VCEDC Annual Meeting, January 5th, 2017 from 12 noon – 6pm
Spring Mountain Ranch, Ranch House
McCall, Idaho
Members in Attendance: Sherry Maupin (President), Scotty Davenport, Bill Willey , Gene Tyler, Donald Bailey, Cynda Herrick, Eric Borchers (telephonically), Blake Watson (telephonically), and Andrew Mentzer (Executive Director).
Members Absent: Donna Eggleston, Rob Terry (Treasurer), Cami Hedges (Secretary), Jonne Hower, and Bob Giles.
Underway at 12:20pm (following lunch and greetings)
- Commerce Trainings: Jerry Miller presented via computer to the Board on the role, liabilities and responsibilities of nonprofit boards.
- Duty of Care: to be informed concerning the mission, current information, bylaws, etc. This includes the duty to be engaged through participation and showing up to meetings.
- Duty of Loyalty: to be aware of conflicting Board duties, time to devote to the Board if inundated, confidentiality, conflict of interest (perceived vs. reality), personal benefits. Must disclose or recuse if there is a conflict of interest.
- Duty of Obedience:
- Discussed liability, including negligence, criminal, misappropriation of funds, unpaid debts.
- Talked about using the “Board Tool Chest”: Vision Statement, Avoiding “Mission Creep”, Bylaws (the constitution), along with Policies and Procedures. Should have Policies and Procedures for purchasing, Board Attendance, personnel policy donation acceptance, travel policy, annual budget, social media, etc.
- Jerry Miller presented to the Board on how nonprofits are utilizing social media and why it is an integral part of communicating with stakeholders, as follows:
- Cheap
- Easy
- Trackable for metrics – who looked – demographics – who shared
- Can reach an infinite number of people
- Facebook – described types of users such as Cavemen(Citizens Against Virtually Everything), Throwback Thursday
- Twitter – short, concise messages; #; # + topic is a search; real time
- Instagram: Photos and Video
- Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can be connected together so you only have to post once, but Twitter and Instagram are not that popular in the West Central Mountains, yet.
- Need a Social Media Policy with a designated “poster” and 2 administrators – must be content relevant
- Jerry Miller also presented the following:
- Fund Raising: 98% Board Responsibility, Ask! Method, Capital Campaigns for Specific Projects.
- Work Plans – Annual Reporting and Metrics
- Legal Responsibility to comply with requirements such as tax reporting
- Transparency – records and public meetings
- Board Elections
- President: Sherry Maupin nominated by Cynda, seconded by Gene. Sherry accepted the nomination and the motion was passed.
- Secretary: Cynda was nominated by Bill. Discussion about whether Gene might have an interest in either the Secretary or Treasurer position. Further discussion about the use of Quickbooks determined that we need a basic balance sheet for each monthly meeting and a full financial report at the end of the year. Additional discussion ensued about Andrew, Sherry or others being able to fill in for the secretary or treasurer if absent, as needed. Cynda accepted the nomination, it was seconded by Sherry and passed.
- Treasurer: Gene was nominated by Sherry, seconded by Bill and approved.
- Strategic Plan Update
- Discussion about where we want to go and how we want to get there
- Perception of our Organization and Why Do We Exist
- Concern with terminology being vague – say what we mean – call jobs, jobs.
- Visioning statement
- Where do we see the organization infinitely into the future and more importantly, why does it matter?
- Some possible adjectives:
- Leadership
- Fulfilling a commitment
- Creating
- Promoting
- Quality of life
- Sustainable
- Dynamic
- Some possible statements:
- Definition of quality of life
- Definition of sustainable
- Definition of economic development
- Fulfilling our commitment to a dynamic, sustainable regional economy for the West Central Mountains that fosters the highest quality of life.
- Promoting the highest quality of life through economic development
- Further discussion about infrastructure:
- Schools
- Medical
- Recreation
- Roads
- Clean air/water
- Open space
- Arts
- Decided to take this home–board members will come up with 3-5 keywords that should be included and 1-2 potential vision statements to share at the next meeting
- Also determined that we need to implement a board attendance policy, personnel policy and financial transaction policy–Andrew to secure from another EDO or ICRMP
- Open discussion about strategic plan
- ABC plan incorporates many critical elements
- Some of the VCEDC plan verbiage is not intuitive
- Andrew will revise the language to be more intuitive, identify ABC overlap projects and lay out a work plan for 2017
- Bylaws/Articles Name Change
- Discussion about what nomer serves the organization and its stakeholders best
- Valley County has recognizable brand
- So does McCall and Cascade
- West Central Mountains is intended to enhance existing local and regional brands and reinforce our commitment to being regional
- Noted that we will need to engage Steve Lord, attorney, to make sure we are covered for DBA/ABN and IRS/SOS filings
- Gene moved to change VCEDC to West Central Mountains Economic Development Council, adopt and revise the ABC logo and authorize Andrew to engage Steve Lord for up to $400 to make necessary revisions. Cynda seconded. Motion carried.
- Funding Structure
- Discussion about engaging local businesses
- Need to develop a collateral piece that explains what we are doing and why it matters
- Need to create teams to engage businesses
- Strategic opportunity exists to engage growth businesses–ones who could use our services
- Also should be looking to larger companies who are well-established
- Could also look at a large regional recreation event like a marathon, run or bike race that engages local companies from Cascade to New Meadows
Adjourned at 4:55pm