Administrative Assistants of Kansas Cities Fall Business Meeting Minutes April 3, 2009 Arkansas City and Winfield, Kansas Members Present: Lesley Shook Sarah Somerhalder Susan Rowan Denise Duerksen Nancy Crain Janet Hackney Luciana Martinez Susan Evenson Linda Jones Megan Williams Janise Enterkin Cindy Weeks Barb Slagle Carol Mitchell Jennie Hiatt Tana Johnson Jennifer Gutierres Jeannie Hiatt Darlene Provance Sharon Hodson Jeannie Gochenour Angela Wornkey Jennifer Wright Charlotte Newkirk Wilma Lister Pat King De Nelson Deborah Tadlock Tammi Snow Lois Landwehr Amanda Iverson President De Nelson called the meeting to order. 1. Approval of minutes of previous meeting of September 12, 2008 Denise Duerksen, Newton, moved and Charlotte Newkirk, Ottawa, seconded the minutes be approved. The minutes were approved unanimously. a. Roll Call Roll Call was not taken; this had been done the previous day as an opportunity to introduce everyone. 2. Treasurer s Report Nancy Crain The Treasurer s report was distributed for review. Susan Evanson, El Dorado, moved and Barb Slagle, Dodge City, seconded to approve the Treasurer s report. The motion carried unanimously. 3. Standing Committee Reports a. Professional Development: Denise Duerksen, Newton There have been no applications received for the Certified Municipal Assistant Recognition. Denise explained the process and reviewed the website application process. Qualification details brought forward during the discussion: o Nothing will be counted toward this certification nor points awarded for events prior to 2002 o You must be a member of AAKC for at least two years before you can apply A suggestion was made to add a section/line for holding a notary on this application. Barb Slagle will add that to the application. Denise checked with those who attended to see who had their AAKC pins and who did not. If you do not have a pin, please email Denise and she will order them. Once you achieve the CMA certification, you will receive a tag which hangs on the AAKC pin.
b. Membership: Lesley Shook Thanks to Lesley for stepping into the Chairman role of this committee. Lesley needs any membership packet information anyone has. Please forward to Lesley as soon as possible. Carol Mitchell mentioned that if Lesley and her Committee wanted to pursue new members, she still has an address list of City Manager s from cities over and under 3,000 which might be a good source of a mailing list. c. Publications: Megan Williams Megan requested direction from the members regarding projects and needs from this Committee. Nancy Crain suggested all documents be placed on the website for our members use. Megan will send documents she has to Nancy to post on our website. Janet Hackney volunteered to create the Newsletter for this conference. A suggestion was made to name a Website Administrator in hopes of making updates easier and more expedient. Darlene Provance and Janet Hackney volunteered to help keep the website updated. d. Public Affairs: Susan Rowan This Committee, along with the others, requested a better description of what is expected/needed from the Committee and its members. Discussion was held regarding how to keep the AAKC name in the forefront. Ideas included: o Sending information/postcards to Department Heads in different cities. De Nelson will work on letters to the Department Heads. o Sending information to Administrative Assistants in time for Administrative Professional s Day. If this is an option and since the recognition day is April 22, we would need to get information out by April 17 th. Lesley volunteered to mail the postcards and possibly use a list from Carol Mitchell. o Send postcards and pamphlets to KACM. o If anyone has any ideas, please let De know as soon as possible. e. Public Relations: Sarah Somerhalder Thanks to Sarah for taking over as Committee Chair for this Committee. Sarah welcomed new Board Members and passed out a new birthday list. Please let her know if there are any corrections. This committee will present new binders to new members to keep their AAKC information organized. A discussion was held regarding putting Bio s of the members on the website. This would be in a members only section of our website. Pictures on the website need to be updated and some are missing. Please email photos to Nancy Crain. A discussion was held regarding have a photographer available at our next conference to take individual pictures to place on the website for a more uniform and professional appearance.
4. Old Business a. Municipal Administrative Professional of the Year Award policy and process Everyone received a copy of the nominating form. A discussion followed regarding if this was a final copy or not. A decision was made to re-work this form and try to condense it. Susan Rowan and Denise Durkeson will re-work this form and send a prototype to everyone asking for their input. Everyone is encouraged to give their ideas to Susan and Denise. Once approved, it will be placed on the web for those nominating someone to either print and mail or complete online. It is felt that the Administrative Assistant s City Manager or Supervisor should be the person nominating someone for this honor. Another suggestion was made to perhaps shorten to a one page document and have the person nominating attach a letter of recommendation. The guidelines for this award will be reviewed and clarified. This form originally was patterned off of the City Clerk s requirements for nomination for their award. The Award will be presented at the Fall LKM League Conference in Topeka. b. Membership Partnership with KACM A booth at the KACM Conference this fall was discussed. A decision was made to host a booth at this conference and not at the LKM conference this year. Andrea Windholz, Hays, who volunteered to lead the effort to put a booth together for LKM, will be in charge of the booth at the KACM Conference, with Jennifer Gutierres assisting. The backdrop that we ve borrowed for several years is getting worn; Megan Williams will design a backdrop for our AAKC group to use. c. Booth at LKM Conference October 3-6 Topeka The LKM Conference was discussed and a decision was made not to host a booth this year. We would like to concentrate on other ways to keep our name in the forefront and search for more members. 5. New Business a. Survey Monkey Results See Attachment for details De led a discussion in the results of this survey. All members thought this was a worthwhile survey and identifies some items that need to be covered: Most of the respondents believe the AAKC organization is beneficial to their professional development, enjoy networking with other members, appreciate the reasonable cost of the conferences and enjoy the informational and educational opportunities the conferences offer. There seems to be a need to clarify the roles each of the Committee s play, what they should be working on and what they are responsible for. Most members believe it would be beneficial to have a teleconference/meeting once a quarter with the Committee Chairs and officers.
Most Managers/Supervisors support and encourage attendance and interaction with AAKC. b. Website Upgrade/Demo Nancy led a brief website demo. Discussion followed about spending money to redesign our website in order to make a more professional presentation on the web. Nancy Crain offered to pursue this project but would appreciate any information members have regarding businesses that might be beneficial in our search for a redesign and host. Please send any ideas to Nancy Crain. c. Motion Nominate Carolyn Sturgeon as Honorary Member. This nomination/suggestion was made by Barb Slagle at our last meeting, with the plan to vote on it at this meeting. Denise Duerksen made the motion to name Carolyn Sturgeon as an Honorary Member and Darlene Provance seconded. It passed unanimously. d. Motion Amend the AAKC Constitution and change all literature and the website to show that AAKC also admits members from smaller cities with the Mayor form of Government. Amendment to be reflected under Article VI, Section 2 under Full Members, Item 1. Denise Duerksen made the motion and Charlotte Newkirk seconded it. It passed unanimously. e. Committee Chair Positions/All Members Serve on Committee(s): Lesley Shook Membership Committee Chair Sarah Somerhalder Public Relations Committee Chair Megan Williams Publications Committee Chair Denise Duerksen Professional Development Chair Susan Rowan Public Affairs Chair President De Nelson thanked the Chairs of all the Committees and recognized the new Chairs. She reiterated how it is important that every member volunteer for a Committee or Committees. f. Plans for Fall 2009 Conference The Fall Conference location has not yet been confirmed. Tentative plans are to have it in Iola the second Friday of September. Volunteers for upcoming conferences include: Spring 2010 Abilene Fall 2010 El Dorado Spring 2011 Dodge City 6. Committee Break Out Sessions Unfortunately time ran out and the Committee Break Out Sessions were not held. This will be a priority Agenda item at our next meeting.
7. Thanks to our Host Cities Gifts were presented to Lesley Shook and Nancy Crain from Arkansas City and Pat King and Wilma Lister from Winfield. 8. Conference Evaluation Form See Attachment for details 9. Adjournment Meeting adjourned by consensus at 12:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Janet Hackney - Secretary City of Gardner/Gardner Energy