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Present: Sheila Litchfield, President, Nancy Clover , Treasurer, Barbara Haswell , Director WM, Arlene Sullivan, Governmental Affairs, Susan Katz-Sliski, Communications Committee, Milda Walkey, Nominating Committee, Anne Lafontaine , Nominating Committee.
Absent: Terry Donahue, Vice President, Stephanie Chalupka, Secretary, Connie Surpinski Director NOB, Darlene Meisner, Director CM, Jeanne Donahue, Director GB
The pre-Board meeting was called to order by President Sheila Litchfield at 10:33 am at the Odd Fellows Hall in the Village of Shelburne Falls, MA.
- The agenda for the meeting was reviewed.
- The Professional Development Conference was discussed at length. Included in the discussion was whether to have the conference this year or wait until 2006, goals and objectives of the conference in meeting the needs of our membership, format and venue of the conference, and identification of conference committee members. The recommendations reached at the end of the discussion include: Committee members will be Susan Katz-Salinski and Nancy Clover with assistance from Arlene Sullivan; the committee will explore the pros and cons of going forward with a smaller summit this fall (October) at Quinsigamond Community College . These recommendations will be presented at the Board meeting.
- Support of local chapters was discussed. Sheila reviewed the challenges recently faced by Central Mass. The group agreed that MaAOHN's support to chapters needs to include more than the annual monetary gift. Susan questioned the feasibility of having a "chat line" available on our website. Also brought up was the fact that local presidents should use the "Other Business" space on the agenda to bring up items of concern for their chapters. Candidates running for local president also need to know they will have a responsibility to, and resource from, their MaAOHN peers.
The pre-Board meeting adjourned at 11:50 am and the group walked across the Bridge of Flowers to "A Bottle of Bread" for lunch.
The Board of Directors Meeting was called to order at 1:16 pm by President Sheila Litchfield when a quorum was reached. Present: Sheila Litchfield, President, Nancy Clover , Treasurer, Barbara Haswell , Director WM, Arlene Sullivan, Governmental Affairs, Susan Katz-Sliski, Communications Committee, Milda Walkley , Nominating Committee, Anne Lafontaine , Nominating Committee. Present via telephone conference call connection: Terry Donahue Vice President, Stephanie Chalupka Secretary, Connie Surpinski Director NoB, and Jeanne Donohue Director GB.
- The agenda for the meeting was reviewed. The following items were added. 11 a Awards, 11 b Appointment of the Chairman of Tellers.
- Minutes of the March 4, 2005 meeting were reviewed and approved with no changes. Motion to accept minutes was made by Nancy , seconded by Jeanne, vote in favor of approving the minutes of March 4.
- The Treasurers report was distributed and discussed. Nancy mentioned that the CD automatically rolled over without the Fin Com having time to discuss investment options; it will mature 02/07, giving ample time for Fin Com to explore options. It was noted that even though the MaAOHN checkbook has a balance of $17,000, the draft budget presents a deficit between income and expenses for 2005 of over $4000. Consensus was that the budget will be reviewed before the Chapter Disbursements are made at the end of this year. Stephanie discussed an agreement between MaAOHN and Harvard School of Public Health for MaAOHN to hold $7450 in scholarship money for Occupational Health Nurses for a Harvard conference in follow-up of the Core Curriculum for Environmental Health to be held in July 2005. Terry requested a budget line item to hire help in final formatting and printing of the Policy & Procedure Manual. The motion was made by Barbara and seconded by Stephanie to authorize $300. to hire an individual to format the P & P Manual. The motion passed without objection. Sheila requested Nancy to send a complete budget report to all Board members for review and suggested that no vote be taken to accept the Treasurers report because the members participating telephonically do not have a copy of the report.
- Susan summarized the pre-Board meetings discussion regarding the Professional Development Conference. She said that to keep the energy going the committee will look at having a smaller conference, a "summit with networking luncheon", in October at Quinsigamond College . Board consensus was to go forward with the summit plans.
- 2005 Goals Status was reviewed later in the meeting.
- Committee Reports
- Bylaws, Policies & Procedures. Terry reviewed the proposed timelines for completion (attached). She will forward job action sheets to BOD and Committees. The sheets need to be returned to Terry by July 15.
- Communications. Susan shared ideas about website development. The question was asked what happened to the pictures from the NECOEM Conference. Sheila sent a CD with all the photos to Penny. The concern is keeping the website active and a draw for members to return to. Nancy offered to email MaAOHN members to remind them to check out new items on the website. Arlene suggested and it was agreed that MaAOHN should eventually have an email distribution list of our own.
- Professional Development. This item was covered earlier.
- Finance. Nancy asked chapter Presidents to let her know who their treasurer's are because they comprise the Finance Committee. Presidents to provide feedback to Nancy .
- Nominations. Milda Walkley is the Chair. Terms expiring in Dec. 2005 include President, Vice President, and 2 nominating Committee members. Nominations close on September 30, ballots will be mailed by October 15, and must be postmarked no later than November 10 to be returned to the Teller. An email will be sent to Chapter Presidents for a call for nominations.
- Legislative Affairs (Arlene): investigating membership in state nursing associations for recommendation to Board for consideration. Arlene strongly recommended MaAOHN develop a member email distribution list
- Membership (Linda): unable to be present due to death of her father; no report available.
- There was discussion on the need for an Executive Director. Duties for this position could include making meeting arrangements, make changes to the membership directory, make vendor contacts, write bylaws changes, update the P & P manual, and apply for CEU's. Jeanne offered to write a draft job description for the position. Arlene suggested an increase in MaAOHN dues to help fund the position.
- Comments/concerns from local Chapter Presidents. Comments from the pre-Board meeting were summarized. The State Board needs to support local chapters and needs to express a willingness to do so. "Lessons learned" need to be shared among chapters. Candidates for local President need to know they will have a role on the State Board and that they will have a resource in the State Board members. The State Board can be used to troubleshoot, to provide wisdom, and to provide financial support.
The State Board will meet quarterly, if needed, and meetings will be in Central Mass or by conference call, although "in-person" meetings are preferred. Times and dates of meetings will be set in advance for long range planning. Local concerns voiced at today's meeting include the difficulty in getting people to help or to run for office. Nancy said we need to make personal individual contacts. We also can look at reduced rates for members at conferences as a way to provide added incentive to join the organization.
- NECOEM
- Conference flyers are ready to be distributed. The conference will be on December 1 & 2.
- The NECOEM Board has been agreeable to MaAOHN requests and will pay the hotel charge for the Vendor Chair for Wed and Thurs. It will also pay for Nursing Speakers travel expenses from the NECOEM conference budget in the future.
- Nancy will ask Yolanda in Helen Williams office to apply to AAOHN for ceu's for the conference. The motion was made by Nancy with a second by Terry to spend $650. for the ceu application. The motion passed with no objection.
- It is noted that a "call for speakers' for the 2006 conference will be made in January 2006 so we need to be ready with ideas and suggestions. A speaker's bureau for the Northeast would be an asset.
- Important dates were reviewed.
- 2005 Goals and Required Actions were reviewed. There was a long discussion regarding MaAOHN sending members to the COL. Some members felt that it was part of the States obligation to support chapters to financially assist members to go to COL. Others felt that the obligation had been met with the Chapter Disbursements of $1000 to each Chapter. Jeanne made the motion with a second from Connie to set aside $400. each for 2 MaAOHN BOD to attend COL in 2005. Those interested will send a letter of interest to Sheila by June 15. The motion passed with a 3 to 2 vote.
- Other business
- Awards. Nancy reminded us that the Nurse Excellence Award is coming up for each chapter. The State can nominate someone for the Medique Award.
- Sheila made the motion with a second from Jeanne to nominate Bernie Heath to be the Chair of Tellers for the elections. The motion passed with out objection.
Nancy made a motion with a second from Barbara to have the next MaAOHN BOD meeting in Central Mass on Saturday, September 17.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:37 pm
Respectfully submitted by
Anne Lafontaine,
Secretary pro tempore |
