Board Members Present:  Danny Sands, Debra Cobb, Eric Bersh, Brian Mack, Joe Ternullo, Sarah Krug, Mary Hennings, Randy Houk, Matthew Holt, Jay Spitulnik, Dennis Reilly, Tim Blevins, Vera Rulon, Jan Oldenburg

Full attendance record available here.

Welcome

Intros from new Board members: Jay Spitulnik; Dennis Reilly; Tim Blevins; Vera Rulon.

Minutes from last board meeting: Bersh

Postponed until next meeting.

Treasurer-Membership Report : Cobb

$179,000.  Mitchell Fdn. received.  $5K sponsorship received.

Comments from Randy Houk, ED

She needs a plan to make activities happen.  Working on fundraising.  Finds meeting other Board members enormously helpful. Working on proposal co-created with Vaughn Keller. First year of fundraising is the hardest. Wants to find co-operation opportunities with other organizations. Mary and Randy collaborating on this agenda. Motion to accept proposal. Motion passed.

Marketing Committee Update: Danny

Focus this year has been on the Manifesto. Committee grew out of Galvanize group. Tracking projections to have people sign Manifesto. May not meet quotas for Q3/4. “Marketing is everything.”  Subgroup about Events (which Joe part of).  Brand refresh coming with Tim and Dennis joining group. Mary says Governance and Membership committees need to be more strongly activated. Jan updates on Patients Included. Jan would like to come to next Marketing Committee to make a presentation.

Membership Committee Update: Mary & Brian

Focuses on retaining, driving memberships. Brian discusses Town Halls. Newsletter back on monthly basis. Content deadline is the Monday before the Newsletter drops.  TH meetings now monthly. Attendance has been spotty. Marketing added to TH meeting alerts. Mary discusses member experience exercise. Wants to improve how people use data. Wants to drive people to events calendar. Danny discusses how we can best retain members. Mary would like an engagement dashboard following Tim’s question about it.

Events Task Force Update: Joe Ternullo

Joe discusses using PPT.  Events planned for 2022. Each event co-chaired with one collaborator.  Accessible in person and virtually.  Coast to coast presentations.  Joe presents a motion to move forward, including funding. Danny says these events are important to do and present a great opportunity for SPM. Sarah adds that each event ties to PM but all have different needs with different outcomes. Tim wonders if 4 different events with different needs may be too complicated and hard to plan. Danny agrees, but only if we did it in a one day conference. Since we are seeking a sponsor to work with us, we can tie their needs to ours. Joe says these events can be a marketing bonanza for us and we would learn a lot. Danny says we want the procedures around these events to be cookie-cutter. Jan asks about the budget request. Mary says past conferences cost around $20K. Mary suggests task force return to Board with a firm proposal. Joe says he can’t provide more detail until task force can speak to potential partners. Mary agrees. Matthew asks about ticket price. Danny suggests: $100. Matthew suggests partners be offered a place in all four events. Danny invites Matthew to join task force conversations. Joe says all Board members are welcome to join. Danny hopes regional events will prevent attendance barriers. Jan suggests having a working budget to present to potential sponsors. Danny says this will be hard to do early on. Best to talk to sponsors first. Mary suggests a progress report monthly with a pro forma budget and potential partner interest.

Motion:

Assuming that we can look to board members for a listing of potential sponsors and views on refining the target focus area of each event (i.e. the “who” on the previous slide, I  move that the SPM Board:

• empower the SPM Conference Task Force to advance the concepts it presented as a pre-read and in its PowerPoint presentation today, such empowerment to include a budget of $20,000 (i.e., $5,000 for each event) for project management, risk mitigation, and other expenses as the Task Force identifies
• instruct the Task Force to report its progress to the SPM Board monthly, to include a pro-forma estimate of cost/revenue, and interest on the part of potential conference partners
• given that the current Task Force members are all SPM Board Members, consistent with SPM’s prior conferences, instruct the Task Force to select among them, for each event, an “event czar” who is delegated the authority to make event-related decisions on behave of SPM, thereby enabling speed and eliminating delays that might otherwise ensue if matters were to be delayed until the next SPM Board meeting for discussion and decision

Motion seconded. Motion carried. Sarah mentions a call to action to suggest potential sponsors.

Summary

Mary: Charter needs a vote on during next meeting. A few Board members are leaving. Need to build diverse Board. Need to get an annual calendar in place. Reminder to re-post the blogs; easy way to spread the word about SPM.

Adjourned at  7:30 — Next board meeting: September 27, 2021, 6:00 – 7:30 pm ET

Respectfully submitted,

Eric N Bersh

SPM Board Secretary