OPEG Meeting Minutes

OPEG Board of Trustees meeting minutes 8.12.05

The meeting, with telephone conferencing, was held at Maryhaven, Columbus. OPEG President Rob Fischer convened the OPEG meeting at 10:15.

Present: Steve Albanese, Buck Buchanan, Tim Champney, Mina Chang, Rosemary Chaudry, Debbie Crawford, Robin Fenn, Rick George, Sandy Lock, Marsha Zabecki.

Minutes of previous meeting of 7.12.05: One correction was made to the treasurer's report. A motion was made by Debbie to accept the minutes as amended, seconded by Robin; motion approved.

Treasurer's report: Sandy presented the latest financial statement, current as of July 30, 2005. Total revenues to date are $21,205.12; total expenses to date are $18,343.94; net profit to date is $2,861.18. Sandy noted that the checking account and total account balances must be updated (she will send revised figures and statement); the CD balance is $6,934.82. Four outstanding spring conference fees remain; she will wait until she receives the contents of the mailbox, from Debbie, before sending out third notices. All expenses have been paid except for the invoice from the web master, and Sandy noted that she has not received the bill for the last conference call yet.

Program committee report: Marsha Zabecki, vice-president/program committee chairperson, reported that the committee met by telephone conferencing on August 1. The Fawcett Center is available Dec. 1&2 (Thursday/Friday), but the speakers from the Baldridge Award representatives are not available. Marsha recommended having a 1-day event for the fall and a 2-day event for the spring, when the Baldridge representatives can attend. The Board concurred, and Marsha will sign the contract with the Fawcett for Thursday Dec. 1. The program will focus on GIS, performance improvement, and cost benefit analysis. Mina Chang will contact Dr. Anand Desai, the Glenn Institute, and the College of Pharmacy (all at OSU) to inquire about speakers. Rick has speakers available for the GIS topic. There was discussion of the break-even point, fixed costs, and conference fee. At $65 fee, the break even is approximately 40 attendees, if the fixed costs are approximately $1,500. There was discussion about covering costs for speakers (in-state and out-of-state), and the goal of covering expenses and making enough profit to at least support the next event and expenses. The Committee will finalize content of the message for "save the Date" to be posted to the web and to be sent via listserv. Tim will send Marsha the timeline of activities for planning events that has been used by the Program Committee in the past. There was discussion about covering the cost of CEUs, perhaps with OPEG covering part of the cost and attendees covering the balance for them. The Program Committee will meet by conference call on Monday August 29th at 10 A.M. Sandy noted that Child-Focus will send email notice confirming registration, because they have had several calls requesting confirmation for past event registrations.

Rob noted that the Mandel School (CWRU) has asked him to inquire with OPEG about co-sponsoring a 1-day event, in the Cleveland area, for non-evaluators. The event would address topics such as what to expect from an evaluation, contracting with an evaluator. If the event were successful, Mandel would work with OPEG to sponsor replication of the event at other locations in Ohio.

Membership Committee report: Debbie noted that state employees, in the union, could get the cost of their CEUs covered. She will follow up on this, and OPEG can include this information when marketing events that have CEUs attached. The Board discussed developing a letter that could be sent to new members electronically, as part of the confirmation of their registration as an OPEG member, introducing them to OEPG, the website, etc. Rob will develop a letter as a President's message, welcoming the new members. The letter could be available in hard copy at OEPG events, to give to new members who are attending the event.

OPEG website: Rosemary will email Buck and ask that he send her a picture to forward to the web master, for posting to the web page. Steve asked that the web master use his president picture for his current position as ex-officio president. Tim will send Rosemary pictures form the spring Exchange, for forwarding to the webmaster for posting.

The next two Board meeting dates are: 12 noon Thursday October 13, by telephone conferencing, and 9 A.M. Friday December 2, the day after the fall event.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:50.

Minutes submitted by Rosemary Chaudry, Secretary