Meeting date/time: Friday, November 17, 2023 at 3:30pm Eastern
Attendees: L. Danielle Baldwin, Ed Beck, Rachel Cherry, Phil Crumm, Dash Kees, Kiera Howe, Reed Piernock, Eric Sembrat
Guests: Kevin Grimley, Jason Woodward
Invited: L. Danielle Baldwin, Ed Beck, Rachel Cherry, Phil Crumm, Dash Kees, Kiera Howe, Reed Piernock, Eric Sembrat
Goals
- Identify reviewers for the WPCampus Bylaws.
Agenda
Roll Call
- Note attendees of this meeting (in the Details section above), and list any absences.
Approval of Minutes
- Review, correct, and approve the minutes from the previous meeting.
Old Business
- Review and approve the Conflict of Interest.
- Discuss unresolved action items from the previous meeting.
Reports or Presentations
- Report on the organization's finances.
- Report on the WPCampus 2024 location selection committee.
- Consider a proposal for a new leadership strategy.
New Business
- Identify reviewers for the WPCampus Bylaws.
- Review and approval of the 6 committee charters.
Private Session
- A private session may be held here if there are matters that only members of the Board of Directors need to discuss at this time.
Action Items
- A list of action items as a result of this meeting
Closing
- Confirm December 15, 2023 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 3:37pm (Eastern) on 17 November 2023, virtually in Zoom.
Dash, Danielle, Eric, Ed, Phil, Rachel, and Reed were in attendance. Kiera joined later at 3:58pm. Guests included Kevin Grimley and Jason Woodward.
Dash moved to approve the minutes for the September and October meetings; Ed seconded the motion. The Board approved the minutes.
Report on the 2024 conference location selection.
Jason and Kevin from the selection committee were in attendance. The committee had been meeting once a week to review applications and align with the selection matrix. The committee recommended to hold the 2024 conference at Georgetown University; Jason abstained from naming the other applicant. There was concern over lodging in and around the campus, but it was not a dealbreaker, and the conference committee will work on logistics.
Jason thanked the committee for its input and emphasized that everyone did good work. He said the committee will meet one more time to have a retrospective on their processes. Kevin seconded Jason’s points and said the committee learned a lot.
Dash asked about the committee’s documentation and rubric. Jason confirmed that all documentation, including processes and rubric, will be available, and can be used as a template for the 2025 location selection committee. Ed mentioned he would be responsible for entering task templates into ClickUp that could also be handed off to the 2025 committee.
Dash then asked if the timeline for submitting applications may have been too short. Jason admitted it was hard to know for certain. One other applicant admitted they would not be able to complete the application in time for the deadline. The application was long, and could have been intimidating, yet Jason stated it was thorough because the committee needed to have all available information presented to them, in order to make an informed decision.
Dash further asked if there was precedent for announcing the next year’s conference at the current year’s conference. Rachel answered that only at Portland in 2019 was the location for 2020 in New Orleans announced. She speculated that many institutions may not be available to book early enough to announce at the conference. Dash suggested that the 2025 location selection committee could open for members when the 2024 conference committee is chartered.
Kevin reported that the selection committee had several ideas to present for the next year’s committee: table at the conference to recruit; solicit universities for applications; and definitely start earlier to leave plenty of time for selections.
Ed moved to accept the committee’s report and to approve its recommendation. Reed seconded the motion. The Board accepted and approved by majority vote, with two abstentions.
Report on the organization's finances.
Kiera had no updates to report this meeting. Rachel closed the organization’s previous Quickbooks account, meaning that WPCampus now exclusively uses a newly acquired “free” account acquired through TechSoup. Rachel will finish the documentation of that process.
Consider a proposal for a new leadership strategy.
Rachel presented her proposal to the Board regarding leadership structure. Her document included two options, with her recommendation for option one. The leadership would include five standing committees, which may or may not have rotating members, and one committee for nominations to the board, which would be temporary and may be chartered each year.
The board’s leadership would expand to have two distinct groups: officers — President, Treasurer, and Secretary — and committee chair members. No one person can be both an officer and a chair member; however, an officer can sit on a committee in a general capacity. The board officers would focus on the business aspects of the organization and empower people to do the work. Officers would hold the power to charter committees, and the chair member would assemble the committee.
Ed asked what the board might do if a committee becomes inactive. Danielle followed up with a question about what requirements the board can enforce on a committee. The board agreed these can be addressed in the committee charter.
Reed inquired about the term for a committee chair member, and if those chair members would need to be elected each year, with a similar method and timeline regarding current board members. Dash stated that committee chair members would only be on the board as long as they were a committee chair member. Ed suggested that the current board would launch the committees, yet each committee would elect its own chair member. Rachel agreed and added that a committee chair member’s term could be flexible based on the committee decisions.
Dash recommended that the board check in with committees via their chair member, and those chair members should be empowered to approach the board with any concerns. Danielle surmised that a committee would be more successful with an earlier timeline and with heavy support from the current board.
The board agreed that the Nominations committee is currently the most urgent, with the Events committee following in priority. Dash advised the Communications committee could be chartered in early 2024, and Ed offered the Technical committee shortly after that. Rachel offered to sit on the Technical committee but would not be its chair member; Danielle volunteers to be that committee’s chair member instead.
Ed inquired about the differences between a sub-committee and a working group. Rachel stated she wanted to make these committees as broad as possible, and Dash assumed it would be a case-by-case basis. A distinction was also made regarding a committee chair member and one for a sub-committee; e.g. the chair member of a temporary committee would not be a board member, as it would fall under a full standing committee.
The board reviewed the charter for the Nominations committee. As there were less than two months until the end of the calendar year, the board agreed to fast-track the Nominations committee, and hold elections in February. Reed suggested a board member’s term change to begin March 1, and considered that the board’s year did not necessarily need to be the same as a calendar year. Kiera agreed, with a further consideration that it may be difficult to hold elections at the end of the calendar year. Dash stated this would need to be an amendment to the organization’s bylaws, and requested a review of the current bylaws as an agenda item for the December meeting.
The board decided to update the Nominations charter to expire the committee at the end of February.
Reed moved to approve the charter for the Nominations committee; Danielle seconded the motion. The board approved the charter by majority vote.
The board then switched to discussion of the charter for the Events committee. There were no volunteers yet for this committee, and a current board member would begin the process of putting together that committee.
Rachel edited the meeting time to be “typically” once per month, and Reed agreed that the sub-committees would create their own meeting frequency. Ed reminded the board that a committee would achieve success with a good balance between requirements and flexibility, and that each sub-committee would have the full support of the Events committee chair member, and the greater board.
Rachel asked if Chair or Director would be a better title for a committee’s chair member, e.g. Events Director. The board agreed that Chair would indicate a committee to be more collaborative.
Reed updated the language under “duration” to remove the phrase “for years”, as the committee, by its standing status, would be long-term. The board agreed further edits to the charter could later be made by the committee itself, with board approval.
Ed moved to approve the charter for the Events committee; Reed seconded the motion. The board approved the charter by majority vote.
Closing.
The Board confirmed Friday 15 December 2023 at 3:30pm (Eastern) as the date and time for the next meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 5:06pm.