IPMA News : July 2008

July 10, 2008, Board Meeting

Members Present: Thomas Bynum, Pam Derkacht, Phil Grigg, Andy Hill, Andy Marcelia, Mace Maciejewski, Fran Muskopf, Christy Ridout, Darrel Riffe and Grant Rodeheaver. Phil Coates, CFO and Jim Andersen, the Forum Events Manager were also present.

Andy Hill, IPMA Chair, opened the July 2008 meeting of the IPMA Board of Directors at 7:35 a.m.

Secretary/Treasurer: The minutes from the June 2008 Board meeting were approved.

The Board approved the June 2008 financial status and activities reports.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Executive Conference: Phil Grigg reported that they have all the topics confirmed which puts them ahead of schedule relative to past years. The economic forecast panel leader has yet to be confirmed. The rest of the sessions are coming together.

The Eventville system has been configured for the Conference registrations. The invitations will be sent out around July 15^th so we can expect our first conference registrations in a couple of weeks. Phil expects to leave the registrations open through the end of August and review the status then.

Business and Finance:

Phil Coates presented the Semi-Annual Financial Status Report. Phil noted that three corporate sponsors have not paid their sponsorship fee to-date. If all three decide not to be sponsors for the 2008/2009 event year that would result in an $11,850 budget shortfall. That, in addition to the $10,000 shortfall due to less than expected Forum vendors participation, could result in a $20,000+ budget shortfall for 2008. That may be mitigated to some extent by some surplus from the $13,000 budgeted for Ongoing Initiatives.

CIO Events: Grant Rodeheaver reported that the committee has planning sessions scheduled for July, August and September to develop the program agenda for the breakfast session at the Executive Conference.

Forum: Jim Andersen presented the financial summary of the 2008 Forum which showed income minus expenses was about $10,000 higher than budgeted. Jim talked about how vendor participation has been dropping off over the last several year’s and attendance has also dropped from a high of about 900 to 740 this year. He has put together a strawman budget for 2009 that would bring Forum back into a positive position.

Corporate Sponsor Events: Jim Andersen presented the summarized results of a questionnaire that was distributed at the Corporate Sponsor appreciation event held last month. The focus of the questionnaire was to get their input as to possible changes to the Forum. No consensus was reached, however, the majority would prefer one day, or no days, of vendor booths in a traditional trade show configuration. The reason they participate in the Forum is to maintain existing contacts and identify new leads. When sponsors provide speakers for breakout sessions the majority would like those sessions to be one or two hours in duration. The majority also favors local or regional speakers.

Professional Development: Thomas Bynum reported that the August 19^th event, to be held at L&I, titled "Unified Communications – What’s all the hype," is ready to go. Tony Kaperick and Mark Knepper of INX will lead a panel discussion. Jim Andersen noted that registrations will be with Eventville. He got comments from some of the first registrants about the system that were very favorable.

The October 22^nd session, to be held at Saint Martin’s, titled ”Leveraging Data to Maximize Business Value” is coming together.

Christy Ridout indicated that they had put together a questionnaire that will help them develop the PD program for 2009.

Communications and Marketing:

• Web-Site Redesign: The committee has completed the statement of work for Dennis Jones to review material previously gathered, and make a presentation with recommendations to the board. His activity should be completed by the end of August.

IT Management/LeaderPath: Mace met with DOP on July 9^th. DOP is opening up a competition for the LeaderPath instruction. There will be no LeaderPath in 2008. There was a discussion of having a PD event designed for prior LeaderPath graduates and seeking their input in developing the 2009 PD program.

OTHER BUSINESS:

• Registration System: Dennis Jones was contracted to put together a requirements document for the registration system. In the preparing the requirements document, Dennis came across the Eventville system that we are now piloting with the August PD event and the Executive Conference. Dennis’ portion of this project is completed.

• Succession plan for Forum Events Manager
  • Phase 1- Andy Hill presented a proposal from Dalene Sprick to survey selected CIO’s, IT managers and a couple of senior DIS staff to determine what they want to see out of the Forum. These surveys would be face to face meetings. A potential benefit of this approach might be a greater interest in the success of the Forum by those interviewed. She would then summarize that data and present it to the board as an actionable plan. This would cost about $4,000. The board questioned whether additional information would be gained. It was also determined that prior to embarking on the proposed study the board needed to decide if it wanted to continue putting on the Forum given it’s declining attendance trend over the past several years. It was agreed that the future of Forum would be the primary subject of the August board meeting. By the end of the August meeting the board will decide whether to drop Forum or continue it with a modified program.
  • Phase 2 - This proposal would be to shadow Jim Andersen, starting with the beginning of the 2009 Forum planning session.

Next Board Meeting: August 14, 2008, at the Shipwreck Café.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 a.m.