August 20, 2016 – WSOB Minutes

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WORLD SERVICE OFFICE BOARD AGENDA

August 20, 2016

OPEN MEETING @ 9:00 AM

SERENITY PRAYER – Lead by Tim A.

TRADITION 9 – Read by Morgan T.

CONCEPT 9 – Read by Ira L.

BIRTHDAYS – None

ROLL CALL & QUORUM DETERMINATION

Present were Tim A. (Acting Chair), Laurie R. (Treasurer), Linda F. (DOO), Morgan T. and Randy M.

(Secretary). Quorum is met.

Guests: Kevin M., Allison, Don A.

CHAIR ANNOUNCEMENT(s)-

  1. Conference in 11 days. Please review the latest delegate mailing carefully. Also be sure to register for the Conference.

APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING(s) –7/23/2016 MOTION to approve the minutes from July 23, 2016 made by Randy M.; seconded by Linda. Motion passes unanimously.

SEVENTH TRADITION

OFFICE DIRECTOR REPORTS

Director of Operations- Linda –

New employee started August 2.

Attached to report are motions regarding conference.

MOTION to accept the bid from A/V Professionals for $2,331.00 made by Linda; seconded by Randy. Kevin – were there competing bids received? Yes, One other for the same fee but committee thought there would be competition with our sales. Motion passes unanimously.

MOTION to accept the bid from TMG Copier Rentals for $1,725.00 made by Linda; seconded by Ira L. Linda speaks to the motion saying this is the same vendor we’ve been using and are happy with their service. Morgan confirms we have looked at other bids. Motion passes unanimously.

MOTION to accept the bid from S & T Partners for $430.55 made by Linda; seconded by Morgan T. Kevin says: in the past there have been issues with splitting the audio feed between video feeds. Wants to know that these issues have been dealt with. Linda clarifies there are four screens plus the monitor. These items have been discussed at length with the vendor. Ira L. This is projection screen, correct? Yes. Kevin states that it needs to come off of the same feed. Do they have a budget for these items? Yes. Ira L. – other items discussed were also within budget? Laurie says yes. Kevin – one other question – is there a UPS on the tape? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

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Special Edition: A Quiet Peace has arrived! They will be introduced and for sale at the conference. Laurie wants to be sure we know which ones are the first 15– Linda, they have been dedicated for the conventions. “Luck of the draw” is for all books past the first 15 books. There are commercially available places to re-wrap boxes once they’ve been checked for the number, if need be. Kevin: Ira found #22 was blemished on the front cover; are we going to inspect these for this? Every book would have to be opened and then resealed. This should be discussed with the vendor. Ira – Kevin brings up a good point. Good thing is that we have a history with RR Donnelly and Linda is confident we can resolve any problems with them. Tim – did we get an extra case? Linda; We got an extra 50.

She did not get a chance to do online book sales report due to conference preparation. Specialty chips are still doing really well.

Still working with Marius on registration program.

Still working on office move preparation.

Received two check requests from CAWS 2017. MOTION to accept the bid from

Fundraising Committee for Check Request #8 in the amount of $350.00 made by Linda F.. Seconded by Randy. Ira L. – is this amount below the $500 amount required for the spending committee approval? Laurie – says this is the way we’ve been doing it. Continue with the motion. Motion passes with noted abstention.

MOTION to accept Check Request #9 for $442.45 made by Linda, seconded by Morgan T.

Motion passes with noted abstention.

DIRECTOR REPORTS

Acting Chair – Tim A – written report submitted

Vice Chair- Open

Treasurer – Laurie R – written report submitted.

No highlights. Convention financials are done. Net was $76K and change. She discusses the $18K which was added by the office. Came very close to their goals. Says committee did a great job. Office needs to send a “thank you” letter.

Added two COA to the QB. Fixes a missing expense item. “Donations to CAWS Convention Committee” also.

YTD financials are complete and will be sent to the WSBOT. She’s also included expected costs for the next 3 months.

She has suggestions and recommendations for the convention money.

Money from the England came in August 1, 2016.

Recommendations: Ira L makes a MOTOIN to Repay publication funds from the operating account; seconded by Linda. $12,800 would fund it. Motion passes unanimously.

Right now we have $70K in the convention account. MOTION to move $50K to savings account; leave $1,000 in the convention account made by Laurie; seconded by Linda.

Motion passes unanimously.

MOTION to move $19,000.00 from the convention account into the prudent reserve to fully fund the Prudent Reserve made by Ira; seconded by Morgan T. Motion passes with noted abstention. Ira Land question – he though our prudent reserve was $100,000 – what has changed? Laurie states we approved in November a prudent reserve policy which contains a calculation. Allison – As we move forward, the PR will be recalculated each November? Yes.

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Linda discusses possibility of keeping the money in the general account until after the move.

Randy speaks to the motion.

Questions:

  1. Linda – Do you go the bank branch in Culver City? Laurie: Century City is the branch we’ve been using. Our banker guy is there, and he can work with other branches if need be.

Acting Chair introduces the two added visitors – Don A and Duane M. Duane was invited to come to the board meeting by Ira L: Duane says thank you for inviting me. Ira L: What are you here for, Don? Invited by Randy for open DAL Positions.

Secretary – Randy M – written report submitted.

Director at Large – Morgan –

Nice to be back. Short report submitted late last night. Visited CA meetings in Europe. Amsterdam is neat, sitting around a table with food in the center of the meeting; family atmosphere. Group conscience to do meeting in English, when there is a visitor. Thanks the board for opportunity to serve. Ira L – can we convince you to stay? No. But may find his way back in the future. Linda – wants to say we have some open positions.

Director at Large – Chris – Not present

Director at Large – Alesia F – Not present

TRUSTEE REPORTS

WSO Trustee – Vacant

WS Trustee – Ira L – written report submitted.

Thanks the Board for the Special Edition: A Quiet Peace – came out better than expected. Special thanks to Linda for making it happen. Thinks the conference will be pleasantly surprised.

Special Edition of HFC and / or HFC 2 may also be something to be considered. Would love to see a 35th anniversary editions; that would be very awesome.

Struggling with committees not following 3 bid process. Committees are supposed to work on purchases and contracts, etc., and should do so in a time frame which allows for the 3 bids..

Wants to discuss The Box issue and Conflict of interest issue. He has added these to the agenda. Who should own the The Box account and pay for it? This will be discussed later under New Business.

Ira wants to make sure that a check has been received from SGVP region? Linda says yes. Duane: is it our practice to send out “Thank You’s for extra donations? Linda Yes, It is her goal to catch up on “Thank You’s” once the move is complete.

COMMITTEE REPORTS –

Finance –Laurie – No report.

Structure & Bylaws –Open

Convention – Linda, Ira –

Convention committee is planning a conference call tomorrow, but it may wait until conference.

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Conference –Linda, Ira –

Has a conference call tomorrow. Has about 120 registered. Flash drives will be on wrist bands. Basically ready and we are rocking and rolling.

Amendment was approved to increase hotel rooms at the conference.

Questions:

  1. Ira L. – New registration. CAWS 2017 Chair wrote in an email that we have problems with the new registration program. Ira has not received any specifics. Gary has yet to provide any specifics about it, but wants the board to know the conference chair has complained about the new program. Linda says she has received calls from people who have had issues, but she has not had any issues when she logs in to handle their items. This is the first chair who wants the registration forms sent to him. Usually they want the information, but he wants the reg forms. But he has not provided specifics to Linda, either.
  2. Kevin – being an attempted user, one big problem is that there is no way to add to an existing registration. Can’t do it without paying a new registration form.
  3. Ira L. – were we able to do that with RegOnline? Yes.
  4. Laurie, – can someone call the office and get items added? Yes, and that is what has been happening. Linda speaks to the benefits of the RegOnline system. The new system is saving money, but more money is being spent in the preparation of reports which are not part of the registration process. This is not a “registration” program. She has spoken with the developer, and he says he didn’t have a full understanding of the needs of the committees, so these were not included. Laurie – her thinking is that RegOnline for the conference. Because the conference attendance is lower than conventions. RegOnline for conventions is much more expensive. Kevin – are we paying for the development of the registration process? Yes. Allison, did you look into alternate registration systems other than RegOnline. The last 7 or 8 convention are on this program.

Unity – Alesia – not present.

Literature, Chips & Formats – Chris – not present

Hospitals & Institutions – Tim – No Report

Public Information – Morgan, Linda – No report from Morgan

Linda says they’ll be having a meeting before conference and will be working hard during the conference.

IT –Linda

They’ve had trouble having meetings. They will be meeting during the conference. Members noted the irony of the IT Committee having technical issues with conference calls.

Archives – Randy & Linda –

Ira – was the stand-in trustee for the conference calls. Cameron is also working on audio files available. We have discussed this at previous board meetings.

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CAWS CONVENTION REPORTS:

  1. CAWS 2016 – Chicago – Closing out report (well the beginning at least). Waiting for checks to clear before closing. Closing report was sent to committee. Ira L. – Would love to see some “Pass It On”. Mitch said they are working on completing PIO. Laurie expects them soon. Thank you letter to be signed at conference.
  2. CAWS 2017 – Seattle – Board to approve Seattle hotel contract. (Held until July, 2016) Spending Convention Treasurer could be an issue. May be a loose cannon. He requested that we send the checks to him instead of to the vendor. Laurie – first of all, that is his prerogative. Either is fine with us. There has been a little animosity between the treasurer and the convention chair. The former chair had lunch with the convention chair and the office chair directed the convention chair to do things a certain way. Gary then continued to say the WSOB told him to do this. The two chairs should not be discussing treasury business, and the WSOB chair should not have directed Gary to do anything related to treasury. Gary thinks the treasurer would not cooperate with directives from the board. We all need to be careful with our opinions when discussing issues outside of this meeting. Kevin suggest the acting WSOB should reach out to Gary that he needs to discuss financial issues with the treasurer. Laurie agrees.
  3. CAWS 2018 – Montreal – Board to approve Montreal hotel contract. (Held until July, 2016) Ira states it was approved. Are the contracts in the Yahoo groups? Treasurer needs to be up to speed on the financial deadlines that are included in these contracts.
  4. CAWS 2019 – Sweden – Linda – knows they are doing site visits but have not recommended a

GUEST REPORTS:

Allison – no report.

Kevin – fixed Linda’s computer. Don A. no report.

ONLINE BUSINESS:

MOTION to approve the online vote for Check Requests # 5, 6 and 7 for CAWS 2017 made by Randy; seconded by Linda. Motion passes with noted abstention.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS-

  1. WSOB Director(s): No open positions at this time. Resume outlines available from Linda. Submit prior to CAWS 2016 if possible. Slates due for Trustee consideration:
    1. WSOT
    2. DAL
    3. Treasurer
    4. Chair position is open.
    5. There will be three open DAL positions after the conference.
  2. European Fulfillment Center -Morgan– Nothing to report. He did meet with Scott before travelling to Europe, who asked him to meet with members over there asking their opinion about the EFC. They still have a questions surrounding that. Ira L. – obviously he’s been involved. This should be considered after the conference. The whole region could be discussing this. Seems to have hit a

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dead end. Kevin – is there an SR 14 on this issue? NO. Linda is wondering about if the UK areas’ split could be an issue. Morgan – certainly. Morgan believes the issue stems from a previous SR 14. Laurie – she feels we have been tasked with us; a business plan was prepared by the trustees. There is not consensus on whether there is a need for it. She believes we can’t just drop it, as we have to date. Should have a meeting with the delegates. The European Region is important to CA Fellowship. Suggests we move forward on this item. There was a special meeting in Las Vegas with Russel, and we should review those minutes. Morgan – a conversation with Susanne came to mind, ERT, she requested that the WSOB look into the cost of producing literature in European Region. Morgan can contact Scott? He’s outgoing. Kevin – a year ago we would have put it in England. Now with Brexit and the regions splitting up we may need to reconsider. Linda says even though they are not up to date, we have royalty agreements with areas that have translations – they are producing their own pamphlets. We have researched through RR Donnelly about EFC options. Ira L. – was not Keith working on this project? Has anyone picked up that ball? Linda is working on pamphlets.

C. Meeting Formats in a Pocket _______ and Linda – Linda is working on it. Will not produce anything until after the move.

D. Office Lease (February 2016) – Need to vote on at Aug. meeting. Kevin – has there been any hazardous materials? Landlord says no, but we have to check. Ira L. – this is an issue and we can’t sign the lease until such time as we get confirmation that there is no hazardous chemicals present which would be harmful to the office employees. Kevin, would also be helpful if previous tenant would sign a document accepting responsibility for any costs associated with problems. Duane confirms this is an issue the WSBT expects to be resolved prior to signing. Linda had hoped to have an answer prior to the walk through. Landlord is going to have inspection done. Kevin, what is the cost of an inspection? Not known at this time. Linda can arrange it. Duane – this has been on the boards plate since February. The WSBT has been overly lenient in waiting for this to happen. There would be a greater danger if we don’t get this done. Ira L concurs. Kevin – if not signed before the conference is over, there will be new members on the WSBT to be considered. MOTION to approve the lease contingent upon the new space being cleared of chemical issues made by Morgan T., seconded by Laurie. Randy states this is a deal breaker and should not be made Should be known first. Kevin believes that the conditional approval will meet the requirement. Ira L. – perhaps a friendly amendment? It may be too short of time to move if we wait to hear back about the results. Kevin – it is his experience that moving from one office to another in the same complex, with the same landlord, moving dates can be adjusted. Linda – we have a great relationship with landlord. Construction to be complete middle of September. No further discussion. Duane – there is time obligation to be completed. Motion passes 4 to 1.

E. 800 number – – Alesia – not present

F. Trademark – Ira- Received recent communication from our attorney’s office regarding recent work on the renewal dates. The renewal dates for European trademarks has been paid and is good until 2026. There was a potential copyright infringement issue which may incur attorney’s fees. Laurie again requests list of copyrights, and due dates so that attorney’s fees can be included in the budgets. Yves has been getting this list together, and should have comparisons with the office list. But Ira states there still may be unknown issues that may always come up. Linda – was she copied on email? Yes.

G. New birthday envelope – Linda (Tabled motion from 11/14/2015)

H. CAWSO Dba setup – Scott/Ira – (Tabled motion from 11/14/2015 – waiting for Trustee opinion on whether necessary or not) – to be removed.

I. Review price policies and report from WSO on same. Review purchase plans on books. Scott and Kevin were working on.

J. Translation of specialty chips. Chris & Linda to work on.

K. Referrals from 2015 WSC (see file uploaded for details) a. From other Committees:

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  1. 2015 LCF 2-DONE
  2. 2015 LCF 7-DONE
  3. 2015 LCF 8 – DONE
  4. 2015 PI 2 – DONE
  5. 2015 PI 5 – DONE

b. From floor:

  1. 2015 WSOB 1-DONE
  2. 2015 WSOB 2-DONE
  3. 2015 WSOB 3 – DONE
  4. 2015 WSOB 4-DONE
  5. 2015 WSOB 5-DONE
  6. 2015 WSOB 6-DONE
  7. 2015 WSOB 7-DONE
  8. 2015 WSOB 8-DONE
  9. 2015 WSOB 9-DONE
  10. 2015 WSOB 10-DONE
  11. 2015 WSOB 11-MOTION to remove the last sentence in it’s entirety by Laurie, seconded Randy. Motion passes with noted abstentions.
  12. 2015 WSOB 12-DONE
  13. 2015 WSOB 13-DONE
  14. 2015 WSOB 14-DONE

NEW BUSINESS:

  1. Conflict of interest – employees Ira L. – Wants to review this policy as he believes there is a potential conflict of interest with the hiring of a friend into the World Service Office, as well as the previous employment of two persons who were roommates. Probably should have been a discussion about this at the board level prior to employment. Perhaps we should look at this in the future. He believes that the speed to hire someone caused us to hire someone that is, perhaps, a conflict of interest. We should try to avoid conflicts of interest. Linda speaks to the fact that she is friends with Adrianne, and has been for many years. She was brought in on a temporary basis. When the need arose for an immediate position, she was available, and she had the best qualifications. Linda believes that she can be a boss and handle the situation. She believes her relationship with her on the job is no different than other employees. Kevin clarifies that there may be a potential issue and should be brought to the attention of the board. Kevin has had experience in this matter. He believes full disclosure is necessary.
  2. Royalties Agreement- updating the wording. This is an issue that affected Portugal. They did not get their pamphlets because no royalty agreement was in place; they were waiting for updated language. Suggestion has been made regarding the royalty agreement. Laurie – she thought the cost of each pamphlet was 7 cents, not 9 cents. For QB our COGS is 7 cents. Kevin – this is what we’re charging our fellowship for the pamphlets. Do we need the money in raising from 6 cents to 11 cents? No. Ira L – that was one of his points as well, and would we then raise this for everyone. Price should just offset the cost. May reduce their opportunity to save money of we raise the price. Kevin – his feeling is that going from 6 cents to 7 cents is more reasonable. Laurie would suggest to stay with 7 cents. Term at 5 years is best. Ira L. – regarding the term, maybe language in the agreement relative to the EFC. Linda – her understanding is that EFC was not for printed material due to the fact that royalty agreements were already in place. MOTION to revise the royalty agreement to 7 cents per pamphlet, and change the terms to a five-year term made by Laurie, seconded by Linda. Motion passes with noted abstentions.

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  1. Thank You Letters – Laurie states that these are important and suggests the office assign a person to do have this task on their list on a weekly basis. Suggests having a template which would make it easier / faster to do. Linda states this is certainly a priority, but discusses the issues faced by the office. Morgan – who are these letters from? The office. Laurie – MOTION that “thank you” letters are done weekly, utilizing the existing office policy for sending letters made by Laurie; seconded by Linda. Kevin – point of information. Letter at $1,000? Maybe a $100 is a better benchmark? Also a lot of people make monthly donations. Ira L. – MOTION to table. Motion to table passed unanimously.
  2. Newsgram – Linda MOTION to accept the Newsgram with noted corrections made by Linda; seconded Morgan T. Motion passes unanimously.
  3. The Box – Ira wants to ensure that the WSOB chair will work on moving ownership of The Box from the conference to the WSOB. Laurie opinion is that it should be turned over to the office and should by an office expense.
  4. For the next board meeting, we feel that Linda is on too many committees. Can other’s step up? We need other board members to step up and fill some of these committee liaison positions.

EXECUTIVE SESSION –

  1. Interviews (note: the WSOT &Chair are positions that are interviewed in detail by the Trustees or TEC – our interview is only to see that any applicant meets the basic qualifications so that I can submit):

a. Tim – WSOT &Chair – Having voted in executive session, we are submitting Tim Andre as a qualified candidate for World Service Office Trustee, and further have voted to submit his name to the WSBT as a candidate for the WSOB Chairman.

b. Kevin- WSOT & Chair – Having voted in executive session, we are submitting Kevin Murphy as a qualified candidate for World Service Office Trustee and further have voted to submit her name to the WSBT as a candidate for the WSOB Chairman.

Conference: opening reports to the conference. Are we going to do any presentations? Linda will present her report. Discussion of slides? Trustees will start. WSOB will be next. The Chair, the Treasurer and DOO will be the ones giving a report. Linda to work on power point presentation. Laurie to work on written presentation.

NEXT MEETING(s) –August 29, 2016 – Board to Board -7pm NEXT MEETING(s) –September 17, 2016 – Board to Board -7pm

MOTION to adjourn at 1:05PM made by Randy M. Seconded by Morgan T.

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