American Association of University Women NC
Fall Board Meeting Minutes
Eden City Hall - Eden, North Carolina
October 2, 2004

Branches Present: Brevard, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Eden, Greensboro, High Point, Jacksonville, Raleigh/Wake, Statesville, Twin Rivers/New Bern, Wilmington, Winston-Salem

Officers and Committee Chairs Present: J. Hill, M. Peterson, E. Mercer, M. Hoffler-Foushee, K. Atkinson, M. Stephens, M. Folsom, N. Shoemaker, Q. Thompson, L. Van Order, L. Jackson, L. Rumbley, MF Schickedantz, L. Ward, J. Atkinson, L. Sarkis, E. Laney

President Joanne Hill called the meeting to order at 9:15 AM. She thanked everyone for taking time from this weekend to attend the meeting. She thanked members of the Eden branch for their hospitality. Suzanne Barton, Co-President of the Eden Branch, welcomed the group.

Karla Atkinson, secretary, called the roll and moved that the minutes of the July 2004 Summer Board Meeting be approved. These minutes were approved by consensus.

A reading committee was appointed, including Mary Fran Schickedantz, Lill Van Order and Lois Ward.

Parliamentarian Lois Ward read the meeting rules which were adopted.

The agenda was presented; an amendment to add two minutes for a report from the Diversity Committee was approved. The agenda was accepted as amended.

President’s Report - Joanne Hill
Joanne noted that much of the information she has received from Association since the summer Board meeting has either been passed along via the list serve and/or printed in the Tar Heel News.
Asking for a show of hands, she asked how many branches had already completed their member survey (a few branches have).
She announced that Blonnie Bunn Wyche has been selected as this year’s winner of the Juvenile Literature Award. Her book is entitled The Anchor P. Moore, Proprietor. The award will be presented on November 19 in Raleigh. Wyche is a member of AAUW - Wilmington Branch.
The Pembroke branch is not disbanding but rather, given new energy, is busy recruiting new members.
Joanne thanked Nancy Shoemaker for her work in setting up the recent statewide electronic meeting on Saturday, September 27. Members of the Executive Committee participated in this meeting, working on setting the agenda for the October 2 Board meeting and reviewing financial reports.

Financial Report - Millie Hoffler-Foushee for Sandra Abromitis
Millie made a distinction between the financial report and the treasurer’s report. The treasurer’s report covers income and expenses on a monthly basis. The financial report compares budgeted income and expenses with actual, year to date income and expenses on a quarterly basis, based on the budget which was adopted for 2004-2005.
The number of members to date is 937, compared to a projected membership of 1166. She reviewed various line items in the budget. Total income to date is $11,544. Total expenses to date are $1179.76.
She reviewed the procedure for Board members to be reimbursed for expenses and noted that a reimbursement form is printed on line at our web site (www.aauwnc.org). She announced that reimbursements will not be honored if they are submitted more than 30 days from the date an expense was incurred. All expenses should be submitted, including those from members who wish to make an in-kind donation instead of receiving reimbursement.

Treasurer’s Report - Millie Hoffler-Foushee
Total income since 7/23/04 is $3,967. Total expenses since 7/23/04 are $1,018.76.
Millie will put the end-of-year treasurer’s report from last year on-line. The Board discussed the need to have two audits of these financial records which were compiled before Millie’s term began on 7/01/04. Lill Van Order will check into the possibility of finding a pro bono auditor.
The Board agreed that tracking monthly treasurer’s reports was unnecessary. In the future only YTD actuals will be presented in the financial report at Board meetings.

Program - Mary Peterson
Mary announced the theme for convention this year: “Purpose-Power-Progress.”
She will meet in Asheville next weekend with the Director of the NC Center for Creative Retirement to discuss cosponsorship of an “intergenerational” conference which would be held on Friday, April 15 - the day before convention. She will also review convention details with those in Asheville who are planning the conference. Online registration will be encouraged. The program committee will meet during lunch today to firm the format and content of programs for convention. LAF and EF breakfasts are also scheduled to be held at convention.
Mary also encouraged people to donate frequent flier miles to support bringing a leader-on-loan or other outside guest as a keynote speaker at the convention.
She is planning to meet soon with Salisbury and Chapel Hill branches to assist them with planning programs.

Membership - Evelyn Mercer
Evelyn distributed a copy of the membership survey and asked Board members to complete the survey and return it to her before the end of today’s Board meeting. She is seeking more input from branch membership vice presidents before presenting some firm ideas about recruitment of new members.
AAUW NC currently has 22 paid branches; the addition of Pembroke (see note above) will bring the total number of paid branches to 23.

LAF Report - Lil Van Order
Lil encouraged branches to make generous LAF donations as soon as possible. LAF contributions are a bit slow right now. She also reminded branches to notify her if branch members make contributions to LAF other than those made through AAUW NC. To date $3,931 has been raised for LAF; the state’s goal is $10,000 by the end of this calendar year. An LAF breakfast will again be part of 2005 convention activities.

Federal Public Policy - Mary Stephens
Mary S. thanked Mary Peterson for all her help in orienting her to the new job as federal public policy coordinator. She reminded Board members of the upcoming election and urged everyone to take advantage of early voting opportunities.

Nominating Committee - Linda Sarkis
Linda indicated that some of the committee’s initial contacts with potential nominees have been “looking good.” The committee will submit nominations in time for the slate to be printed in the January issue of the THN.

Technology - Nancy Shoemaker
Nancy reviewed the logistics of conducting the on-line meeting last Saturday with the Executive Committee. She suggested that getting the entire AAUW NC Board on line for a similar meeting would be more difficult. She compared some of the advantages and disadvantages of using telephone conferencing with web conferencing, including costs. Having smaller committees communicate on-line might be a more workable way to capitalize on the technology available for group meetings of members from across the state. She encouraged Board members to continue discussing how on-line meeting/ conferencing could improve communication among state Board members and between state and branch members.

Tar Heel News - Marty Folsom
Marty circulated extra copies of the THN and reminded Board members of the deadlines for the upcoming issues. The spring issue deadline is January 18, 2005, with the mailing date set for February 16. She reviewed some of the new features in the newsletter, including the “Wish List” and “Members in the News” columns. Though space is often limited, she asked all Board members, especially committee chairs, to prepare something for each newsletter. Information from branches which briefly notes what branches did as part of voter education efforts, for example, could be included in the spring newsletter.

AAUW NC Recognition Program - Marty Folsom and Mary Fran Schickedantz
Members of the committee charged with developing criteria for this program include Marty Folsom, Nancy Shoemaker, Phyllis Guberman and Mary Fran Schickedantz.
The AAUW NC recognition program replaces the 21st Century Recognition Program which Association previously administered. (Please note: the criteria for recognizing state AAUW organizations will remain the same. State applications will be reviewed by regional directors).
Mary Fran distributed an outline of the proposed program, noting the importance of simplifying the application process for branches. The time frame for the application would be for calendar year 2004. Deadline is February 15, 2005 for recognition that would be given at the 2005 April convention.
The application would request that branches to submit a written narrative that addresses make-up of membership, EF and LAF initiatives and programs supported by members, among other things. The committee will continue to meet to decide who will receive and/or review the applications from branches. Mary Fran noted that the recognition program would be a useful tool for identifying exactly what branches have been doing and that state committee chairpersons should also find this information helpful. Mary Fran stressed that the recognition program as it is currently outlined is an interim way to learn more about branch activities -- and not necessarily a cut-in-stone approach to a statewide recognition program.

Convention Guidelines - Marty Folsom
The committee to review and revise the convention guidelines includes Marty Folsom, Lil Van Order and Mary Peterson. Marty presented an overview of the format of the Convention Guidelines document, stressing the importance of having revised the document to make it more concise and timely (officer/board member updates and deadlines have been included). The technology relevant to hosting a convention and
reference materials have also been updated.
Each member of the convention committee will find a section in the document which follows an identical format and includes specific deadlines and responsibilities applicable to that committee member. Copies of these revised convention guidelines will be mailed to members of the 2005 convention planning committee. The document will eventually be posted on our web site. Marty emphasized that the guidelines are a “working” document that can be reviewed and, if necessary, revised after every convention.

Cluster Committee -Joanne Hill for Joan Robertson
The cluster dates are printed on the agenda for today’s meeting. The dates include Traid (Oct. 2), Foothills (Oct. 16), Mountain (Oct. 23), Southeast Coastal (Feb. 19, 2005) and Triangle (April 2).

Administrative Assistance - Judy Atkinson
Judy announced some upcoming state convention dates (AAUW NC on April 15-17, 2005 in Asheville; National Association on June 24-27, 2005 in Washington). Both she and President Hill emphasized planning now for conventions scheduled for 2006, 2007 and 2008. Branches were encouraged to host a state convention or Board meeting, with an understanding that the schedule of various meetings should reflect a geographical rotation throughout the state. New Bern/Jacksonville are looking into the possibility of hosting the 2006 state convention.

Historian - Joanne Hill for Clara Allen
As noted in earlier AAUW NC Board notes, all branches have received information about what is to be sent and/or kept for the historical records.

Diversity - Queen Thompson
Queen summarized what Charlotte has been doing to support “get out the vote” efforts and urged every branch to stay involved throughout the year with voter education activities.
She outlined two proposals which AAUW NC could adopt as a focus for directing branch activities.
The first proposal encourages local branches to seek organizational partners that would work in concert with local AAUW members to monitor and assess the status of educational equity in their local schools, with a focus on enrollment patterns and vocational education. One assessment tool was presented as an example.
The second proposal addresses the development of a diversity program at the branch level, including a local self-assessment of diversity among the branch membership.
The proposal also calls for each branch developing specific strategies aimed at diversifying its membership. One assessment tool was again presented as an example.
The Board agreed that the proposals merited further discussion at an AAUW NC Board meeting.

Reconnection Goal VI - Karla Atkinson
Karla quickly summarized the task of the Goal VI committee and pointed to some of the lessons learned from interviews and feedback with local branch members. She presented nine different scenarios which would affect the structure of the state Board if they were adopted. Small groups gave some feedback. She agreed to develop a more detailed scenario for those structural changes which Board members generally agreed merited more discussion. (See notes on winter Board retreat below).

Resolutions - Elizabeth Laney
Lib reviewed the process and deadlines for submitting resolutions and urged those on “both sides of the aisle” to be prepared to speak whenever a resolution was presented for adoption.

International Affairs - Joanne Hill for Shirley Quisenberry
Information re. the AAUW-IFUW relationship has been posted on the list serve; links for more information can also be found there.

100 Club - Nancy Shoemaker
Nancy explained the 100 Club proposal, noting that membership is open to anyone who contributes $100 to AAUW NC or gives at least 100 hours of service in support of branch or AAUW NC activities. She distributed a copy of the forms which will used to apply for 100 Club membership and reviewed the policy changes which must be made to implement the 100 Club project.
The motion to approve the document entitled AAUW NC Policy Changes to Implement the AAUW NC 100 Club was seconded. The motion to amend these proposed policy changes by deleting the phrase “and announced to the branches by July 1, 2005” was seconded and approved.
The motion to change the AAUW NC policies to include the amended version of the document entitled AAUW NC Policy Changes to Implement the AAUW NC 100 Club was unanimously approved. The policies will now read:

Add a section before VIII (Finances) for Recognition
AAUW NC shall recognize the contributions of its members and its branches through the following means.
A. AAUW NC 100 Club
1. The AAUW NC 100 Club shall recognize members of AAUW NC who
during a calendar year make a financial contribution of at least $100 to AAUW NC or devote at least 100 hours to AAUW at any level.
2. Those who make a financial contribution of at least $100 may also designate their contribution "in honor" of someone.
3. Members of the club and the honorees will be recognized at the state convention.
4. The President shall be responsible for announcing the application procedures, and appointing a working group to certify the club members and to work with the Program VP to ensure that the recognition at convention is appropriate.
The Treasurer shall be an ex officio member of this working group.
B. AAUW NC Branch Recognition Program
AAUW NC values its branches and their contributions to advancing the AAUW mission and shall implement a local recognition program to recognize these efforts. The President shall be responsible for ensuring this program is implemented.

Changes to VIII.E: Finances- Administrative and Miscellaneous
Change section 3 from
Reimbursement for travel and lodging to board meetings for all elected and appointed officers and chairs shall be charged to Administrative Expenses.
To
Reimbursement for travel to board meetings and convention shall be charged to "Travel." Reimbursement for lodging shall be charged to "State Conventions/Meetings."

Add section VIII.G: Finances - Fundraising
1. All proceeds from fundraising shall be reported as income and broken down on the Treasurer's report to show the source of the funds (e.g. sales of pins, 50-50 raffle, AAUW NC 100 Club), etc.
2. Any fundraising income that is earmarked for a special purpose (e.g. SAR, officer expenses where the officer donates the money to the 100 Club rather than claiming reimbursement) shall be reported as an expense in the current year, on the appropriate line on the Treasurer's report.

Strategic Planning - Mary Fran Schickedantz and Joanne Hill
Mary Fran and Joanne led the Board through a process of deciding what needs to happen to ensure the long term success of AAUW NC. The process involved individual brainstorming, with individuals’ ideas then grouped by category by consensus. Categories were then prioritized by consensus. Deciding which of the ideas are strategies and which are outcomes was the final step of the process. (This exercise was not completed because of time constraints. The discussion will continue at the winter Board retreat meeting. See next note).

Winter Board Retreat
The Board will meet on Friday evening, January 28, and Saturday, January 29, for the sole purpose of continuing the discussion of strategic planning and the Reconnection committee work. “Regular” business items will not be included on the agenda. The meeting will be held in Greensboro/High Point. Details will follow.
Joanne emphasized the importance of having at least one member from each branch attend this meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:20 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Karla Atkinson, Secretary

Approved: 15-Apr-2005
Last updated: 19-Apr-2005
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