Attendees:
Kaarin Knudson (President), Skip Coburn (Treasurer), Ingrid Kessler (Secretary), Kitty Piercy (Past-President), Sandy Smalley, Marilyn Milne, Ralph Pledger, Sally Bell, Miles Pendleton, Silver Mogart (ED) Absent: Marti Ravits
- Welcome & Call to Order at 5:33 pm
a. Introduce New Board Members Attending: Sally Bell and Miles Pendleton. We’re so excited to have you both on the Board! - Review & Approve Meeting Agenda – Approved.
- Review & Approve Meeting Minutes — Moved and seconded to approve the following:
a. April 2022 Board Meeting
b. March 2022 Board Meeting - Executive Director’s Report – notes were sent in advance.
a. Audience numbers for recent programs were reviewed. We are looking to continue to increase in person attendance.
b. Onboarding information will be sent to our new Directors.
c. 2022 Election Results — It was a hybrid event this year so we had the majority of the voting online.
d. Membership Update – We discussed different types of members and numbers of members, including individuals and business memberships. Idea: We should have a numeric goal as to how many new members we should aspire to. At one point we had 140 members and now have closer to 120. We disussed renewals and renewal rates. On average, we have about two brand new members a month but we also have some natural attrition. We do have a student membership. . Should the student membership price be zero? Right now, there is no cost to attend our fora. Each forum is an inclusive place for civic discussion. Is the “club” title helpful? There is a class at the UofO that may attend our fora as part of the public policy class. This conversation, which Silver is spearheading, is still underway.
e. Sponsorship Update – we reviewed current sponsors and sponsorship levels.
f. Admin Update – our PO Box has been paid for for the upcoming year.
g. Cash flow – money from Peace Health and Hummingbird has come in – thank you to those sponsors! - President’s Report
a. Proposal for Future Board Meeting Packets – Kaarin will provide a single link where reports will be compiled. This will cut down on time colating the board packet, attaching reports, etc. President Kaarin is intending to provide complete agendas in advance, very helpful! Thank you Kaarin!
b. Annual Committee Appointments – Kaarin has this work underway to confirm existing committee members and also invite potential new committee members. A reminder that appointments can happen throughout the year as well.
c. Update on Quarterly Evaluation / ED PIP Plan – Kaarin will put together summaries from those meetings to us. A lot of work is underway, such as onboarding documents.
d. Next Steps with PPPM Strategic Planning
i. The final report is coming soon! Ryan Kounovsky is staying connected to the process and additionally asked to become an intern at City Club. What would he do as an intern? Support implementation of the strategic plan — which would certainly help us get underway on the plan. Great enthusiasm for Ryan from the Board! How many hours can he commit? Kaarin will find out. We need to be sure to provide direction for Ryan.
ii. Reflections on PPPM Goals – “Three Big Rocks” and committees engaged in those goals include: - Increase Staff Capacity – Committees: executive, staff, finance, other
- Expand Diversity – executive, membership, program, media.
- Increase Engagement – program, nominations, finance, media
e. Reflections on Goals Setting for Program Year 2022-2023
i. City Club Program Year: Starts in September (runs September-July)
ii. Previous 2021-2022 Goals Reminder – italics (100% done!), others in progress - Live City Club, Hybrid model, Acquire equipment needed for hybrid, in-person meetings;
- Expand strong development goals linked to budget goals, Establish new membership goals and retention of existing membership, Expand outreach and public relations. All this work is underway
- Form committee for setting staffing goals and implementation needed in new normal and budgetary requirements, Ensure robust board and committee membership – work underway, with thanks from President Kitty to all who have been participating in these tasks!
iii. Proposal to Adopt 2022-2023 Goals in September 2022 – The information above as well as the final report of PPPM can inform this process. Quite a bit of our June meeting is likely to be spent addressing our annual goals. - Committee Reports (Notes Below)
a. Development
b. Finance / Treasurer
c. Media
d. Membership
e. Nominations
f. Program
COMMITTEE REPORTS (Chair/Reporting)
Development (Skip Coburn)
· Development Committee met to talk about our upcoming annual campaign (which begins July 1). An email script is being developed. Previous donors have been identified so that we are sure to contact them. The target of the campaign is $25,000. We raised $21,000 in 2020 and $23,000 in 2021.
· Sally Bell will become a new member of the Development committee. A meeting has been scheduled to discuss the committee and its activities. Welcome Sally!
· We received Peace Health’s and City’s donations. We are waiting to receive Lane County and Kaiser donations.
· One gold sponsor decided not to renew: Fine Hoffman and Sims. However, we picked up a new Gold Sponsor in Hummingbird.
Finance / Treasurer (Skip Coburn ) – A reminder that this committee meets for the purposes of the budget process which will occur in September. A full monthly report was provided to the Board in advance of our meeting. Our financial position looks good pending ongoing progress. Our cash balances are healthy.
Media (Marilyn Milne)
· We added a list of future programs to the website so visitors can see what’s coming before the full description of each program is available. This has been received well. Thanks to Kaarin for the idea and Ralph’s execution of it with our 9 Planets web developers!
· We are in talks for an LCC intern this summer to work on the website, podcast episodes and social media. We’ll ask for another intern in the fall for livestream production of our programs. Marilyn has corresponded with a potential summer intern today!
· We produced each week’s program, converting it to a YouTube episode, KLCC broadcast and podcast episode.
· We provided program descriptions for each livestream and created two weekly social media posts for Facebook/Twitter/Instagram for most weeks. Marilyn took photos at the annual meeting and used that content on Friday’s social media submissions.
· Marilyn pitched a “What’s Happening” profile of Paul Thompson to Eugene Weekly; it should appear in the next several months and include a plea for volunteers
· Marilyn created another Eugene Weekly ad for our June slate of programs. It will run in the June 2 issue.
· Marilyn updated the Turtle Awards page of the website.
· Ralph is now uploading video of each program to the Facebook page, freeing more than 1 hour of Silver’s time each week.
Membership (Ralph Pledger )
· Ralph has compiled a list of members including nonrenewals since January 2019 which was reviewed. This list is thought to be quite accurate. However, there are names of individuals and entities that seem likely to want to renew. There is an ask of Board members to review this list and reach out to those whom they know to invite them back. Question and answer: Yes, folks on this list have been notified of the lapse. However, can we be sure they received the email notifications? We can send another email ask to lapsed members as to the importance of renewing now and that communicates that we miss them. Ralph asks for help wordsmithing this message.
· Ongoing discussion of the benefits, responsibilities, and other aspects of membership: This can include attendance, participation at meetings, participation with our programming process, financial contributions, and more. We have ideological questions about audience participation vs. membership: What does membership mean? What are the rewards of membership? Membership is important beyond the financial commitment. Our budgetary considerations include th fact that Sponsorships provide 40% of our income, Fundraising 30%, and membership is most of the remainder. So, this is for the time being an important source of club income and contributes to our financial stability. There was discussion about shifting away from this financial paradigm to minimize membership dues. If so, the shift may take place over five years to allow for a smooth transition. Would we have a floor to membership or would we eliminate it entirely? There was a thought that some studies have shown that a (small) financial contribution encourages engagement. However, we do not want finances to be an obstacle to membership. What about a “friends of” category? What about a single annual renewal date for membership? It gives us an opportunity to feature our value, for example at the beginning of our programming year, and to have renewals be more streamlined. We could have a pro-rated membership to help with the transition to a once-a-year membership renewal for everyone.
· We will soon be sending out about-to-expire and just-expired announcements to renewing members.
· Efforts are underway to clean up our data in Bloomerang. The data structure is outdated. For example it includes a volunteer level of donorship. So, the structure will change to reflect our new reality with our current categories. Ralph has experience in inventory and is going to provide leadership to this effort. The old data structures would be retained until we are quite confident about the new structures. The Board approved of this course of action by consensus.
· There was discussion about Mail Chimp and Constant Contact and how those platforms could interphase.
· Ralph will also work to discover and illuminate other ways in which Bloomerang can help us manage our data and grow.
Nominations (Kaarin Knudson)
· Kaarin and Joel met with Andrew Kalloch to discuss his return to the Program Committee and interest in rejoining the Board.
· Kaarin will reappoint Andrew to the Program Committee this month. Welcome back Andrew!
Program (Joel Korin)
· Our primary election programming went well. This was the first year doing the programs without the League of Women Voters. Things went very smoothly. The staff of KLCC did their usual professional job
· The PC has listed programs through July, finishing out the program year. The confirmed lineup includes a program on how Eugene welcome refugees, understanding the war in Ukraine, library services, removal of the Snake River dams, local media, the future of LCC. Two potential programs will deal with the World Games and healthcare mergers and acquisitions.
· Planning for the fall includes general election programming. Does anyone have contact with the candidates for governor? Yes, Kitty and Sally. Between contested races and ballot measures, at least 4 and maybe 5 or 6 election programs are anticipated. We also have the next Wayne Morse chair, Julie Schor, scheduled for October 21.
· The committee still need more active members! Please feel free to suggest names to Kaarin or Joel. The goal is to have enough members so that each member will be responsible for one program every month or two. We need three or four more active members to achieve that goal. Miles may be willing to join the Committee – thank you Miles!!!
· None of this would be possible without the work of the Tech Guys, Paul Thompson, Ralph Pledger and Jim Dotson. They have kept the CCE alive and available since March 2020. Thank you Paul, Ralph, and Jim!
- Review Action Items / Next Steps:
a. Ralph is moving forward with Database cleanup
b. Ralph will send message to non-renewing members and will reach out to Board Wordsmiths for assistance.
c. The Board will continue to develop a conversation about membership models
d. Kaarin will connect Sally and Kitty with Joel to Governor’s Race
e. Sally has recommendations for Programming to send to the Committee
f. Miles to explore joining the Programming Committee.
g. All Directors: Please review the list of lapsed members and reach out to those whom you know to give them a warm welcome back invitation!
Adjourned 7:06 pm
Faithfully Submitted, J. Ingrid Kessler, DVM, Board Secretary
