Minutes Minutes from the STRIMA Executive Committee Meeting October 15, 2015 Meeting Participants: Tani Downing, President Utah Jason Gates, President Elect Wisconsin Robert Fisher, Past President West Virginia Carla Ahrens, Past Past President Missouri Ana Andrews, Conference Host Nevada Debra Lawhead, Treasurer Delaware Anne Macon Smith, Deputy Member South Carolina Bruce Donaldson, Deputy Member Mississippi Rodney Escobar, Secretary Tennessee Dale DeLong, WebMaster South Carolina Tracey McDonough, Associate Adviser BELFOR 1. Call to Order President Tani Downing called the meeting to order at 1:30 CST, October 15, 2015 via conference call. 2. Approval of Minutes President Tani Downing distributed the minutes via email from the August 10, 2015 Executive Committee Meeting. Tani asked the Executive Committee if there were any changes to the minutes. Ana Andrews advised that section 5, line (3) three, need to be changed and that there were a couple of last names that were misspelled in the minutes. Robert Fisher moved to approve the minutes as amended. Ana seconded and the motion carried unanimously. 1 3. President s Report President Tani Downing a. Reminder photos for website Tani reminded Ana Andrews, Anne Macon, Bruce Donaldson, Carla Ahrens, and Jason Gates to submit an electronic image of them to Dale Delong so it can be updated and posted on the STRIMA website by the end of the month, if possible. Tani also approved a payment to the website for the purpose of modifying it by adding the committee s personal images and upload the 2015 STRIMA Annual Conference material. Tani explained the Dale Delong did not have access to the website to make modifications that would allow him to create a link to upload the materials. Tani advised that Dale will be contacting the current vendor to assist with uploading all the conference materials. b. Proposed Calendar Tani stated she sent out the proposed calendar to the Executive Committee. Tani explained that she based the calendar on previous calendars in the past. Tani asked Ana about the August 12 th date regarding deadline registration for the Reno 2016 STRIMA Annual Conference. Ana advised that August 12 th was a good date to end registration for attendees. Robert pointed out the dates on the proposed calendar needed to be corrected from 2014-2015 to 2015-2016. Robert then asked if
Tani wanted to place a deadline date for the AFIRM nomination. Tani advised that would be up to Jason. Jason stated the deadline for the AFIRM nomination will be February 21, 2016. Tani said the AFIRM nominations should be sent out before December 31, 2015. Jason confirmed he will be sending out the AFIRM nominations to STRIMA members by December 31 st. Robert asked if the Executive Committee would be doing education the same way as last year by soliciting Survey Monkey presentations. Tani advised that Survey Monkey would be used, but asked the committee if anyone had other ideas. Ana, the Educational Chair, agreed to use Survey Monkey since she has been the one that has been doing all of the tallying of the educational sessions. Ana suggested to send out a survey for the 2015 STRIMA Annual Conference to elicit feedback about the educational sessions as well as future educational sessions for the conference in addition to the survey that Robert wanted to continue to use. Robert asked about the number of responses from last year and how many attendees completed either a short survey or the more lengthy survey. Tani advised that there were not that many responses but that there was a split regarding short and lengthy survey responses. Ana then suggested that the Executive Committee send out a survey asking attendees what types of educational sessions that would like to have at the next conference, and to include with the survey a notification telling attendees that all of the conference materials and PowerPoints are uploaded on the STRIMA website. Tani explained the reason they are not on the website as of this date was because Dale has not been provided permission by the website vendor to upload the material. Tani suggested that she can wait until all of the conference material is uploaded to the website and then send out the survey with notifying attendees the location of the conference materials. Tani then advised she would try to send out the short and long surveys by November 15 th with a deadline of November 30 th. Tani then asked if there were any other changes to the calendar. Bruce had a question regarding the Cost of Risk Survey and the deadline of October 31 st. Tani said she had the old date on the calendar and intended to ask Bruce for an updated deadline for the Cost of Risk Survey. Bruce explained that he does not believe the majority of members have received the survey. Bruce suspects this is due to possible email systems having strong spam controls being administered by each State computer systems network. Bruce explained that (30) thirty surveys have not yet been opened, and wanted to know if he should resend the (30) thirty surveys to those members that have not opened it, and ask each member to check their spam filters. Or does the committee want to try to correct this issue of not receiving surveys next year. Bruce continued to explain that as of this date (8) eight have completed the survey and (5) have partially completed the survey, and (30) have not opened the survey to complete. Bruce stated that Survey Monkey sent out (50) fifty Cost of Risk Survey as a group at one time to the States. Tani recommended that Bruce resend the Cost of Risk Survey with a link to the individual point person of each State instead of sending them out as a group in order to avoid the spam filters. Tani and Bruce agreed to have this completed by the end of December. Robert moved to approve the calendar as amended Carla seconded and the motion carried unanimously. 2
c. Spring EC Meeting 2016 Tani advised she was considering April 13-15, possibly in San Diego, California. Arrival to the meeting would be on the evening of April 12 th or flying into San Diego the morning of April 13 th by 8:00 am. Tani explained the meetings would be held from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, April 13 th thru April 14 th and possible April 15 th until 12:00 pm. Tani explain that she was working with the group that Carla recommending and that the group has already sent out the RFP to (13) thirteen hotels, located in the historical district. Tani is hoping that one of the hotels will be in the desired price range of $150 to $200. Tani is excepting a response about the hotels within the week. 4. Financial Report Deb Lawhead, Treasurer, reviewed the reports with the committee that had been distributed to members via email. These reports are as followed: Conference Registration Fees Associates January through December 2015-Collected $68,100. There was one associate member she will have to refund because the associate cancelled in plenty of time. There were (5) five outstanding associate member registration fees that need to be collected. Conference Registration Fees for Government January through December 2015- Collected $12,700. There will be (3) three State Government refunds due to cancellation. Income by Member January 1 through October 11, 2015-Provided all the collected funds from all associate and state members totaled $218,200. Profit and Loss Detail January through December 2015-This report covered the amount collected and the expenses for the year through October 11, 2015. There are two outstanding catering bills and the hotel bill outstanding from the conference. Based upon this report Jason does not believe STRIMA will be over budget once these outstanding bills are paid. Scholarship Balance Sheet January through October 11, 2015-This report gave the total amount of scholarship funding that is currently available. The scholarship funding is not in a separate account but it is earmarked within the current Net Income for STRIMA. There was one scholarship that had been recently paid but was not reflected on the report, and there was one outstanding scholarship expense that Deb has not received from a member as of 10-15-2015. Deb advised that as of 10-15-2015, this was the current balance based on expense reports that have been submitted. She advised that the next report will have all of the outstanding expenses deducted from the balance to reflect the new balance during the next meeting in November 2015. Scholarship Income Detail January through December 2015-Reflected all the collected funding for this past STRIMA Conference. 3 Conference Expenses Detail December 1, 2014 through October 11, 2015-Provided an itemized list of all the checks and next month Deb advised she will include the STRIMA Conference September 2015 credit card expenses. Once Deb pays for those expenses she will add them to the report next month.
Conference Summary Report September 2015-This report outlined all of the income collected and expenditures. The current balance is $130,690.07. This balance will change next month when Deb reconciles the expense to this balance sheet. This report will be updated in next month s meeting. Associate Member Conference Sponsorship December 2014 through September 2015- This report shows how much funding was collected from associate members for the 2015 STRIMA Conference. Statement of Cash Flow Report January through December 2015-Reported the total cash collected this past year. State Member Contact List and the Associate Member Contact List October 11, 2015- Reported all the members that have paid STRIMA dues for the year. Deb will be updating and confirming secondary contacts on this list to ensure proper notification for dues and registration are received by all members and associate members. Deb advised she will have this completed by next meeting. Carla moved to approve the Financial Report. Robert seconded and the motion carried unanimously. 5. 2015 Conference Wisconsin Update Jason Gates provided a summary of the registration fees that were collected, he explained that there were a number of individuals who registered for the conference but did not attend the conference, as well as, numerous cancellations. Jason believes that once he reconciles the final numbers it total amount collected will be approximately $170,000. Jason advised that he believed the conference went very well, and that no one had reported any major issues that occurred during the conference. Jason advised the only issue reported to him was a week after the conference regarding a payment issue with a hotel room. Jason said it was a scholarship payment that the hotel did not make correctly that has now been corrected. Jason advised he has not heard of any other issues. Jason said he was currently working on the financial reports for the conference. He said he was still waiting on a few outstanding invoices, and that he had compiled all the need receipts for Deb to process. Jason advised he should have all the financial reports finalized in time for the Board to establish a budget for the 2016 STRIMA Conference. 4 6. 2016 Conference Reno Update Ana Andrews thanked Jason for providing her with the hotel numbers this has allowed her to determine that she needs to schedule a meeting with the hotel for the purpose of increase the number of rooms needed for the 2016 STRIMA Conference. Jason recommend to Ana that she should have in the contract with the hotel a clause that outlines a deadline for cancellations to minimize penalties for members and associate members that fail to attend the conference, or cancel at the last minute. Ana confirmed that she had this clause in the contract agreement with the hotel. Ana advised that she would be rescheduling a meeting with the hotel to increase the room numbers. Ana also stated she will meet with the hotel about the layouts of the conference rooms to determine how the rooms will be setup, assigned, and utilized. Ana advised she was going to start going to the event locations to decide which locations will be included during the conference. Tani advised that the Board
will start planning for the 2016 STRIMA Conference next board meeting. Ana had nothing further to report. 7. Committee Updates a. Cost of Risk Committee Update on Survey Chair Bruce Donaldson advised on September 11 th he sent out (50) fifty surveys for the first collector group. Bruce said there were (20) twenty that were opened, (30) thirty are unopened, (5) five completed, and (5) five partially completed. On October the 2 nd he sent out (3) three more separate collector groups. The first group had (10) ten surveys, of those (10) ten (6) six have been opened, (4) four are unopened, (2) two are completed; The second collector group totaled (2) two surveys, (1) one was opened and (1) one was unopened, and one was complete. This third collector group totaled (2) two surveys, (2) two were opened and of those (2) two surveys (0) zero have been completed. The following State Governments have completed the Cost of Risk Survey: Alabama, Nevada, Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia, Oregon, Texas, and West Virginia. The following State Governments have partially completed the Cost of Risk Survey: Maine, Virginia, Arkansas, Colorado, and Utah. Bruce provide (5) five goals for this year s Cost of Risk Survey; 1. To secure a more accurate email address bank in order to access those who will have the responsibility to complete the future survey s and respond in a timely manner, and to delete those emails that are invalid or incorrect. 2. To encourage those who do not respond to the first survey and to engage in the next one for next year. 3. To work with STRIMA s new webmaster through Dale and to get this year s STRIMA s survey s banked on the STRIMA s website. 4. To revise and simplify the survey and at the same time somehow to determine and add useful and needed subject material that was not included in the first year 5. To determine the best time of year to disperse future surveys. Bruce continued to explain that he believes that determining the best time of year to disseminate future surveys to all State Governments will be based upon understanding and knowing the end of each State Governments fiscal year. This will also permit Bruce to 5
determine a less busy time period in the year to allow time for State Governments to complete the surveys. Bruce had nothing further to report to the board. b. Policies and Procedures Committee update - updating individual policies (i.e. Host, President, etc) Chair Carla Ahrens reported the Patty will be attempting to complete the Policies and Procedures before she retires. Carla advised that she would finish updating anything that Patty was unable to complete. Carla advised she would continue to work on the Policies and Procedures and should have them completed and finalized. c. Other committee updates-ana updated the Board on the Educational Surveys received after the sessions. Ana explained she has observed extreme differences in survey responses for sessions. For example, one session could have individuals providing very positive feedback and simultaneous other individuals provide a very negative feedback in the surveys about the session. Reverse round table majority of attendees want this to continue and enjoy these sessions. The negative comment was to have the reverse round tables on the last day. Carla advised the issues with having it on the last day is because a lot of the State s leave on that day and are unable to attend. Tani proposed that the Board speak more about this during the Spring Board meeting. The law enforcement session had a lot of comments. Ana explained that attendees thought it was either excellent or they thought the session horrible. These perceptions were based upon the attitude of the presenter. Ana advised based on the total number of surveys that the lowest turned in survey count for a session was, Don t Be a Cheese Head You Should Tablet More Effectively. And the highest turned in survey count was the reverse round table. Ana will be sending out the comments to layout the ground work and the Board will discuss further at the spring board meeting. d. Membership of Committees update Tani wanted to remind the Board that she sent out the list of people who signed up for different committees that were interested in volunteering, therefore, at the next November meeting to advise the names of the individuals that are on the committees. 6 8. Web Discussion Chair Robert Fisher advised the biggest issue that needs to be fixed immediately was improving the registration process on the website. According to Robert, the website is basically a repository. Robert explained that Dale will be researching possible software that can be used for improving the registration process, or another option is for STRIMA to create a workflow that can be linked to the STRIMA website. Robert advised that STRIMA still has a good relationship with the website vendor and that they are getting ready to post the educational sessions on the website. Robert reiterated that the most pressing item is to determine how to improve the functionality of registration process on the website. Robert
recommended once the registration issue is resolved the board can evaluate the website as a whole and decide if the website needs to be redesigned or if the board would want to find a new host. Robert plans to send out questions to all members asking what they would like to see on the STRIMA website to obtain input with improving the overall website. Tani advised she made a payment to the website vendor for the purpose of uploading the 2015 documents. There was nothing further discussed regarding the STRIMA website. 9. Proposed Administrative Budget including increased website development costs President Tani Downing. Tani explained she used Roberts s numbers from last year and added an additional $10,000 for the website. Tani continued to explain that Robert had $2,500 from last year and she added an additional $7,500 that totals $10,000. She is not sure how much the overall cost of the website will be as the $10,000 may be too much or it may not be enough for the cost of the website. All the other numbers in the Proposed Administrative Budget are close to last year s numbers. There were t two amendments that needed to be updated in the 2015 Actuals which were the website ($2,044.80) and the registration for the trade and service mark ($289.00). For the 2016 budget year the trade and service mark will not be include, however, there will be a $10.00 for the business registration. These changes bring the total to $38,145.00. Another concern by the board was the expenditures exceeding the estimated revenue. Deb and Robert explained that there is a $100,000.00 reserve balance within the account that would cover expenses that exceed the estimated revenue for 2016. Robert explained that this reserve balance is recorded on the STRIMA Reserve Report that shows 12 months of operating expenses plus 20% of the past (5) five years. The past STRIMA meeting the board voted to increase the reserve balance from $75,000.00 to $100,000.00 due to a surplus in revenue. Tani recommended that a $10,000.00 transfer from the STRIMA reserve balance should be allocated and documented in the Proposed 2016 Administrative Budget. The justification for transferring reserve revenue into the proposed budget is for the improvements for the website and the cost of doing business. Carla motion to accept the 2016 Proposed Administrative Budget as amended Deb seconded and the motion carried unanimously. 10. New Business-Jason had pictures of the conference and wanted to know how the pictures should be disseminated. Tani advised Jason to download the pictures on a disc for all the attendees and Tani would have her staff review the disc of pictures to determine which ones to upload on the STRIMA website for a month. 11. Old Business-No old business 12. Adjourn-There being no further business Robert moved to adjourn Tani second and the meeting was adjourned at 2:33 p.m. CST.7 7