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From our Community Blog:

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes: February 10, 2023

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Meeting date/time: Friday, February 10, 2023 at 1pm Eastern
Attendees: Dash Kees, Kiera Howe, Reed Piernock, Eric Sembrat
Invited: L. Danielle Baldwin, Ed Beck, Rachel Cherry, Phil Crumm, Dash Kees, Kiera Howe, Reed Piernock, Eric Sembrat

Goals

  • Charter the committee for the 2023 conference.
  • Schedule monthly meetings.
  • Finalize publication procedure for board meeting minutes.
  • Establish term limits for each board member.
  • Determine email address guidance, website, and social media access.
  • Assign research tasks.
  • Assign announcement tasks.

Agenda

Roll Call

  • Note attendees of this meeting (in the Details section above), and list any absences.
  • Decide if and/or how to include members of the general public in the list of attendees.

Approval of Minutes

  • Review, correct, and approve the minutes from the previous meeting.

Old Business

  • Discuss unresolved action items from the previous meeting.
  • These will be briefly listed here, and discussed and/or assigned later in the meeting.

Reports or Presentations

None for this meeting.

New Business

  • Charter the committee for the 2023 conference.
    • The new Bylaws regulate the forming of committees. Organizational planning has begun for the 2023 conference. Discuss the procedure for chartering the conference committee, and finalize the decision.
  • Schedule monthly meetings.
    • The Board will meet at least monthly. Discuss the best day and time for these meetings, so they are consistent (with flexibility as necessary).
  • Finalize publication procedure for board meeting minutes.
    • Board meetings are open to the general public. Minutes from these meetings need to be published and accessible from the WPCampus.org website. Discuss the best format for these minutes (blog post, PDF, etc.)
  • Establish term limits for each member of the Board.
    • Officers already have one-year term limits as officers. 3 or 4 board members should serve one year terms on the Board so that the entire board does not rotate off at the same time at the end of 2024.
  • Determine email address guidance.
    • Discuss and decide if and/or how the board members will receive WPCampus.org organizational email addresses.

Action Items

  • Assign research tasks and set deadlines.
    • Non-profit offerings for services we use, e.g. Google, Slack.
    • Any complications due to international board members.
    • Insurance for corporations and directors.
  • Assign announcement/documentation tasks and set deadlines.
    • Publish announcement blog post for the new Board.
    • Update WPCampus.org website.
    • Update State of Alabama documents with new Directors.
    • Create WPCampus Conflict of Interest documents.

Closing

  • Confirm date and time for the next meeting.
  • Final thoughts, reminders, or general chit-chat.

Minutes

Call to order

Dash called to order the monthly meeting of the WPCampus Board of Directors at 1:05pm (Eastern) on 10 February 2023, virtually in Google Meet.

Dash, Eric, Kiera, and Reed were in attendance. Rachel, Phil, Ed, and Danielle were absent.

Reed reviewed the minutes from the previous meeting. No additions or corrections were needed.

Charter the committee for the 2023 conference.

It was noted that the planning committee for the 2023 conference was formed approximately at the same time as the Board was originally formed. The Board discussed when a conference committee will be formed, and when that committee will expire. Committees will need lead-up and break-down time, and there will be overlap on one year’s committee and the next year’s committee. The organization’s bylaws state a membership list must be included on the charter; this list does not need to be exhaustive.

A motion to determine the length of a conference committee, in order to announce the next conference during the current conference, was proposed. e.g. the date and location of the 2025 conference would be announced during the 2024 conference. This motion was tabled for now.

Board members in attendance unanimously approved the 2023 conference committee to expire on 31 December 2023. A proposal was presented that at the end of a calendar year, the Board will work with the expiring conference and the following conference on a hand-off.

Schedule monthly meetings.

The Board unanimously approved the date for monthly meetings as the third Friday of the month, at 3:30pm Eastern time. This date will be flexible for any holidays, and will not apply to Special Meetings.

Finalize publication procedure for board meeting minutes.

The Board acknowledged that meeting minutes will be stored as Google Docs in the shared WPCampus Board of Directors folder. Minutes will then be published on the WPCampus website under a “minutes” category in the blog, and archived on the “governance” page. A proposal was presented to record the audio of the Board meeting, and write transcripts; this will assist in transparency. This proposal needs more research. If the Board decides to publish full transcripts of its meetings, it may charter a transcription committee.

Establish term limits for each member of the Board.

The term of each officer of the Board will end on 31 December 2023, including Rachel’s run as Past President; Dash will then become Past President. Several members of the Board will need to serve one-year terms, so that the entire Board does not turnover on 31 December 2024. A motion to determine which members of the Board will serve one-year terms as opposed to two-year terms was tabled, until more members of the Board have adequate time to consider. If there are no volunteers to serve a one-term, the Board will draw lots.

Determine email address guidance.

The Board acknowledged that Rachel has organizational knowledge that the rest of the Board may not have, and that much of this historical information is stored in her personal WPCampus email account. A proposal was presented for Rachel to forward any emails pertinent to the organization’s knowledge base to the Google Group or as documents in Google Drive; a motion to add this as an action item was tabled, until Rachel could provide more information. Board members will have access to the Google Group and the Google Drive for the length of their terms.

In addition to email, Board members will need administrative access to other tools, such as the website, social media accounts, Slack, IFTTT, etc. The Board will ask Rachel to audit these tools, provide a list, and research how to provide access to the Board. The Board determined that having a full list of these tools will assist in finding which tools provide free or discounted plans to non-profit organizations.

Action items

Action items were assigned, and are captured in our action items document.

  • Dash to draft the charter for the 2023 conference committee.
  • Reed to create a list of the current members of the 2023 conference committee.
  • Rachel to list all email existing addresses for the organization.
  • Reed to ask the 2023 conference committee about a Google Group.
  • Reed to invite all members of the Board to the Board of Directors Google Group.
  • Dash to investigate US/Alabama/Canadian complications re: Kiera for treasurer. (Financial implications are top priority.)
  • Rachel to send the announcement for the new Board of Directors, and update the website.
  • Kiera and Eric to draft a Conflict of Interest form for the Board of Directors.
  • Reed to find out options for a calendar in the Google Group (is it possible?).
  • Research insurance options or requirements for the organization and/or Board of Directors. (Question if Phil has information on this.)
  • Update State of Alabama documents with new Directors; ask Rachel for contacts regarding corporation documentation.

Closing

The Board confirmed Friday, 17 March 2023 at 3:30pm (Eastern) as the date and time of the next meeting.

The Board questioned the options available in Google Meet, and determined that they may not meet all the requirements for its meetings. Zoom was suggested as an alternative, especially for its moderation options; these will assist if members of the public attend meetings, and wish to ask questions or provide input. A motion to move to Zoom will be presented in the Board of Directors Slack channel, and a vote taken there.

The meeting adjourned at 2:30pm.

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