OPEG Meeting Minutes

OPEG minutes for Board of Trustees meeting at Maryhaven, Columbus, Ohio 1/30/04

The meeting was called to order by Steve Albanese at 10:00 a.m. Present: Steve Albanese, Debbie Crawford, Tim Champney, Rosemary Chaudry, Bob Fine, Rob Fischer. Not present: Tom Archer, Robin Fenn, Jennie Nickel, Sandy Lock.

Review of minutes from 12/15/03 meeting: Minutes submitted by Deb Crawford were approved as written. Tim will submit for posting to the web site.

Treasurer’s report: Sandy was not able to attend, but Steve presented the November 2003 budget figures and the proposed budget for fiscal 03-04 (which began 9/1/03). Balances in checking, savings, and CD were reviewed (attached). Steve noted that the Nov. 2003 figures should be amended to show a net gain, rather than net loss, of $289.53 to date.

Regarding the proposed 03-04 budget, Tim noted that it was based on figures for last year’s Evaluators’ Exchange, which had a low turnout, and that financial outcome may be better with this year’s Exchange. Also, he noted that there is no money budgeted for a speaker. There was discussion about decreasing the budget for the nominating committee if call for nominations and ballots could be handled electronically, rather than by regular mail. Monies also may be needed for expenses for attending the AEA affiliates meeting; those costs should be covered by a Kellogg grant, but the budget would need to show the expenditure for funds to cover the costs and subsequent revenue when OPEG received monies from the grant. Debbie moved that the proposed budget be accepted, with the provision that it can be amended as needed, seconded by Rosemary; motion approved.

Membership committee report: Debbie discussed the outreach plan. She will be submitting an article about OPEG to several professional associations for inclusion in their newsletters (list attached); she will send a draft of the article to Board members for their review and comment before she sends the final version to the organizations.

The annual membership mailing will include a cover letter, membership brochure, and save-the-date announcement about the spring Exchange. Steve will draft the cover letter, which will include information about membership, the Exchange, upcoming elections, moving communication to email format, and possible fall program) and send to Board members for review and comment. Rob will revise the brochure to delete Debbie’s address and insert her email address. Rob will forward membership and Exchange information to EvalTalk listserv. Tentative date for posting the mailing is mid-February, with approximately 300 packets to be mailed. Sandy will prepare and post the mailing.

Tim has obtained ODMH OPER’s mailing list, and Rosemary will review the list for duplicates with the OPEG list. Debbie will send Rosemary the latest version of the OPEG membership list, which she has been revising based on information received from Board members’ calls to people with old contact information. Tim will prepare the labels. Members will assist Sandy as needed with this additional mailing (expected to be approximately 300 names), which will be posted after the OPEG mailing as soon as the list is prepared and the mailing is compiled.

Directory report: Board members have received their 2003 membership directory, which looks very professional and functional. The Board commended Jennie for her efforts in preparing the directory, for compiling the email distribution list, and for distributing the membership list.

There was discussion about lowering the membership for students. Rob moved that the cost of membership for full time students be lowered to $20 per your, seconded by Debbie. Motion approved. Rob will revise the brochure to reflect this change.

• Steve will draft the cover letter, which will include information about membership, the Exchange, upcoming elections, moving communication to email format, and possible fall program) and send to Board members for review and comment.
• Rob will revise the brochure to delete Debbie’s address and replace with her email address, and to include information about full-time student membership fee of $20.
• Rob will forward membership and Exchange information to EvalTalk listserv.
• Membership mailing to be prepared for tentative posting date of 2/14/04. Sandy will coordinate.
• Debbie will send current OPEG membership list to Rosemary, who will Rosemary to review ODMH OPER mailing list and AEA Ohio membership lists and create list of people (not currently OPEG members) who should receive membership mailing; the list will be forwarded to Tim, who will prepare the labels and send to Sandy.
• Steve will contact Jennie with request to send job announcement to members by email.

Program committee: Tim reported that the committee met by phone on 1/16/04 and the preparations are continuing for the Exchange. The announcement and the call for paper drafts have been distributed by Tim to the Board members and have been posted to the website. Tim presented the contract with the Fawcett Center, which was selected instead of the Blackwell Center near Tuttle Crossing, for meeting facility arrangements for Friday June 4. Charges are $25 for food (lunch and afternoon break, and continental breakfast); capacity for the event at the Fawcett Center location is 70. Keynote, plenary, and panel discussion will be conducted in the Alumni room; three meeting rooms will be used for break out sessions for presentations. Space for posters may be available adjacent to one of the breakout rooms or at the rear of the Alumni room; Tim will verify this. Due to the costs of renting podium, screens, projectors, lecterns, it was decided to rent one podium for the keynote and lunch meeting (Alumni room). Board may be able to provide projectors and laptops for use; overhead projectors will not be used. Tim will verify that the costs include tax, gratuity, and if there are any extra charges. Debbie made a motion that Steve sign the contract, Rob seconded, mtion approved.

Tim reported that Steve Leff, director of HSRI in Boston, will provide keynote speaker, panelist, and breakout session for the Exchange; cost of $500 for travel expenses (other costs will be covered by a grant0. Dee Roth will also be a panelist.

Rob reported that CEUs can be provided for social Work, Nursing, Chemical dependency, nursing home administrators. There will be an extra cost of $15 for attendees who request CEUs. Rob will coordinate the submission of documentation about the content of the Exchange for awarding of CEUs.

The next meeting of the program committee, by phone, is set for 2/6/04 at 2 p.m.

• Tim will verify costs for the Fawcett center and will return the signed contract. .

Communications/Website: Steve has received a job announcement, from a non-member who requested that it be circulated to OPEG members. After discussion, it was decided to add a location on the web page main page with direct link, and to send out to members by email. list she has of paid OPEG members. This will be the provisional procedure with job announcements; the Board will review this procedure at a later date to consider revision if the number of requests for email distribution is too burdensome.

• Steve will contact Jennie about sending the job announcement to members by email
• Tim will contact the webmaster for posting the job announcement to the web site.

Nominating committee: Steve and Bob will plan the material for the forthcoming call for nominations. The call for nominations may be distributed to members electronically; ballots probably will continue to be distributed by regular mail, for return by regular mail, to preserve anonymity.

Next meeting: Meeting was adjourned at 12:00; next meeting will be Friday March 12 10-12 at Maryhaven.

Submitted by Rosemary Chaudry

ACTION ITEMS (Items pending from previous meeting in italics)	DUE DATE
Treasurer/Budget
Board to discussion financial audit	December meeting
Membership Activities
Steve will draft the cover letter, which will include information about membership, the Exchange, upcoming elections, moving communication to email format, and possible fall program) and send to Board members for review and comment.	??
Rob will revise the brochure to delete Debbie’s address and replace with her email address, and to include information about full-time student membership fee of $20.
Rob will forward membership and Exchange information to EvalTalk listserv.
Sandy to coordinate and prepare membership mailing.	2/14/04
Debbie will send current OPEG membership list to Rosemary.
Rosemary will review ODMH OPER mailing list and AEA Ohio membership lists and create list of people (not currently OPEG members) who should receive membership mailing; the list will be forwarded to Tim
Rosemary will review Ohio AEA mailing list and create list of people to receive OPEG membership information, and will forward list to Tim.
Tim will prepare labels for ODMH mailing list and send to Sandy
Evaluators’ Exchange
Tim will verify costs for the Fawcett center and will return the signed contract.
Communications/Website
Steve will contact Jennie with request to send job announcement to members by email.
Tim will contact the webmaster for posting the job announcement to the web site.
Nominations
Steve and Bob will prepare material for call for nominations.	March meeting