MEEOA Board Meeting September 15, 2006
Minutes Chadbourne Hall
Members in attendance: Danette Madore, Steve Visco, Faith Erhardt, Velma Murphy, Tammy Ward, Sara Henry, Linda Ives, Mary Fraser

Meeting called to order at 10:08am

Minutes from May 5, 2006 meeting were accepted

Treasurer’s Report –Sara

As of 9/15, not all policy seminar costs are listed in the budget and so are not reflected in the balances. This will mean that income – expenses will be off for the end of fiscal year.

Income for the year has been less than anticipated. Membership income was down, no sponsored meal at the conference, and no reimbursement for policy seminar expenses all contributed to this. The disparity is offset by actual costs of policy seminar being less than what was budgeted.

Major costs for the year that were not budgeted for include the table at COE conference for $2500 and $500 for the NEOA board. In light of this, the board will consider creating a new line item in the budget for donations

Non-profit status was discussed, particularly the limit of political advocacy spending that can be done. Sara will research whether MEEOA is currently a 501C3 or 501C4 non-profit which will clarify this. It is believed that the spending limit for political advocacy is 15% of our budget. Spending in that area is currently way over that amount for this fiscal year.

Scholarships for Leadership Institute were also discussed. The board clarified the expectation of service to the organization that is tied to the funds. It was determined that service will be loosely defined and not necessarily mean membership on the board

Current balances: $9207.46 savings

$3722.34 checking

Treasurer’s report unanimously accepted

Conference – Tammy and Velma

Registrations are down from last year. Reminder emails will be sent or possibly faxed to programs who have not yet registered.

Timing of the conference as a difficulty for SSS programs was discussed again and may be added to the agenda for the conference business meeting. It was also suggested that a question about timing be added to the overall conference evaluation.

Tammy inquired about lanyards for name tags, Linda Ives has a supply of them and will get them to Tammy.

Donations are being sought for the elements of the regressive dinner, Hannaford will be solicited for paper goods, UMaine UB will donate turkeys. Some beverages have been donated, an email update will go out to conference registrants with what other items are needed.

Sara and Ann will present the Jerry Ellis scholarship for Leadership Institute during the dinner on Wednesday. Danette is working on a slide show and a dedication ad in the conference booklet to Jerry. Photos should be emailed to Danette.

Tammy will consult with NEOA to find out who pays for the hotel stay for Linda Shiller.

Tammy and Velma are still looking into raffle items, the board members will sell tickets. Options discussed included a weekend stay, potato baskets, ski equipment.

Susan Collins will not be able to attend, Jeremy Fisher is expected and will speak on Friday morning at FAME sponsored brunch.

Conference sessions will include a media panel and an admissions panel. It was agreed that each should have a moderator and some prepared questions to start discussion.

Board Elections – Danette

Several names were discussed for the slate of officers.

Faith will talk with Ginny about the position of treasurer

Danette will talk to Shelly about secretary or treasurer

Steve Visco will talk with David Agan about president elect.

Tammy will talk to Bridgette about conference chair.

Tammy and Danette will put an email out on the listserv soliciting volunteers/nominations for the board.

There was discussion of creating standing committees to announce at the conference, an advocacy committee was specifically mentioned.

TRiO Alumni/Achiever Yearbook –Faith

Faith will chair a committee that will organize the Achiever Yearbook and will send an email for volunteers to participate.

The board discussed changing the format to include the fact sheets and brochure data and to limit the number of achievers profiled to something much smaller. The website was discussed as a possible home for the larger collection of achiever profiles and as an archive of achievers from previous years.

Faith will bring achiever nomination forms to the conference.

COE – Steve

The board has received another request from COE for funds. Options for giving include a subscription package or a conference table. We may be able to share the cost of a table with other state organizations (MA and CT). Once that is explored, the board agreed that a donation to COE should be made but should not be the total cost of the table ($5000).

The issue of donations was raised again and further discussion resulted in a plan to establish an advocacy committee and a set budget amount for advocacy that the committee would determine how to use.

Sara and Steve will collaborate on MEEOA’s history of giving and use this information to determine future giving plans and budgeting especially as it concerns COE.

It was also decided that the board should undertake a review of the by-laws to reconcile our recent activities and ensure that future activities follow them. A committee may be formed to do this.

Steve wrote a state initiative grant for $500 to purchase a video camera to capture TRiO events. The vision for this project is to collect footage and burned it to DVD for use as an advocacy piece. A “Reasons for TRiO” tool to show the impact of TRiO programs on students in Maine

MEEOA Membership

Membership lists should be cross-checked with the names on the listserv.

Further discussion on membership tabled until the conference business meeting.

Next meeting will be at the conference business meeting, further meeting dates to be determined by new board.

Meeting adjourned at 12:10pm