Introductions and Position Reviews

Members Present:
Steve Visco- President
Ginny Fowler- Treasurer
Faith Erhardt - TriO Yearbook
Linda Rottman-President Elect
Danette Madore - Past President
Sara Henry -Bylaws
Lori Wingo- Secretary
Linda Ives–At Large
Karen Keim - Membership

Review and Approval of September’s Minutes

Accepted as presented 100% (Linda Rottman not present at this vote-arrived late)

Treasurer’s Report

Steve wanted to discuss how to get Ginny indoctrinated to the position

• Sara distributed: Banking Summary (8/1 – 11/13)
  • Quicken sheet is not accurate because membership amounts cannot be split out of total Conference Income
  • Policy Seminar reimbursement was late because Danette was late in submitting information to Sara
• Rusty, Sandra, Eric all participating in Leadership Conference
• MEEOA Conference 2006
  • Still collecting funds from 4 individuals (auction)
  • Moving conference has impacted SSS membership/attendance, but facilities are cheaper to secureMEEOA Budget 2007
• Less than $10K in account ( ~$6k in outstanding checks)
• Steve: Are we okay with a budget this much in the red? Are we still planning on making a COE donation?
• Budget only reflects expenditures, not what we have actually in the bank. We have always had money to draw from
• Steve: nothing wrong with operating in red. We operated in the red last year and likely will operate in the red this year. Policy Seminar is expensive Faith: Can we increase budget/ Not without raising additional revenues. If we are giving donations to COE, can we afford scholarships? If this is going to put us in the red, why are we making a $2,500 donation to COE it? Other states are not doing it.
• Does it have to be $2500? Faith feels strongly that we should make a donation, but not the full $2500. The membership should feel some ownership of the donation (a letter explaining what we’ve done).
• Karen would prefer to make an unrestricted donation to COE instead of “buying a table.”
• Discussion around the confusion of projected/actual budgets and monies actual on account
• Steve would like to keep the $2500 donation in place on the budget-we don’t have t o make the actual donation right now.

Membership Committee

• Karen has updated the list. Did not distribute today
• Links are not correct, so Karen will send electronically once links are fixedHas no list of members. Karen notes flaws in this system
• Sara indicates that majority of membership comes with conference registration.
• when registration occurs, too many people are involved instead of having one
• person in charge.
• Checks are often written as organizations instead of individuals.
• We need a breakdown of individual membership
• Karen has no idea of who has paid and what constitutes the membership year. Consequently, she is nervous about voting when ONLY paid current members are supposed to have the right to vote.
• Sara indicates that this could be figured out. She suggests going through the old binder (valid through 8/31). A paper trail does exist. Comparing her list with Tammy’s list could glean who had paid.
• Sara also indicated that if people filled out membership info in addition to registration info, it would alleviate some of the confusion
• Karen distributed samples of membership form
• Disentangling membership from conference registration has been discussed, but may not be practical.
• Steve indicates that people are not going to think about membership until they are thinking about conference.
• Sara suggested the formation of a subcommittee to explore ways to streamline the process
• Karen needs dates from conference committee as soon as they can so she can coordinate membership efforts and most current information
• Danette: Do organizations pay for memberships of their staff? If so, perhaps there could be one organization form WITH individuals listed
• Karen asked to use staff meetings to pitch the membership if individuals pay on their own.
• Sara indicates program membership is down. Program membership is a standard practice that supports the organization, but does not provide individual membership. Could individual membership be changed to program membership?
• Subscription packages to make the membership process to be a legal procedure (current COE practice)
• Tie program memberships with scholarship eligibility for students. Karen said that METS and Talent Search cannot pay for individual memberships
• ACTIONS:
• Benefits of Program membership-Karen will construct an electronic blurb. In interest of time, Steve asked this to be tabled pending further discussion

Plans for the Year

TriO Achievers Booklet

Faith, Steve, Anne and Sally form the committee. Faith is circulating Montana and Minnesota models

Changes:

• Electronic, 1st person submission with electronic signature
• Good QUALITY pictures (Karen suggested sending everyone to Sears to take a uniform electronic picture)
• Request that each project send TWO candidates (quality v. quantity)
• Steve expressed concerns that larger programs would be penalized by being limited
• Danette-should policy seminar participants be included in Yearbook?
• Faith is concerned there would be too much information…big turn off to the legislators
• Should there be two books? All stories online and then the choice
• Candidates per book
• Steve- Collins takes book home and reads…would rather she have too much information instead of too little
• Ginny- inclusion in policy seminar should be on the power of the student to tell their story
• Sara- Online provision of models of who has participated/been included in yearbook
• Faith TRIO achiever forms to be sent to directors instead of general membership.
• SARA---organizations can only nominate candidates if they have paid program memberships

Data Sheets

Steve will be updating talking points by January (after performance Report) Beneficial to use same facts and figures when dealing with Media/legislators

Bylaws Review

• Last updated in ’98. Sara will be reviewing/updating this year
• Fiscal Policy will be focus of updating

Conference Changes

Members should be allowed to vote regardless of attendance at conference- Proxy voting

Danette: Some members wanted a one-day conference format

Questions from conference committees:

1. How will length of conference be decided?

Board decides? Membership?

STEVE: How do we get more people to attend (particularly SSS membership)?

Linda: What is the purpose of the conference? Networking with Other program staff

Ginny purposes to make conference flexible. Two nights for those who want to stay over or one night for folks coming from a distance

Faith: Not going to attract new membership (Newcomers reception?)

Steve- Need to poll the membership and get their feel on the issue

Karen-“get- to- know -you” activities are effective

2. Does October work for programs or should we go back to January?

Steve-There is NO good time for everyone

Consensus: Stick with October-maybe move later in October?

George at Bethel Inn is interested in hosting next year’s conference

Judy and Michele still considering spots/affordability/central locations

Karen- Poland Springs Resort? 3. What is budget so Judy and Michele can get started?

Policy Seminar

Hall of Flags- Needs to be planned

Old Business

State Initiatives

ACTION
Steve will write proposal by Thurs/Friday for video camera/software equpment to film “Reasons for TriO in Maine.”

New Business

Election Fallout

Predicted impact- Senate and house got more conservative, but mission has Changed. Kennedy may be Education Chair. Discussion around new regs for UB is likely to be forthcoming

Future Meetings:
Thursdays?
Mondays?

ACTION
Steve will send out email to confirmMeeting adjourned: 2:07

Respectfully Submitted
Lori C. Wingo
Secretary