September 2011 Minutes

UAA  Board Meeting  Minutes

September 15, 2011

Participants

Executive Committee:   Paula Goddard (Co-Chair) , Ann Van Dusen (Co;Chair). Nancy Tumavick (Secretary), George Hill (Treasurer), Carol Peasley, John Lovaas, Curt Farrar,  David Cohen, Gary Merritt

Guests: Jim Michel, Terry Brown, Larry Smucker

Dates recorded

1. Minutes. The August 18, 2011 Board Meeting minutes were circulated, with comments incorporated.  The minutes were approved, and will be posted on the website and into the googledoc archiving system.

2. Financial Report. The Treasurer submitted the following report.  It will be updated as of September 30 to be submitted at the October 13 Executive Committee Meeting and presented at the AGM.  The referenced spreadsheet of financial transactions for 2011 is attached to these Minutes.

Treasurer’s Report – 2010

• The USAID Alumni Association (UAA) had two sources of income during 2010.  Over 125 members made membership contributions during the year.  About the same number of members attended the Annual General Meeting and paid $40 per head to defray costs of lunch and rental of the Clarendon Ballroom in Arlington, VA for the meeting.  The UAA ended 2010 with a cash balance of $8,618.78. (NOTE: our bank account currently holds $12,700.)

• The Association incurred four types of costs during the year.  Three different interns worked for UAA at an aggregate cost of $5,162.94.  We incurred $1,107 in costs for the UAA website.   This covered costs of a webmaster, rental of space on a commercial server and costs of registration of our IP address and web name.  The Annual General Meeting cost $5,353.15 for the meeting site, lunch and audio-visual services.  The contributions collected at the door covered nearly all of these costs.  The Association incurred a one-time expense for our application to the IRS for consideration as a 501 c (3) organization.  The application was approved in May 2011.

• When UAA opened its banking account with the Lafayette Federal Credit Union, $50.00 was deposited into a savings account.  That savings account earned $.08 for the year and now totals $50.16.

The attached spreadsheet details the UAA financial transactions for the year.
George A. Hill, Treasurer, UAA

3. Intern Interviews. The panel headed by Ann Van Dusen, George Hill, David Cohen, and Carol Peasley interviewed the two top candidates, Kristina Short and Monika Koszalka, who had relevant and very similar skills and experience. It was suggested that Meredith speak with both candidates and provide her commentary after which the interview panel is authorized by the Board to proceed to select the candidate and to make the offer of employment.  In order to provide overlap with Meredith and to participate in the AGM, the candidate is to begin ASAP with at least an October overlap with Meredith.

• The formal supervisor of the intern will be one of the Board’s Co-Chairs with the understanding that the intern is meant to provide general support to the Executive Committee members. If demands compete for her time, the supervisor will decide on priorities.

4. Survey Follow Up.

• To date, 66 responses to the membership survey have been received. To elicit broader response, Meredith is requested to send one more email reminder to the Constant Contact paid up members group with a closing date of Sept 25. Hard copies of the summarized responses with the additional response commentary were distributed. General Board discussion of the rather extensive commentary against each of the survey questions was precluded by time limitations. It was decided that each Committee Chair/Co-Chair should select specific survey questions and responses to incorporate in their respective agendas for the AGM Committee breakout sessions. Final discussion of the Committee selections will take place at the Oct 13 Executive Committee Meeting to assure that all important items are included.

• It was noted by Gary Merritt that increased efforts need to be made by the Membership Committee to gain additional listings on the Constant Contact list as well as to increase the number of dues paying members.  The numbers have stagnated.

5. Newsletter and Website.

Newsletter.  The September/October edition of the newsletter needs to be emailed to the Constant Contact list NLT the second week of October to ensure members have additional information regarding the AGM. The following Executive Committee contributions are to be provided to Meredith by October 4 to meet that deadline:

• Brief AGM break out agenda to be submitted by each Committee Chair/Co-Chair

• Based on results of the second email on the membership survey, John and Ann are to draft notes to be included.

• Profile candidate Pamela Baldwin to be contacted by Nancy for her submission

• Brief statement that, during the AGM morning session, David Cohen will provide an introduction to the new UAA Website

Website. David Cohen provided a brief update on the status of the new website. He noted that the Forum feature is not being used although it is functional. In addition, he asked that others, particularly on the Development Issues Committee, provide articles, links and Forum comments on the site..

6. Board Election. The following list of the eight UAA Board candidates was distributed at the meeting: Frank Almaguer, Gary Bisson, Jim Michel, Patrick Rader, George Hill, Alexander Shakow, Margaret Carpenter, and David Sprague. It was noted that only David Sprague had not yet submitted a statement; Nancy will send him a reminder. As decided in the August meeting, the Excom confirmed that online voting will be opened in early Oct and closed two or three days before the AGM to allow confirmation that online voters were dues paying members and to tally votes. Voting will resume at the AGM.

7. Annual General Meeting.

(a) The discussion was brief since a special Board Meeting has been scheduled on Oct 6 to focus on all last minute planning and decisions. In addition, a subsequent logistics planning session will be scheduled based on the availability of Linda Whitlock-Brown who has volunteered again this year to organize the setup and operation of the AGM.  The following specific actions were assigned:

1. Confirm Shah participation and time                           Action: Terry Brown
2. Contact Shah speech writer to offer suggestions        Action: Ann
3. Contact Janet B. to confirm books and logistics         Action: Ann
4. Confirm Linda W. availability for Oct 6 session         Action: Terry Brown

(b) The Board also briefly discussed the need to clarify the roles of the various committees including the Development Issues Committee and the new Communications and Events Committee. As meeting Chair, Paula tabled the discussion on the committee structure and respective roles of the committees  for longer consideration at the next Board meeting to assure clarity for the AGM presentations and discussions.

8. Other.

Brochure: A Board decision is needed on the proposal that was submitted by Judith Willard.  General comments included a question of the high design cost of $600 given that text is already available on the website. Whether additional proposals will be solicited was not decided.  It was suggested that samples of Willard’s work be requested by Pamela.

Executive Committee Mtg with USAID: Jim Michel gave a verbal presentation of his written report of the Sept 6 meeting between UAA members and USAID/PPL. Participants included USAID Susan Reichle, Chris Milligan, Terry Brown (by phone), and  UAA members Curt Farrar, David Cohen, Jim Michel.  Notes of the meeting are attached to these minutes.

Next Board Meeting: The next regular UAA Board Meeting will take place on October 13 at Tetra Tech in Rosslyn from 10:30 to 12:00.

Attachments:

UAA 2010 Bank Summary
UAA September 6, 2011 Meeting with USAID/PPL (Notes)

Drafted 9.24.11: Nancy M. Tumavick, Secretary of the Board
Edited: 9.27.11: David Cohen