Board of Directors Meeting Minutes for March 2008
Meeting begun at 5:34 pm
Announcements – none
Introductions – Introduced Brea Lemke – City planner with the city of Ashland representing Mayor Monroe
Approval of Consent Agenda – Agenda and Minutes – usually includes treasurers report but report must be sent out prior to meeting.
John Teeter moved to approve consent agenda, Jack seconds and discussion includes Bob Krumenaker’s note that Peggy Burkman’s name was misspelled in the minutes of last meeting. Motion then carries.
Chair Report – Steve Sandstrom
Governor’s Conference on Tourism – The Lt. Gov. keynote focused on WI state effort to push idea of a creative economy and to change how we do things in the state. She highlighted the Sustainable Business Conference and AFS and encouraged attendance. As an organization AFS is getting statewide recognition. There are many people in the state government that are impressed with the Alliance.
Brandon distributed Mary’s article highlighting the business conference in Municipality Magazine.
Mary mentioned her week in Canada where she presented at the Natural Step Conference (there were 1000 mayors) and will make a presentation to the Board in the near future.
Treasurer Report – Jack Beagan
No surprises and no questions.
John T. moved to approved, Bob K seconded, no discussion, motion carried.
Fundraising Report – David Eades
· David and Brandon signed all the Thank you cards
· Sent out letters to pledges who have not yet fulfilled their pledge.
· Contributions to date:
January: $8295 expected
$9895 current ($1k from Campaign Sustain)
$1580 in pledges yet to come in
Does not include municipality contributions:
$2K from Ashland
$1K from Bayfield (expected)
$1K from Washburn (expected – Brandon will verify)
Study Circles – Brandon Boys – no report
Update on Beyond Growth study circle– Dave Thomas - 12 -14 people attend, discussions great, people exploring ideas. March 19th meeting cancelled to due to conflict with State of Agriculture event.
Mary attended Rachelli’s Mozzarella making – was very positive
Programs Committee
Green Team – Mary Rehwald. Mid April event cancelled due to business conference. Green Team action plan sharing day will be March 14.
Other events – Brandon – March FEAST program, State of Agriculture discussion, CORET conference, League of Women Voters series of events regarding more compassionate world and want AFS to help promote.
Pie and Politics – Mary R. – no meeting yet. Needs volunteers. Richard Hienberg of Post Carbon Institute has been contacted to speak but have not yet had response.
Nominating committee – no report
Communications committee – did not meet
Strategic Plan committee – will start a forum for each section of the strategic plan.
John – create a version of the plan that tracks what is going on – especially those activities that address the goals of the plan. This will help us to determine what we need to focus on.
Bruce adds that he consulted with David and Brandon on how to use web to receive comment on the plan and identify the hot-topic sections.
Center Coordinator Report – Brandon
Superior Days – presented with Tom Wojo. Spoke with Public Service Commission after meeting about AFS Campaign Sustain and they were very interested in project.
Governor has new Office of Energy Independence – to empower energy independent communities. Goal of 25% of WI energy is renewable energy in 2025. Don’t have much of a budget yet but program will likely increase in size. Want 100 communities ot sign up and may do so at different levels – can be 1 star, 2 star or 3 star members.
Bob K – Can we push XCEL to offer alternative energy sources (green energy)? May be a state issue as WI has no state requirements.
Recent speaking engagements – WITC leadership class and Focus the Nation (has requested that Brandon be keynote speaker next year).
Grants – WCF letter of intent approved and full proposal submitted
WEEB – sent proposal in
XCEL – letter of intent approved and full proposal submitted
RFP Dubuque, Iowa (looking for a Green City designation) – Foth and Associates submitted proposal and Brandon is included as well as Steve Sandstrom and Mary Rehwald as consultants. Foth is one of 2 finalists.
Title Change for Ellen – approved
Green Team Network Report - Mary Rehwald,
· Sustainable Action Plan meeting will be held March 14. All 17 teams will report on their year to date plan using ABCD framework. Mary has hired videographer to film and all board members are invited to observe ($16 fee if you want lunch).
· Report to Otto Bremer will be made soon.
· Purchasing workshop held.
· May ask for additional funds from Bremer for website.
· Meet every 5 weeks with a theme for each meeting (last one was purchasing)
· She and Tom W. have visited 12-13 of the 17 team member sites.
· Online conference coming up on procurement policies and teams may participate
Sustainable Business Conference – Steve Sandstrom
David mentioned P.R. Wev – for $200 they will send out to PR people nationwide.
Steve distributed budget – need to raise $15K to break even with 125-130 attendees.
Bruce – can we somehow list geographic locations of registrants to help with car pooling?
Jack and Mary – we need to raise sponsorship goals on budget.
Mary – very concerned that no brochure will be printed and that all information is web based.
John T. – committee is doing a good job but he thought that by now we should be further along. Expected Jen to be at meeting giving report. There is a big risk here – expected that there would be more sponsorships by now.
Request that while yes, our marketing and information is web based, Board needs printed materials for Board meetings to facilitate discussion.
Action items:
Please send copy of sponsorship letter to Brea Lemke
Send Sponsorship letters to all Board Members
Old Business
David – from now on will include action items from previous meetings under this heading.
Mary – because she is a major program consultant, will abstain from voting until we have a Conflict of Interest Policy.
New Business
Performance Evaluation of Center Coordinator – Jack Beagan . Evaluation was based upon board feedback in forms. Jack compiled into a single document that was signed by Steve and Brandon. There is a copy available for board members to read. In summary, Brandon excelled in all aspects of performance for 2007 and has taken the organization to the next level.
John Teeter – How do we change Brandon’s job title and description to Executive Director?
This leads to discussion of Bremer Foundation Organizational Effectiveness Grants
Discussion ensued regarding AFS embarking upon an Organizational Assessment that would provide the background for board training and AFS organizational structure and effectiveness.
Jack recommends that all organizations go through this type of assessment and that it is important to have it done by an outside organization. There are orgs. that specialize in providing these services specifically to non-profits. Also this would lead directly into and include a Board training.
A motion was made by Jack to “pursue an organizational assessment/board training and other organizational effectiveness activities and to do so when grant funding is approved.”
The motion was passes with Dave Thomas abstaining.