Minutes of the Oct. 1, 2015, meeting
of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges Board of Directors
Attending: President Patricia Stark, Santa Barbara City College; Northern California Faculty Rep Judy House, College of the Sequoias, Visalia; Southern California Faculty Rep Kate McLaughlin, El Camino College, Torrance; At-Large Rep Walter Hammerwold, American River College, Sacramento; Student Northern California Rep Joseph Daniels, American River College, Sacramento; Student Southern California Rep Evan Solano, Citrus College, Glendora; Four-Year Rep Dave Waddell, CSU Chico; Communications Director Alicia Edquist, Cerritos College. Norwalk; Joe Wirt, CNPA Services Inc. Absent: Industry Rep Joey Berumen, Los Angeles News Group, Student President Cheyenne Drury, American River College, Sacramento.
Stark called the video-conferenced meeting to order at 4:12 p.m.
Minutes of the Aug. 6, 2015 video-conferenced meeting were approved.
In her report:
Stark proposed re-scheduling meetings set for the regional conferences to a video-conference session at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5. The board concurred.
She then asked to develop an amendment the constitution to create a new position: faculty president-elect. Her current thinking was that this position would replace the faculty-at-large position to keep the same faculty-student ratio on the board. She said she would have a proposal for first reading at the Nov. 5 meeting.
Hammerwold announced that Cheyenne Drury, state student president, was resigning her position due to health problems. He said that Drury had withdrawn from journalism classes at ARC.
The board agreed by acclimation that regional student directors, Solano and Daniels, would become co-presidents for the remainder of their term.
Stark noted that per JACC’s reimbursement policy, the co-president could travel at JACC expense to the opposite regional conference. She directed them to contact Renee Smith of CNPA Services Inc. for travel arrangements.
Edquist provided a communication update. She has:
- Completed putting multiple accounts (social media and other items) under one email address and compiling user names and passwords.
- Updated the website with information for regionals that has been provided and wants to collect more info such as speakers, schedule, schedule app , workshops and so on. Will work with managers and committees in charge to gather and distribute that information.
- Received an updated list from managers regarding membership and those outstanding. Will be going through the list to make sure those that have membership have access to the group email and those that have not committed to being members be removed. Joe has requested we wait on removing several colleges that he knows dues are coming but not officially in.
- Begun working with managers to hand over the documents on JACC’s website hosting/domain and getting the new information changed on those accounts. She noted that Rich Cameron, Cerritos College, has been a great help with this transition.
Stark reported on planning for the SoCal conference. Her ongoing task was to gather a list of confirmed speakers and hand it over to Renee Smith, events director, who is developing a comprehensive planning matrix for both NorCal and SoCal.
House reported on NorCal conference planning. She and Cindy McGrath of Los Medanos College were meeting weekly with Smith. House complimented Smith’s work and said they were working well together.
Wirt then presented budget report based on information and financial records managers have gathered so far. He reported that:
- All previous signators had been removed from the JACC Wells Fargo account and all debit cards destroyed.
- Tom Newton, CNPA’s general manager, was now the sole signator on the account.
- Within the next six months, they will close the Wells Fargo account and open a new account at River City Bank.
- Managers have been using bank account information and paperwork handed over by former events director Timi Poeppelman. Managers have been unsuccessful obtaining access to JACC’s QuickBook records, which were handled for former treasurer Kelly Goff. Efforts will continue these efforts.
- Income Information is now current, with managers expecting annual reg fees from three colleges. All else are paid, with the exception of Antelope Valley and Bakersfield, both of whom have indicated they will not be joining JACC this year.
- Managers are still working on compiling the expense side of the report.
A long discussion ensued re: a loan JACC signed with an anonymous donor in 2012. Wirt reported the loan was $25,000, at 8-percent interest, to be paid off in February 2017. The balance of the loan is now, $21,000 and the former treasurer has been paying interest only.
Wirt said he has been in contact with the donor and may be able to negotiate a lower interest rate and longer term.
Several directors expressed extreme frustration at being kept in the dark about the donor’s identify. They asked Wirt to see if that condition could be waived. Directors Hammerwold and McLaughlin said they were troubled with the lack of transparency surrounding the whole process and questioned whether the board should investigate a conflict of interest. Both also noted that 8 percent was very high—even in 2012.
Director Waddell concurred and said that, at a minimum, the board president should be told the donor’s identity.
The consensus was that Wirt should ask the donor to lift the anonymity condition and see if re-negotiation was possible. Directors also asked Wirt to make a copy of the original loan document available to them, with the donor name didacted. Wirt agreed to do so.
Wirt said that managers were now in possession of documents related to the lapse in corporate filings and past tax returns from 2009 to 2012. He said the board could be confident that enough paperwork was in place to secure JACC’s 503b status for now and that managers will be making recommendations on future actions.
He said they will be looking at past tax returns so as to recommend a course of action to bring JACC into currency and compliance with state and federal agencies.
McLaughlin expressed her concern—expressed at previous meetings—that JACC was not investigating problems with past tax returns or pursuing an audit.
Stark said that managers had just begun looking at the tax returns and were focused on developing a budget to be used for planning regional conferences. She said this was her top priority at this time.
Wirt then announced that CNPA can add JACC conferences as a rider to its insurance. JACC can now drop its insurance policy, saving $2,400 a year.
The $13,000 owed to Tides
Stark then moved on a first reading of the revised reimbursement policy. She explained that the board reviewed the first reviewed the revised policy in June, but she had made further revisions to reflect the new management structure. The board majority approved of the changes and moved the policy to second reading next month.
Stark called time and reminded the group that the next meeting would be at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5. She called adjournment at approximately 6 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Patricia Stark