IPMA Home | IPMA News IPMA News : June 2007

Note: At its February 2006 meeting, the IPMA Board decided to discontinue this newsletter. Board meeting summaries will continue to be published.

June 14, 2007, Board Meeting

Members Present: Mary Ellen Bradley, Pam Derkacht, Phil Grigg, Andy Hill, Andy Marcelia, ‘Mace’ Maciejewski, Fran Muskopf, Christy Ridout, Darrel Riffe, Allen Schmidt and Julian Soh. Phil Coates, CFO and Jim Andersen, the Forum Events Manager were also present.

Allen Schmidt, IPMA Chair, opened the June 2007 meeting of the IPMA Board of Directors at 7:30 a.m.

Secretary/Treasurer: The minutes from the May 2007 board meeting were approved as amended.

The Board approved the May 2007 financial status and activities reports.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Business and Finance: Phil Coates presented the 2007 Budget Status Summary. He noted that while the income is running below the budgeted income, expenses were also running below the budget at about a proportional rate. At this point it looks like the anticipated surplus will be about $5,500 less than projected when the budget was adopted.

Forum: Jim Andersen presented the Forum 2007 status report.

1. Forum breakout sessions:
   • Attendance at keynote presentations was lower than expected. Next year they will be scheduled to take place in rooms about half the size as this year.
   • Most of the breakout sessions were well attended. One measure of the attendee interest level in the sessions is that very few people left sessions mid-way through. In past year's that was very common.
   • The most common comment on the evaluations was, "too much content and not enough time."
2. Corporate Sponsors:
   • We have commitments from 28 sponsors and 24 have paid to date.
   • Checks are forthcoming from the other four.
   • The following four sponsors have elected not to continue for the 2007/2008 event season; Unisys, Net Appliance, Filenet and SafeHarbor.
   • Six sponsors did not use their Forum booth this year.
3. Vendor booths:
   • IPMA paid GES for 70 vendor booths.
   • Sponsors used 21 booths
   • Vendors bought 39 booths. (40 last year)
   • IPMA donated 6 booths to miscellaneous groups.
   • IPMA paid for and did not use 4 booths.
4. Forum brochure: The Forum brochure for this year received many compliments.
5. Food Services: Saint Martin’s University sandwiches and coffee services were very good this year.
6. GES contract: Jim suggested that the board consider if the IPMA should renegotiate or reopen the contract to change the number of contracted booths. No decision was made at this time. It may be a subject for the November board planning session.
7. Forum Planning committee: The committee met recently to do the post event review. The biggest question in their minds was, "Where were the attendees?" The count was down by 125 attendees from last year.
8. Forum 2007 overall evaluation from 33 returned questionnaires:
   • The Course Content
     • Forum met my expectations - 4.25 out of 5.0 possible
     • Breakout sessions topics met my expectations - 4.04
     • The sessions were well designed - 3.50
     • The overall quality of Forum 2007 - 3.96
   • The Presenter(s)
     • Communicated the material in a clear manner - 3.72
     • Overall quality of information - 4.04
   • The Logistics/Handouts
     • Logistics Quality (room set up, audio visual, etc.) - 3.78
     • Handouts were valuable to me - 3.71
   • The Exhibit hall - vendor displays
     • Booth layouts met my expectations - 4.0
     • Vendors were helpful and informative - 4.35

Professional Development: Andy Hill presented the Professional Development Committee status report.

1. Neal Whitten’s June seminar has about 90 people registered. About 50% have paid to date. The IPMA will have to pay Mr. Whitten’s travel expenses since we won’t make the 200 paid attendees required by the contract for him to pay his own expenses. In spite of that it looks like the seminar will turn a profit.
2. The August seminar presented by Coraxis Corporation is entitled "The Software Development Lifecycle in action using team foundation server."
3. The October seminar will be presented by Computer Associates (CA). The title is yet to be determined.
4. The committee met recently to work on preparing the calendar for next year. Dates and topics should be ready in draft form for presentation at the July board meeting.

LeaderPath: Mace Maciejewski presented the Leaderpath status report. Leaderpath as a program is in trouble. Registration to date is 16 and 25 are needed to breakeven. The date for a go/no go decision is July 1, 2007, for the program for this year. Several reminders have been sent out. Allen suggested gathering a list of the agencies that don’t have any candidates registered and calling their CIO’s to promote the program.

Andy Marcelia raised the question of what do we do if the number of registrations is only one or two short? Would the IPMA consider subsidizing the program to some extent to save it? The board agreed that if registrations were within two of making 25 up to $11,000 would be allocated in some way to ensure that the program continues this year.

Executive Seminar: Phil Grigg presented the status report. Several meeting have been held to develop the topics and identify speakers. They need help with possible speakers. The proposed agenda will go out to those invited to attend in mid July.

Allen indicated that those planning the CIO breakfast at the Executive Seminar suggested that the topic at the breakfast be linked to other presentations at the seminar. It was suggested that one of the topics should be Forum. Another might be an Executive Seminar session about budget section 962 from a legislative perspective. What do they see the problem as and what are they looking for? That could generate a follow on CIO discussion session.

Communications:

Marketing Brochure: Mary Ellen distributed drafts of the Marketing Brochure and calendar of events insert. The brochure would be good for years but a new calendar insert would be produced once or twice a year. She indicated that they are expecting a bid on a price for a year’s supply shortly and would seek board approval to proceed with the order once that is known.

EventWare Registration system update: Fran Muskopf presented the system status report.

A portion of the test team met earlier this week and suggested that the system continue to be used to a limited extent through the Neal Whitten seminar. It is also recommended that no further events use the EventWare system for the foreseeable future. The old system will be used for the Executive Seminar and future Professional Development seminars this year. It is suggested that we go back and reconsider other options, keeping in mind that relying on volunteer support for a cornerstone function of the organization if fraught with risk.

A motion was made to put a hold on the use of the EventWare registration system, that the test team document the lessons learned and the board begin an assessment of alternative options for a solution. The motion was approved.

CIO Breakfast in October: Allen reported that the committee met last Monday and it was suggested that the IPMA should suggest topics. Those suggested topics are:

1. Forum
2. Legislative intent related to Section 962
3. Recruitment

The next board meeting is July 12, 2007, 7:30 a.m. at the Shipwreck Café

The meeting was adjourned at 9:08 a.m.

IPMA, P.O. Box 1943, Olympia, WA 98507-1943