Members Present: Mary Hennings, Danny Sands, Randy Houk, Joe Ternullo, Debra Cobb, Vera Rulon, Judy Danielson, John Grohol, Jay Spitulnik, Dennis Reilly, Tim Blevins, Kistein Monkhouse
Full attendance record available here.
Welcome: Mary
Brand Purpose report: Dennis, Judy, Tim
Priorities
How do they align with our brand purpose? Equity, Education, Engagement are the foci. Grow membership, raise money, raise value of SPM are internal goals. Goal today is to group priorities by 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Joe adds these look like “a thousand points of light.” There are 14 projects under consideration. No notes on Workshops project. Delete explore hypotheses (from Tim). Just an idea he was playing around with. Reduces to 12 initiatives under consideration. Judy asks are any criteria more important than others? Mary says membership, funding (margin & mission). Judy says funding should be priority #1. Some projects tied to funding sources already. Must be nimble to move to next project if 1st fails.
#1 – Outreach to underserved communities (Randy). Highly important. Not ready to go. Makes mission sense, but not for margin. Grant possibility ($100K) from Robert Wood Johnson. Could be in 1st priority position. Is project scalable? Yes. Could partner with WGBH; work with Eric and Kistein; work with students at colleges. Board agrees it belongs in #1 position.
#2 – Mini events (Joe). PPT proposal ready. Looking at prior sponsors as new sponsors. Joe feels this is a #1 project. Judy says this is tangible and real. Will be a big lift. Danny says this hits on many of our core focuses and may not be as big a lift as we think. Brian thinks these events are important but we may not be able to do all in 2022. Tim asks what has ROI been financially with members. Danny says good. Tim thinks we should commit to two events. Value/Impact/Difficulty chart supplied by Dennis. Mary will distribute an Excel version.
Lively discussion about prioritizing all 12 projects. Decide on one or two right now and review the rest later. Randy and Mary will do a proposal for the other projects next week with Exec. Committee and report back to Board. Mary will reach out to Board for ideas.
Minutes from last meeting: Bersh
Approved.
Communication Channels – Sands
How do we want to communicate with each other? Email? We are paying for Connect. Slack? Danny likes Slack. John says differ people use different channels. Be judicious in how we use any channel. Danny says email him with your preference. Danny will teach anyone with the method decided.
Compliance Activities – Hennings
Joe, Debby, Mary met to go over issues. Will need to meet with our lawyer (Karen Wu). Getting ready to accept grants.
Fundraising: Hennings
Matching grant of $2,500 on the table (anonymous). Mary hoping Board can make donations to help raise the match. Board needs to show active participation. Randy says grantors want to know how much Board contributes to the organization (what’s our “skin in the game”). Tim says grantors want to know how many contribute, rather than how much. Challenge is to end of 2021. Use the “Donate” button on the website.
Membership Committee Report: Hennings
Wants to hire an assistant for Brian to help Newsletter produced and Town Halls organized. Spitulnik will take request to ACAT to ask for an assistant. Danny asks about Community Manager on Connect. Related? Brian says maybe. Mary says this is a different skill set. Danny moves that we adopt this idea. Unanimously agreed.
Committee Chairs Open: Hennings
Eric, Mary, Randy, Joe dropped off meeting call while voting considered. Danny concludes meeting.
Adjourned at 7:35 — Next meeting: December 21, 2021, 6:00 – 7:30 pm ET
Respectfully submitted,
Eric N Bersh
SPM Board Secretary
