Participants:  Dave deBronkart, Judy Danielson, Peter Elias, Nancy Finn, Sarah Krüg, Janice McCallum, Jan Oldenburg, Burt Rosen, Danny Sands, Joe Ternullo

Minutes from October 23, 2018 meeting approved.

Leadership for 2018 – Crunch Time                   Danny and Joe

Board members need to recommend or self-nominate candidates for members-at-large.

Strongest need is for president-elect and treasurer candidates. Danny has talked to a few potential candidates, but none so far have time to take on the responsibilities for next year.

Judy recommends Vera Rulon for Pres-elect. Janice has reached out to Marie Maloney, but Marie is so busy through month of January that they haven’t been able to connect.

Nancy suggests we look at past-presidents and see if anyone may be able to step in to be President-elect next year.

Governance/By-laws                                    Danny            

Dave Dolton- hasn’t been able to contribute as board member, but has put some time into learning more about governance and its importance to S4PM. Dave will leave the board next year & may return after a year.

Need someone to lead the effort to update bylaws. Lynda Mitchell has offered to help & has experience with small and large non-profit boards. Sue met her at the conference & had a chance to talk to her.

Nancy Finn mentioned her husband, a lawyer, would be happy to review the bylaws from a purely legal perspective.

Judy also recommends Mary Hennings, who has done this type of work in past.

Executive Director Hiring Plans                                  Danny/Joe     

Danny thinks we’re ready to hire part-time (one-half time) executive director. We have the funds and may be ready for this now. Hiring from within our existing board (or previous board) is under consideration.

Before we start the hiring process, we need to generate the job description. Danny wants someone to help manage corporate/fundraising and project manage our activities. In other words, job description should have a heavy focus on development.

Sarah cautions that we need to learn from our previous experience: we tried a part-time exec director, then a development director (fundraising); neither worked out. We should be very careful about defining responsibilities. Sarah suggests we select someone who knows S4PM and our space. Fundraising capabilities will be crucial if we want to achieve sustainability.

Nancy recommends carefully consider how we’re going to vet the candidates. The job description has to be clear about fundraising requirements.

Dave deBronkart commented that institutional knowledge is important. He suggests taking a step back and chatting with a consultant to get insight to write the job description.

Burt suggests that the most important attribute is that they’ve served in a similar capacity before.

Learning Exchange–Last, next, and future, needs   Sarah           

Have 1 more planned for end of the year (has subsequently been postponed). Grace & Joe will be co-moderators for 6th, which will be some time in early 2019.

Danny emphasizes that we need to solicit sponsorships for 2019.

Sarah raises the more fundamental question of whether we should we continue the Learning Exchange into 2019.

Town Hall Meeting — Review and Need to Participate Peter               

Peter reports that we haven’t had a good turnout from board members. Maximum has been 3 board members at any one town hall meeting. Usually, it’s just Peter & Danny.

Peter commented that the board was enthusiastic about the Town Hall as a means to communicate to membership in unstructured way. It’s disappointing that the enthusiasm hasn’t translated into participation.

Janice & Sarah both recommend that we review all initiatives and decide which ones we retain and which we eliminate before we decide to eliminate the town halls.

Sarah adds that the original plans for Learning Exchange was to engage members, just as the Town Hall meetings were. We need to focus on what members care most about and prioritize those activities over other activities, rather than continuing to plan and executive activities that aren’t attracting very many members.

SPM2018 Redux and 2019 Planning                            Joe/Sarah/Sue

Conference was great. Had debriefing call on the conference. Among the discussion topics, the possibility of latching on to different events and holding multiple conferences around the country was brought up.

Burt: manifesto content is really good. The output will be great, since it represents what we stand for.

Joe announced that we should get an accounting recap in early December.

2018 Year-In-Review — Please Add To Document   Danny/Joe   

The purpose of the document is to review accomplishments, so that we can communicate broadly how much we accomplished. Ideally, the list will go out with the President’s letter.

Board Retreat Date and Agenda: Jan 26-27            Burt                 

We are trying to nail down dates & location soon.

Adjourn — Next board meeting December 11, 2018 at 4:00 pm, combined with Exec Committee meeting.

Respectfully submitted,
Janice McCallum
SPM Board Secretary