Region 2 Steering Committee Minutes

June 5, 2009

Teleconference

In attendance:  Carolyn Quinci, Karen Law, Bruce Norris, JoAnn Credle, Todd Siben, Joann Conlon, Frances Rogers, Kathie Sindt, Paula Dollarhide, Linda Bradbury (Note: Janine Warnas submitted a report since she could not attend)

Absent:  Greg Bosworth

 

•  Summary from the Region Conference:  Carolyn reported that we had 216 attendees and a significant profit.  We came in under expected expenses with regard to internet and food costs.  We had a 61% response rate to the conference evaluation and most comments were good or excellent.  Significant comments that were received included not having it at a gambling location, include a heartier breakfast, have sessions be only 1 hour instead of 1:15, consider having fewer sessions at the same time, and possibly going to two full days.  It was thought to be a good event for networking. 
• Preparation for the 2010 Conference:  The site will be the Tropicana Hotel in Atlantic City, NJ on April 14-16, 2010.  Linda reported that the rooms will be in the Havana Tower and they already have a list of potential volunteers.
• Status of 2011 Conference:  We decided at the meeting held at the regional conference that we would move forward with the Charlottesville site.  Richard let us know that we are asking for April 6-8, 2011 at the Doubletree Hotel in Charlottesville, VA.  The site is located in the middle of suburbia, strip mall, but he thought that the hotel would consider running a shuttle to the main sites in town during the conference.  At the time of the June Meeting, the Executive Office had not yet contacted the hotel to begin the contract.
• State Reports:
• MD – Karen reported that she had just finished a Drive-In with about 100 attendees.  She was confident there would be a profit, but did not how much.
• VA – JoAnn Credle hopes to have a Drive-In in 2010 in the northern VA area.
• NJ – Todd is working with Julie Traxler – who is running the NJ Drive-In at Rutgers this year.  He thought they were expecting a good turn-out.  (To be held on June 9, 2009)
• PA – Joann is looking into having a PA Drive-In in Scranton or Bucknell area.  Timeline?
• DE – Frances hopes to do a Drive-In in 2010.
• DC – Greg was not present
• State Rep Handbook:  Kathie did forward to state reps before the meeting the handbook that Kristen DiNovi and Linda Bradbury put together.  People had not had a chance to look at it.
• Mentoring Program:  Bruce reported that he had 15 mentor/mentee pairs at the conference and that he thought the reception was well-received.  Bruce would like to have space on the region website to discuss/advertise the mentoring program.
• Membership report:  Janine could not attend the meeting, but she submitted a report and a request.  She requested that we change the name of the student grant to the Region 2- Student Conference Grant.  We all agreed that made sense.  She also would like web space on the website for the Membership Chair.
• Budget update:  Kathie reported that based on Carolyn’s projected profit from the Regional Conference and the fact that we did not spend all of the award budget – that we should be good in the next year.  At the national level, regions have been approved to carry over higher balances into the next year instead of giving so much back to the Executive Office. 
• Discussion of the cost of certificates and holders.  The rising cost of certificate holders and the number that we never get to the presenters came up for discussion.  We decided that after the regional conference, the state reps would send an email to the presenters and thank them.  For the Annual Conference, the Region Chair would send a letter instead of the certificates.  However, for the Best of Region – we agreed that it would be good to continue the practice of the Region Chair going to the session and presenting them with certificates at that time.
• Leadership Info online:  Kathie asked everyone to send her updates/photos for the leadership page on our website.
• ByLaws review:  At our last meeting, Bruce had agreed to review the by-laws of the different regions and see how they compared to ours.   Bruce wrote up a nice document comparing them and pointed out all the discrepancies within our own.  We all agreed that the part about filling vacancies should be different than the current wording.  We would start the new person in their first full term and this person would be elected (if more than one person wanted the position).  They could then choose if they wanted a second term, for example.  We also need to clarify that we will advertise open positions for a period of time, and then if only one person wants the position, we would not run an election, just appoint them.  If more than one person was interested, then we would run an election.  Kathie will edit the bylaws (some extensive changes are needed), run them by the steering committee, and then present them at the Region 2 business meeting at the Annual Conference.
• Future activities:  We discussed continuing to improve the region website.  In addition, we agreed to kill any state listservs that are listed as available and create a region listserv that anyone can access to ask questions of the region.  Kathie will inquire about how to do this.

 

(Compiled by Kathie Sindt)