JACC SoCal Board Meeting
Burbank Marriott
June 20, 2015
NOTE: The board was unable to meet as planned in person at Pismo Beach this weekend because we did not have accommodations, so the board met separately in two locations during one weekend. NorCal met Friday June 19 up north, and SoCal met Saturday June 20 down south. Patricia Stark attended both meetings. The SoCal minutes here should be read in conjunction with the NorCal minutes from June 19 to comprise complete minutes for the two-part board meeting.
Present: Joey Berumen, Kate McLaughlin, Alicia Edquist, Evan Solano, Patricia Stark; Kelly Goff called PS and said she will be joining the meeting in progress later.
- Meeting called to order at 10:10 a.m.
- Roll
- Changes to the April 10 minutes: Judy House was present at the meeting but minutes do not reflect that. Also. There is a typo on the June 30 bullet point. Corrections noted and KM will correct.
- Meeting coordination: Vote for CNPA, Service, Inc. will happen later this month via Google. Walter Hammerwold kept minutes yesterday up north and will send them in. KM is taking down south and will turn them in.
- President’s Report (replaces Treasurer’s Report for now til KG arrives): In the last few weeks, several programs have fallen into possible trouble.
- Chabot: Larry Leach has not been replaced. The paper there is not publishing. We are not sure of the status; it’s wait and see.
- Cypress: Robert Mercer has retired. PS reached out to RM see what the program status is, but he has not responded yet. Rumor is that the plan was always to wind down the J program there once RM left.
- Antelope Valley College: Polly, the adjunct who’d been running the show, said the program was put on hold and she is no longer teaching classes there. There is some backstory here. The program has a TMC degree in place. Mary Mazzocco. will advocate for the program to be reinstated. JACC will help to support the program.
Communications Director Report: We need a plan. AE has been working on it. So far, what we have:
- Listserve: PS and AE said this is a value-added benefit, a private place for members to get info and faculty support, It’s for active members of JACC, which means they’ve paid a membership fee to join our group. It can be open to people in process of joining, but it’s exclusive to membership.
- website: Some info available to public, but to get behind the scenes, one must be a member. Behind the scenes on the site is where we can create a resources area to share syllabi, assignments, strategies, curriculum language, directories, SLOs, ADTs, internship opportunities, awards, scholarships, transfer info, jobs etc.
- Facebook: Our public face on social media. Rich, Timi, Gil and AE are the admins on FB right now. AE had suggestions for better access setup.
- Twitter: Online social tools to be used as needed to keep people informed and engaged. We have two accounts: one main one for JACC and a second one for JACC conference/convention. The main one is run by Rich under his own Twitter account. People with access to that: Timi, Gil and one of Timi’s team members (KG or B?). Staci still runs the conference Twitter account.
- YouTube: Gil has access to the YouTube channel.
AE has begun work on our plan, but she has questions. A lot of past members and others are asking to be included on the listserve and she’s not sure what to tell them. The group agreed that we need to tell them to pay the membership fee if they want to join the group and have access to the resources. It’s what other college media organizations are doing. For too long we have let lots of people have a free ride. PS noted the importance of careful use of our resources and providing a service and value to members. The listserve is one such example.
AE said that the usernames and passwords for digital media accounts belong to all different people and are not centralized. Each account is owned by someone else and many people have access to many of our accounts. AE is trying to pull it all together. She wants to start an official JACC Gmail, so that it can serve as the centralized account to which all the other digital accounts are linked.
There is a lot here to deal with. AE is digging in and trying to get things organized before developing a specific plan. PS said we need to get it organized by the next board meeting. She asked AE to focus on the website. We will draft some language for AE to use when people ask to be added to the listserve and aren’t members.
PS said students desperately want a way to communicate. ES said the student officers will discuss and decide and it will be something that AE has access to. PS asked that by the start of the semester, there be something set up and ready to go for students. It should be a seamless integration with what JACC has set up (like a Facebook group off of the main JACC Facebook page). ES said student officers will do it and report on it at our August board meeting.
6.0 Discussion items:
6.1 Regional Conference Planning: NorCal: at Sac State Nov. 7, 2015. SoCal: First weekend in October. Problems with logistics. Construction begins this Monday at CSUF. There is a 5 to 10 percent chance that there will be issues with plumbing, electric and more. Tom Clanin wants us to sign the contract. He said we can back out any time. TP will be on hand to consult as needed but will not be running the conference as her last day working for JACC is June 30. Alternates: None on campus at CSUF. Marriott next door is way too much money. Maybe book CSUF and keep hotel as back-up as long as we commit to 30 rooms 30 days prior to the event. If CSUF becomes a problem, we go with the rooms and build something at Marriott. Another alternative is to have it on a local campus, make it a one-day event. Cerritos has offered to host. KM prefers to go with Cerritos: they have experience, they’re close to CSUF, there is minimal risk and the price is right. Right now is not the time to assume any kind of risk as we have plenty to keep the organization busy. JB wants the opportunity to host open to all SoCal schools.
Regional coordinator will be someone of CNPA Services, Inc.’s choosing and will handle logistics. JACC will choose a conference/committee chair to do programming (contests, schedules, speakers, etc.) There will have to be a lot more adviser involvement. People mentioned as possibles for the regional conference committee: Chris at Long Beach and Erin at Palomar, Nathan at Pasadena. PS will send an email to all membership explaining situation. KM will then begin recruiting a committee. KG is willing to help and has a spreadsheet with speakers contact info and ratings.
PS wants to beef up roundtables, not bitch sessions but topics that get discussed (e.g. what’s your process for choosing, discussing and executing unsigned editorials? Or each school bring one idea on a specific topic.) Focus should be educational and supportive. Don’t let healthy competition take over and create an adversarial environment. ES suggested a way to facilitate collaboration would be to have two schools work together on a project and both get points toward awards. It shifts institutional culture from competition to collaboration. PS liked it but wants beta testing on all new stuff.
6.2 Role of student directors for 2015-2016: For student officers, this year will be harder and easier. So far the project they will be working on is a JACC student communications mechanism. JACC has a lot of invisible problems that are coming to a head. It’s forcing much-needed change. We will need student input early and often. We will have to make decisions that will not make people happy. ES will work with the other student officers to manage expectations.
11:15 a.m. KG joined the meeting.
6.3 Developing on-the-spot judging directions: WH is developing on-the-spot judging directions/guidelines that include what to award, how to handle a no-awards situation, proctor involvement and responsibilities. etc. Once rules are codified, we need full participation from advisers and judges. Each contest needs one primary proctor from orientation to event to lab. Proctor will need to be in the judging room as an FYI consultant, not as a judge. That person will make sure any awards not given are fully explained, preferably at the awards ceremony so these situations can be a learning experience for all, not a mysterious situation that angers and alienates the people paying for an education experience. Possibly publish judging criteria in the program? In resources area of website? Wherever that information is housed we will stress its importance and location. We need to reinvigorate this process. All elements should be educational. WH will bring language to August meeting. Send all ideas or info on topic to WH. KG suggested untethering the registration from the publications contest.
Treasurer’s Report: Just got bill for State from Doubletree Sacramento. It always has to be amended after the event. It is $62K right now. With final tweaks, KG said it will end up either at $61K or up to $65K. The details are with TP who is talking to the Doubletree. As of June 20, JACC’s balance is $63,376. In addition to the Doubletree bill, KG said we have $11K in expenses outstanding. Plus there are a few bills in dispute, such as Kiway (sp?) that kept billing despite our requests to cancel its service (former list serve provider. List serve just stopped wortking one day so we canceled. they kept charging, KG said.). KG is hoping that some outstanding invoices will help us dig out of the financial hole we are in again this year. KG had no formal report to show or details on those hoped-for invoices as she’s been very busy with work. So all these numbers are approximate and in flux, she said. There are three big items for the board to think about:
- Doubletree hotel bill, which will clear us out financially.
- TP is owed $8,500, which represents that balance due for her services in ‘14-’15. She has not been paid since Jan. 1.
- We have a problem with the Cliffs Hotel in Pismo Beach. We did not invite 4-year schools to Pismo in January as we said we would. So we had far fewer people attend the event. The hotel billed us the full attrition rate, so they billed us $13K. They have taken that money. It’s not a figure we are in a position to try and negotiate. KG said TP has emails saying we canceled some rooms and responses from the Cliffs saying (implying? suggesting? not sure.) don’t worry, we’ll work it out. Then they billed us. So add this $13K to the $11K we owe in outstanding bills not yet paid and any amount we are overdrawn after paying Doubletree. It means JACC is likely more than $25K in the red. PS said Tom Nelson didn’t fall apart on hearing this. (Did he hear it at NorCal meeting?) PS said Cliffs was difficult to deal with from the beginning and CNPA Services, Inc. will hopefully go to bat for JACC.
The CPA called Kelly. A mistake was made on the tax filing, so the forms need to be re-done and re-signed. The mistake is one that could generate a fine, but since we’re a non-profit, it won’t. KG is shipping all the paperwork over. Taxes for ‘13-’14 are not done until she signs the new forms. In October, ‘14-’15 taxes are due. CNPA Services, Inc. Services, Inc. Services, Inc. said JACC has to select its own CPA but that CNPA Services, Inc. can provide suggestions.
The status of JACC’s non-compliance with state is still in a holding pattern. If state doesn’t accept our paperwork requesting the non-compliance errors be fixed, we can appeal. It’s not anticipated to be a problem.
PS said CNPA Services, Inc. is looking into the benefits of having JACC go under its 501c3 umbrella. Could be real benefits there for us.
Wild Apricot is our membership, registration, conference.convention registration software. The price is going up. We have to make a decision on whether to renew with them at our current rates by end of August or it auto-renews. Our rate is $50/mo or $550/year. It’s not the best system, KG said. She is getting information from conference planner at IRE to see what they use. She’ll share when she gets it. KG said registration and bookkeeping software are very important tools, so make a priority. KG will back-up past membership data on Wild Apricot. We can use that data for planning moving forward. That data includes total attendees, number of vegetarians, etc. KG said Wild Apricot has a function that lets people pay in advance through the site. She said many schools pay cash (!) for registration, that they walk in with thousands of dollars in cash, which she has had to immediately deposit. PS noted this is illegal under Title 5. We will no longer accept cash from students, not should advisers be doing that. Procedure for paying membership and registration fees has to be tightened up, codified and followed.
6.4 CNPA Services, Inc.: PS gave timeline of events.
Oct. ‘14: Joe Wirt proposed exploring a partnership with JACC.
Feb./March ‘15: PS sent a 7-page needs list. KG forwarded some financial information. Conversations and changes were made, refining the list.
June ‘15: CNPA Services, Inc. met with NorCal board members yesterday.
CNPA Services, Inc. handles logistics, freeing up the JACC board to be a board. We can store stuff in their basement. Tom Nelson said we should shrink the board as meetings are expensive.
CNPA Services, Inc. will keep separate JACC account but that it will be held by CNPA Services, Inc. They will have sole access to all the revenue. They will also work to ID alt revenue sources. They’ll collect the fees, which must be paid on time every time henceforth. No exceptions. Some members will probably fall through the cracks, but it’s a business and we have to start treating it that way. Some of our contracts will be expiring and we negotiated them during great recession. All prices are going up, esp. internet access. CNPA Services, Inc. will help us negotiate. KG and KM asked about not having a board member on the bank account. PS said CNPA Services, Inc. said it’s not standard operating procedure. KG and KM said they’d prefer to have someone on the JACC board on the account. If anything were to happen to CNPA Services, Inc., we would not have control of our own finances, a bad situation the board has been in for years.
CNPA Services, Inc. is charging us $2K+ per month for business services. Contract says that money is due on the first of every month but PS said that CNPA Services, Inc./Tom Nelson said that’s standard contract language and that JACC will not be held to it if cash flow is sporadic. PS said they said CNPA will get paid when they get paid. There was discussion about the monthly bill being due on the first and the assurances that it’s not a big deal. That’s what The Cliffs said right before they billed us $13K. The group wanted that portion reworded to say annually or quarterly, or something. We can’t do monthly because of our wacky cash flow cycles. KG said March June, Sept. and Dec./Jan. are good months with money in the bank.
We will keep our face-to-face summer meeting, the one at the faculty conference in winter and the one at state. The two regional meetings will be hybrid meetings; physically absent board members will attend via video conference.
We want to streamline the contests. We will be paying for them now.
Besides those few things, no reduction in services to members.
Clarification: for regional/state events, CNPA Services, Inc. will provide a facilitator and JACC will provide a programming/contest coordinator. Of concern is the gray area between these two people: who does what?
No. 5 page 2 is messy now, PS said, but it’s being worked out.
Item D page 3: KM asked about the vague phrase “…without first obtaining the approval from…” We agreed that this means that proposals and suggestions are just that. CNPA Services, Inc. does not make and execute decisions on behalf of the board. KM asked about the mechanism for “approval.” Is it a vote? A discussion? Is there a standard written down somewhere. It needs to be codified in the constitution, which will likely need revision again. KM said independent action outside of the full board isn’t OK. Decisions should not be made without vetting by the full board. However and wherever that needs to be articulated is fine, as long as it is.
PS needs a week to work on the changes and action items. Then we put it to a vote via Google.
PS said Joe Wirt wants TP around to answer questions/consult. It’s a deal between CNPA Services, Inc. and TP. JACC is not hiring her or paying her.
We will keep our P.O.box for now.
7.0 Meeting adjourned at 1:32 p.m. Next meeting will be 4 p.m. Aug. 6 via GoToMeeting.