Call to Order
The April 25, 2023, ACB Board of Directors Zoom Meeting was called to order at 8:00 PM Eastern Time by Interim President Deb Cook Lewis.
Roll Call and Introduction of Guests
The call of the roll was conducted by secretary, Denise Colley. All officers and directors were present, as well as Penny Reeder, BOP representative.
Staff present: Dan Spoone, Interim ACB Executive Director; Nancy Marks Becker, Chief Financial Officer; and Kelly Gasque, Manager of Communications.
Guests: Janet Dickelman, ACB Convention Committee Chair, and Michael Garrett, ACB Enterprise and Services Board Chair.
Review and Approval of Agenda -- Deb Cook Lewis, Interim President
It was moved by Bell and seconded by Semien to approve the meeting agenda. The motion carried.
Review and Approval of the March 9, 2023, meeting minutes - Denise Colley, Secretary
Denise reported that a revision was made in the Financial Narrative section of the minutes that clarified some language that was found to be confusing. The clarification language was sent out to the Board prior to this meeting and will be inserted into the official minutes document.
It was moved by Powell and seconded by Pacheco to approve the revised March 9, 2023, Board meeting minutes. The motion carried.
Report on DC Leadership Conference Participant Survey -- Kelly Gasque, Manager of Communications
(See the survey documents in Word and Excel, sent out to the Board and in the Board Dropbox).
Ninety-two individuals responded to the survey. 54% attended virtually, 9% attended in-person only and 35% attended both virtually and in person. Respondents were very satisfied with the legislative seminar, particularly the virtual presentations and the discussion around the Legislative Imperatives. They felt it really prepared them for the whole conference experience. Respondents enjoyed being able to attend the Currency Rally, both in-person and virtually. The majority were either very satisfied or satisfied with the in-person portion of the Leadership Conference. 15% of respondents felt the 2024 Leadership Conference should be held virtually, 8% felt it should be held in-person only, and 76% felt it should be held as a hybrid event.
Comments for future consideration: The length of the Conference needs to be shortened. Participants feel they are going to have to choose between attending the Convention and/or attending the Leadership Conference. There should be fewer Connection Shows between sessions. Need to have hard copies of the legislative imperatives available at the in-person Conference. Those individuals who could not participate in the in-person Conference felt they missed out on a lot of valuable content. Information about the Leadership Conference should be announced earlier next year.
Recommendations for 2024 from staff and the President:
Return to holding the Leadership Conference as was done before COVID, with a day for the Board meeting, a day and a half for both the leadership training segment, and the president’s sessions, and another day and a half for the legislative portion. All sessions would be hybrid. Interspersed within this schedule could be possible tours, a social event, and/or exhibitors and/or external focus sessions of interest. This could then be followed by the option of in-person and/or virtual hill visits. While the structure would be the same as pre-pandemic, it would be hybrid and more interactive.
It was moved by Sims and seconded by Brown that we accept the recommendation of holding the 2024 ACB Leadership Conference the first weekend in March, with the Board meeting on Friday, three days of activity with the presidents leadership conference and legislative seminar with social and other activities mixed in, and with support for people to make Hill visits on Tuesday. The motion carried with one no vote by Lopez Kafati, and one abstention by Pacheco.
Convention Report -- Janet Dickelman, ACB Convention Committee Chair
Janet read the proposed wording for the COVID policy that will be a part of the waiver that people sign when they complete their registration for the Convention. COVID tests and masks will be available for those who choose to use them.
It was moved by Sims and seconded by Brown to add this COVID protocol wording to our standard waiver. The motion carried.
The Convention administrative fee will be $35 for members and $50 for nonmembers. Kid’s Club will not be held this year due to lack of participation.
Mission Moment -- Deb Cook Lewis and Dan Spoone
Dan Spoone highlighted the amazing work of Sharon Lovering and all the time she puts into helping pull all the information off of AMMS and getting it into the final format that goes into Donor Perfect. He also thanked Nancy Becker and her entire team in the Minnesota Office who get involved in the entire process. Nancy indicated their office received many questions about affiliates being able to use AMMS to store their affiliate information. Currently, there are up to ten additional fields available to affiliates to use. A full analysis of the member certification data will be provided at the Convention Board meeting.
Report on the Board Policy Project and Next Steps - Kim Charlson and Koni Sims
Kim and Koni provided an update on progress with locating and identifying all past and current Board policies. This project came about as an offshoot of work the History Committee is doing in regard to archiving and tracking the organization’s policy decisions, action items, and practical records retention recommendations. The first step has been looking through past Board minutes to locate any major action items, policies, motions, and decisions that impact our role as a Board and as an organization. This phase required locating and reviewing past minutes, determining if there was an actual print or electronic copy anywhere, and where that copy was located.
Koni has essentially reviewed all minutes, motions, policies, resolutions, and anything else she could locate going back to 2010. A spreadsheet has been compiled that shows the year, date, type of information (policy, procedure, guideline, goal, resolution, etc.), and if the document is available anywhere and where it can be found.
Once this phase of the project is complete, a small working group will be established to identify the document review procedures ACB should be following for updating and storing these types of organizational documents. Processes will need to be established as to which items need to be retained, where they should be stored, which documents are for Board use, which items are the most recent version of policies, but may not have been officially rescinded, and which items either require updating or discharging by the Board. A protocol will need to be established as we go forward to make sure we are tracking and properly storing any actions, decisions, motions, timelines, policies, and/or procedures that have an impact on the future work of ACB.
Said working group will be established by the newly elected president shortly after convention to begin working on establishing the needed processes. Any Board members interested in serving on the working group should let President Lewis know of their interest.
President’s Report - Deb Cook Lewis
ACB Board of Directors Meetings: The next virtual ACB Board of Directors meeting will be Tuesday, August 15, 2023. This date falls right in between the Convention Board Meeting and the Fall Board meeting.
Working With Committees: Deb is sorting through how she will be best engaged with the committees. She has started going to Steering Committee meetings. She is available to any committee who wants to speak with her. No committee changes will be made at present. She is looking at a redesign process for adding members to committees. She would like to use an application form for applicants for committee service. It probably won’t be possible to get that process into place this year, so we will send out an ask over all our communication channels and create a database of those who have an interest, and then follow-up.
It was moved by Charlson and seconded by Powell to accept the President’s Report. The motion carried.
Staff Reports
ACB Interim Executive Director’s Report – Dan Spoone
Staff are completing the necessary financial tasks connected with another successful ACB Leadership Conference and Legislative Seminar. Thank you letters have been sent out to all the external people and organizations that were a part of the Conference. There have already been two meetings held for planning the Audio Description Awards Gala. All details for the 2023 Conference and Convention are well underway. The Convention Broadcast Team is working hard to plan out all of the broadcast and data tracking, zoom and ACB Media responsibilities. The staff are preparing for the Alexandria office relocation.
In the area of employment, Dan welcomed Natalie Couch to the ACB staff as the new Membership Services Administrative Assistant. He also informed the Board that Rachael Hollatz, our Human Resources/Payroll Specialist would be leaving us.
Coming out of the Accessible Currency Rally, staff have been working with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) and their Communications Director to set up a meeting with the BEP director. One of the offshoots of this collaboration with the Women on the 20 leaders is that ACB was invited to a meeting with the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, who has responsibility for the BEP and the Federal Reserve.
Chief Financial Officer’s Report: Nancy Marks-Becker
A financial report for the Leadership Conference was provided for the event overall and for each category.
It was moved by Campbell and seconded by Sims to accept the staff reports. The motion carried.
Board of Publications (BOP) Report and Candidates Process -- Penny Reader, BOP Director
All of the information about the candidates pages, including the questions to be answered, can be found in the April edition of the ACB E-Forum. Those responses are due to Sharon Lovering by May 15. The BOP will be posting the responses on the ACB website Candidate’s Pages and email lists on June 1. The candidate’s responses will also be in the June E-Forum. Those candidates who fill out the Candidates Pages information will also have an opportunity to record a short audio file which ACB Media will then run during the month of June. The Candidates Forum will be available virtually on Zoom and ACB Media on June 14. The name of the Convention newspaper will be the Schaumburg Standard.
It was moved by Colley and seconded by Brown to accept the BOP Report. The motion carried.
It was moved by Trott and seconded by Thom that we go into recess as the ACB Board of Directors and move into the ACBES Board meeting. The motion carried.
ACB Enterprises and Services Board meeting and Board Report -- Michael Garrett, ACBES Board Chair
With Dan Spoone’s appointment as ACB Interim Executive Director, he submitted his resignation as a member of the ACBES Board. This requires the ACBES Board to elect another representative from the ACB Board to serve in that vacated position. This position must be an ACB Board member because the ACBES Constitution requires that four of the members of the ACBES Board be from the ACB Board. Three Board members were nominated, and Terry Pacheco was elected.
It was moved by Campbell and seconded by Trott that we adjourn the ACBES meeting and return to the ACB Board of Directors meeting. The motion carried.
Board Member Expectations at Convention – Deb Cook Lewis
President Lewis is asking every Board member to make an effort to be part of the events where we are honoring or featuring people. Examples include the scholarship reception, DKM reception, and the afternoon tea for the Mentoring Pilot program.
It was moved by Campbell and seconded by Bell that we adjourn the public part of the Board meeting and go into Executive Session. The motion carried.
The Board moved into Executive Session at 11:14PM Eastern time. Personnel and legal issues were discussed, but no actions were taken.
The Board moved out of Executive Session at 11:52PM Eastern and the ACB Board meeting was adjourned.
Denise Colley
Secretary
Date submitted: 5/15/2023
Approved: 6/30/2023