doesn’t know what all the issues are. Asks: will the Board want to know if the answers reveal bad news?  Danny says yes. Danny says market segmentation important. Deb says survey should look at current issues, and be guide to future. Jan notes there are different needs for patients and providers. Deb asks if we should be refining our audience? Confused about what survey should focus on. Geri adds she feels more engaged because her group in Chicago meets in person, not just on Connect. Helene thought purpose of survey was to find out what was working, good or bad, and to prepare a roadmap.  Kathy not clear if survey will be used to redefine the vision of Society.  Asks: who are we focusing on? Deb answers that her intention is to gauge sentiments from members about what they like and what will keep them staying aboard.  She’s looking for patterns that survey can reveal.  Danny says in past, people were looking for resources, but that might have changed. Deb talked about conducting exit interviews. Try as a pilot. Asks: Is there a campaign that could find out why members are leaving?

Adjourn — Next board meeting: May XX, 2019 at 6 pm (new time; Danny will send out invitations)

Respectfully submitted,

Eric N Bersh

SPM Board Secretary