BOARD MEETING MINUTES OF THE GOVERNMENT FINANCE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION OF MISSOURI February 21, 2019 President Lori Obermoeller, Creve Coeur, called the meeting to order at 6:09 p.m. The meeting was held at Shakespeare s Pizza, 3911 Peachtree Drive, Columbia, MO 65203. Officers present were President Lori Obermoeller, Creve Coeur, Second Vice President Barbara Flint, City of Eureka, Treasurer Cynthia Freeman, 16 th Circuit Court, Secretary Julie O Guinn, Duckett Creek Sanitary District. Board members present were Kat Gill, City of Lebanon, Donna Swatzell, City of Nixa, Debbie Parks, City of Republic, Stuart Haynes, Missouri Municipal League, Gina Jarvis, City of St. Charles and Dominic Accurso, City of Gladstone, Danielle Oettle, City of Shrewsbury. Reports of Officers: Secretary Julie O Guinn regarding the Minutes for the last meeting: The minutes from the board meeting held October 18, 2018 were distributed by Julie O Guinn who asked if there were any requested modifications. With no request, Ms. O Guinn requested a motion to accept the minutes as presented. MOTION: Barb Flint moved to accept the minutes as presented and Debbie Parks seconded to accept the minutes. Motion passed. Treasurer s Report: 2019-20 Draft Budget Ms. Freeman reviewed revenues, declining memberships, conference registration fees and vendor fees. Ms. Freeman suggested adding more detail and history to the website for board reference. Ms. Freeman stated the draft budget includes an increase in membership dues. President Obermoeller disagreed and stated she prefers to keep membership dues the same indicating that some members are not attending due to fiscal constraints. Other budget information: Spring conference registration $130, fall and winter conference registration increased $10 to $105, CPFO Training is $150 but will probably stop in the fall and winter for a break of the program, Accounting Academy is $450, Vendor booths remain at $300 but could be increased. She commented that there are low spring conference registrations due to moving the conference from May to April. For four years prior we held the conference in May. The contract with the hotel called for a certain number of registrations. There is a deadline for hotel registrations that needs to be communicated to members. Debbie Parks remarked she is trying to bring all of her staff. From psychological standpoint $95 looks better than $105 for a fee. Barb Flint stated she doesn t see a need to increase fees when the bottom line isn t dropping. The money should be there for education. She suggested keeping a fund balance at a minimum of $50,000. President Obermoeller stated we need to focus on dues which should be part of the 2 nd Vice President s focus. Chapters need to help that person. She stated that associate members don t want to be members as there are no discounts for luncheons other than the Eastern Chapter. They don t see a need in being a member. Ms. Freeman said the National GFOA sent a list of attendees and half were national members but not local members.
It was suggested to rotate around the state to appeal to different locations. It was suggested to do less regional meetings as the clerks do a regional meeting only once a year. One person is a member to an organization that does a fall tour where luncheons are held in different quadrants of the state. One person suggested broadening the training for other accounting staff members such as for accounts payable. At 6:45pm the board motioned to break for dinner. The board meeting reconvened at 7:14 p.m. MOTION: President Lori Obermoeller moved to keep membership fees the same at $95 per year. Barb Flint seconded the motion to keep fees the same. Motion passed. Continued budget comments: The whole goal was to get YM and the website situated to where the chapters could use it for their monthly meetings. It s not working yet. The annual cost for the accounting software is $2,000 per chapter and costs in total $5,967 per year. The website costs us $4,500 a year and we pay MML $1,200 a year to manage it, so we re a little over $20,000 a year including credit card hosting and accounting. Lori suggested we not pay membership and we instead pay for the software. The number of members is Currently 225 for the state. Down from 400-500. There are 105 in eastern chapter, 26 in southern and 48 in the western chapter, 25 associates and 18 active at large. Membership is down about 50% from 6-7 years ago. Cindy stated it is not appropriate to have the laptop plugged up to the projector as it is a security issue. $1,500 is budgeted for a laptop. The secretary s laptop was not compatible with the projector. We are not printing booklets. The information is available on the web. Julie suggested not printing booklets. Donna and Lori agreed. (We actually did a motion should I insert it or do you think it s not necessary?) Financial Statements Cyndi Freeman said there are revenues and cost for a particular event. The balance sheet as of 12-31-18 and financial statements were provided as well as a chart of accounts showing program coding for revenues and cost for the particular events. She showed an example for the fall conference where the budget was $750 and the revenues $1,540 due to less food expenditure than anticipated which was offset by the cost for the CPFO training. With a minor change in reports you can have the chapter activity. President Obermoeller asked for a copy of the registration with the Secretary of State and that was passed around.
The website changes are what needs to be addressed and President Obermoeller agreed to do that after her presidency. There was discussion about whether or not we should pay speaker fees and hard decisions on what to spend money on. Part of being on the board is to volunteer (as speaker). Donna Swatzell said she would be willing to be shown the software so she can show the next treasurer. Debbie Parks asked what is involved with the website. She offered to go back and answer email questions from the website and is willing to train and help. Old Business Go To Meeting Update Kathy Holschlag was not available to attend and President Obermoeller asked for a volunteer to help work on Go To Meetings and Go To Webinars. Secretary O Guinn offered to assist with recording one session at the upcoming spring conference. The board held a discussion including one hour webinars vs. all day webinars and topics including a suggestion to focus some items on small communities. It was suggested to send out a poll or questionnaire to members for feedback. Organization Policies & Procedures Review Cyndi Freeman stated this was on hold until we have the new software implementation done. Now that is done we are moving forward with a goal to complete this in the next fiscal year. By Laws Committee Update Ms. O Guinn stated the bylaws revisions were emailed to all members with the main change being electronic and email delivery of by law changes as well as the removal of the affiliate membership as voted by the board in October. There is also a limit of four years to be served in each term for chapter representatives and minor grammatical changes. MOTION: Cyndi Freeman moved to accept the bylaws and constitution changes as presented and Donna Swatzell seconded to accept. Motion passed. Julie offered to mail the ballot information prior to February 28 th and Stuart stated his office can physically mail the items she prepares. Conference Update Cyndi Freeman stated the speakers are all lined up with Conrad, Dan and Cyndi doing the accounting boot camp Monday through Wednesday. The conference starts Wednesday and goes through Friday at noon. Kelly Pope is presenting Friday morning with All the Queen s Horses. Wednesday is a motivational type event. The agenda is on the website. If going to spring conference, please make hotel reservations net week or tomorrow. We ve got to have those rooms reserved. If we don t hit our minimum which I 80 percent of our contract then we have to pay the difference. Two years ago we ended up paying out several thousand because we did not meet our contract.
Stuart will send a reminder to membership. Winter Conference Barb Flint stated she need ideas from everyone. The board mentioned a few suggestions such as inviting Sean Kavanaugh. It was also suggested to have dates alternate to home Mizzou games so the hotel is available. The spring conference is booked for the next three years and reservations can be checked with Samantha at the hotel. Never had program put together they could sell. Lifetime Achievement Conrad lamb has retired there has been a suggestion to make him a lifetime member. MOTION: Barbara Flint moved to make Conrad Lamb a lifetime member and Dominic Accurso seconded the motion. Motion passed. Cyndi will notify him. She can contact the national GFOA as we presented Dan Smith with a gift certificate and a gift from national. Cindy will arrange for that since she s the national representative. Report of Officers: Written reports attached if submitted by Secretary Julie O Guinn, Duckett Creek nothing further Treasurer - Cynthia Freeman, 16 th Circuit Court nothing further First Vice President - Kathy Holschlag, City of Fulton Second Vice President Barbara Flint, Eureka The local GFOA Chapter asked if the state was going to put out an opinion or something on the Better Together as the want to know what the stance is. Stuart Haynes offered that MML has or will do it. Cyndi Freeman stated that as anon profit we can t comment on anything politically. She stated the board can present statistical factual financial information but that s al as a political opinion violates our 501c3 status. Barb Flint indicated she will be taking over the Accounting Academy and Budget Boot camp from Sandra Stephens and is looking for anybody willing to help as it will be a big undertaking. Report of Board Members: Donna Swatzell, Nixa - Southwestern Chapter President Commented she is trying to talk Debbie into being president. She stated they really are about 15 person core group. People still won t travel. Were spread out and if it takes more than an hour people won t travel even quarterly. They ve had a lot of good topics at their meetings and Debbie and her team are putting out a quarterly newsletter. Someone suggested more chapters and Donna said that would be a good idea. West Plains or Lebanon doesn t want to have to drive 2 hours. The Go To Meeting might benefit their chapter. It was commented that Kansas City does all sorts of stuff on the national level but nothing local. Independence Blue Springs Grandview and North Kansas do not come to the local chapter meetings either. Debbie Parks Republic Nothing to report.
Dominic Accurso, Gladstone Dominic stated if anyone needs help with software, YM or anything to let him know. He said he is going to start writing a how to for the software. He might start a Facebook group or something along those lines as people like the social aspect. Facebook and a newsletter might drum more membership up in his chapter and personal emails go through the spam filter or firewall rather than list serve emails. He downloaded the entire membership and personally sent an email to everyone and that was the first email they received in months so there s an issue with that. Gina Jarvis City of St. Charles Stated she will be the Eastern Chapter Treasurer starting in the spring. She is happy to be here, is learning the software and is excited about that. Kat Gill, Lebanon Nothing to report. Roger Haynes, Mexico absent Christine Hopkins, Billings - absent Conrad Lamb, Lee s Summit, Western Chapter President absent Report of Immediate Past President: Sandra Stephens absent Report of Representatives MML Staff member Stuart Haynes, Jefferson City stated if anyone needs assistance with the website let me know. MML Representative Marcella McCoy absent MOTION: Debbie Parks made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:39 p.m. Donna Swatzell seconded the motion. Respectfully submitted by: Julie O Guinn