Board Meeting Minutes Page updated: December 14, 2005
SIGUCCS About Us Awards Competitions Conferences Information of Interest Join SIGUCCS Membership Services Officers & Committees		SIGUCCS Open Board Meeting November 6, 2005 Monterey, California In Attendance Leila Lyons, Lynnell Lacy, Nancy Bauer, Ethan Benatan, Shiree Moreland, John Bucher, Jennifer Fajman, Bob Haring-Smith, Rob Paterson, Jen Whiting, Terry Lockard, Jack Esbin. Meeting opened by Leila. Recap for Guests Minutes were approved at last night’s meeting. Leila reported that ACM voted the SIG to be viable again last summer. Budget: Bob – nothing all that remarkable has happened in the current fiscal year. To our credit we have 8K from CSMS '05, plus 10K from digital library. Fund balance is up 15-16K from last year, sitting at just under 300K (ACM requires 144K to remain in fund balance). Strategic Planning Bob Haring-Smith, JohnBucher, Jim Bostick and Lida Larsen had a discussion yesterday about budgets and long-term strategic planning. On the budget: ACM has questioned the declining balance. ACM is projecting that the surplus will be exhausted in 4-6 years at this rate, and is looking for an explanation, change in plans. (excerpted from closed Board meeting minutes) The group assessed that the 60K decline is due to a ~40K deficit in 2003, due to conscious financial decisions made in that year. (Penny Crane award funded, revitalizing CSMS, special event at 30th anniversary of conference.) Other items mentioned: To do strategic planning, the Board met in NY. Dues revenue decreased significantly that year, moving to a conference only SIG, and in doing so, there was one year where the previous years members did not get billed as we moved to a conference SIG. The conference management group was hired, and the initial years fee paid by the board (the allocation into ACM increased because the allocation is based on the total expenses). Total of these planned events was 51K. That still leaves 16K that it has declined over FY '02, '04, '05. This amount matches the transfer to the Penny Crane fund. Conclusion by the group is that there is not a regular decline, rather planned expenses which reduced the excess, and the conferences combined have made money each year through 2001. (19K, 30K, 19K, 3K, respectively). This year projected to be 20K surplus. Only one conference lost money (CSMS in 2004), deficit explained by disadvantageous hotel contract with big minimums on food contract there. Again, conclusion is that there is not a trend of declining balance, the only reason it would decline more is if the Board chooses to fund additional out of the ordinary events. We should also take a look at liability that would cause some late cancellation at a conference. The Board has asked Bob to look into what are the actual expenses that we would be liable for in the worst case scenario of a late cancellation and make a recommendation of what should be a minimum reserve. (Assigned to Bob) ACM requires 113K; that amount is going up to 144K, so we have almost double what the min reserve that ACM would require. So we should assess if this is necessary to maintain this large a balance. The second part was the strategic planning and today was just a brainstorming day – the plan is to have one or more conference calls with the goal to have a draft plan ready for the spring conf Board meeting. Initial thoughts: membership has declined from a high in 1986 to low in 2001, since then it has grown, so the trend is in the right direction. Key points: Our two conferences meet certain needs, and different need than Educause. The CSMS audience has changed. Large research institutions no longer attend as a matter of course, small and mid-size CIOs attend. SIGUCCS is not a well-known name. We need a coherent vision of what SIGUCCS offers. This needs to be created and marketed to institutions. Conferences should continue as is. We should consider what other services we might be able to offer to help grow the membership – focusing on on-line tools. (Assigned to: ??) Try to organize BOF to solicit ideas from younger member attendees – how their career could be benefited by SIGUCCS – what development could happen through SIGUCCS? (Assigned to John Bucher, to be done during the conference) Leila motions that we set up a committee that continues focusing on financial and long range planning issues. Rob seconded motion. No opposition. Leila will approach Jim to chair this committee. Future Conferences Need committee for Orlando conference. Need program chair for CSMS '07. Nancy is concerned about upcoming San Diego conference – concerned about enthusiasm behind chairing '07 (T. Rowe). Need an enthusiastic person to step in. Perhaps at the BOF of "SIGUCCS and Your Career" – might get some good folks there. Track may be good at CSMS for leadership training. Tutorials? We need to become known for our leadership/mentoring track. An expectation that happens at the fall and spring meeting – an overt mentoring that takes place and is offered/presented. New philosophy would need to pervade all of our publications and actions. Penny used to say that this is the only conference where the other people know exactly how you feel. We need both – how to do your job better and how to move up. We need to codify this whole idea of mentoring and leadership. (Shiree) About the curriculum – I would like to put together one of the curriculums – it hiring. Board could maintain a website of prospective speakers that the conference committee can look at. Conference Registration Larry Pickett has said that he is not interested in being the contact person for the fall conference registration next year. Could Regonline be used? If Larry is back-pedaling on fall conferecne, this may be a good time to change registration vendors. We need to find out more about ACM – Bob will investigate Regonline. (Shiree) Makes sense to have one system for both fall and spring registrations. Bob will investigate and report back. Conference Updates CSMS 2005 final report. Leila Lyons. Registration numbers not quite as high as we would have liked. Things that worked well: networking events, signups for dinners, evaluations were reasonable. (Bob)ACM has ~2K more expenses than listed on the report. Jack will have to go look at details. Fall 2005: Kelly Wainwright, Cindy Murnan and Chris Jones 456 registrations at this time. Tutorials – not as high as we had hoped for – 108 tutorials. One very popular – 30 people – and cancelled one. Use of postcards went well – highly recommend this – attendance did not drop b/c of scaling back here. Hard part: lining up contributors. Should be addressed. More efficient way – so as not to conflict with CSMS. One of the vendors said "you have to ask us sooner" – SIGUCCS falls at end of commitment cycle. Perhaps do this more centrally. Hard to create relationships; seemed to be re-creating the wheel. Postcards to vendors – would work if it hit the right people. Communcations awards – took advantage of Greg Hanek’s past experience. Nice not having to recreate that wheel. Program: 122 abstracts submitted for conference. Accepted 115 for papers and posters.13 dropped out. 4 withdrew due to hurricane. Final count 102 in proceedings and 98 at conference. 79 papers, 19 posters + 11 award winners. 21 people reviewing papers. Sheridan printing did fine – only concern is the proceedings CD. Program does not work on the Macintosh. Proof did not come until six days before conference. Try to give to Sheridan a modified portal page for the CD. Nancy will contact ACM about this. Budget: Expected 5-15K in black. Revenues known; not all expenses are known. Final week before early registration deadline – over 100 people registered. Cash contributions have not been crucial – the in kind contributions of projectors, printer and computers were extremely helpful. Need pat responses to registration questions. Refunds, fees, etc. registration FAQ – policies, guidelines, etc. Spring 2006 Linda Hutchison Well on our way – all 3 plenary are set. Executive seminar set. Not sure why the tutorials are losing popularity. Struggling getting paper proposals. Deadline extended to Nov 30. Plenary speakers have each agreed to doing a presentation. 15 sessions in total to fill. (Shiree) $8250 already committed for this conference from vendors. If we can get Sun and MPC as premier sponsors – at $4500 each – would give us another 9K. Close to goal. Sun would like to present. (Jack) Still need Merrill Lynch account. Spring 2007 – Theresa – three track chairs did not participate very much this year – she is struggling with the program chair position. She feels she has no one to be a program chair. (Message from Theresa Rowe). Nancy will contact Theresa. Vendor Discussion Ratio of reliance is going up – not a lot of visibility. (Bucher) Vendors want face time – and a lot of it. CSMS – 120 decision makers – maybe there ought to be more vendor face time… that are there the whole time, Shiree: I would hate to see CSMS get into the business of having a vendor show – I would much prefer that if they want face time that they provide some training/sessions, etc. (Jennifer Fajman) Vendors can give presentations that are not sales. Maybe we should pursue this. (Rob) "Ratio of vendor contributions is growing disproportionate to the amount of revenue. I would encourage us to consider raising the rate. Build in a 5%/year increase to the cost of registration. Over time that will help shift us from relying so heavily on vendor monies. The CSMS cost is very reasonable and a 5% /yr would not be a deterrent." (Linda Hutchison) "I think your point about raising the cost = the 5% might be a goal after you've made a jump." (Bucher) "If you keep it under a 2K to go to a conference, you’re still good." (Shiree) Membership fees are not available to the conferences to balance their budgets. (Bob) In fact, there is a conflict of interest on the membership drives. Fall 2006: Alex, Gordana, Carol, Bob Expanding the Boundaries – maple leaf logo. Planning visit in June – went very well. Have been eavesdropping on the 2005 group. Alex has already approached large vendors – looking for clarity on benefits that can be offered to vendors in return for their participation. Motivational speaker would be good to have and get sponsored by a vendor. Fantasy Land Hotel is booked. Room allocation is done. Beach Party as opening reception – pool bar. Weather will be cool – could have snow. Do not have to leave the hotel. Gala is a comedy dinner theater. Passports needed. Should have a passport advisory page. Spring 2007 (Savannah) – from Nancy. Theresa Rowe –conf chair – others in mind for program chair. Hyatt Regency is host hotel. Fall 2007 in Orlando Right outside pleasure island. Hilton is host hotel. No committee members set yet. Need to do this soon – so shadowing can happen. Votes for 2008 locations not yet tabulated. Call for other business? None reported. Motioned to close by Leila. Seconded by Terry. No opposition.
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