August 2009 Minutes
Attendees:
·    Leslie Hugo, Marilyn Marshall, Nadine Whitfield

Location: Porcupine Grill, Salt Lake City
Scribe: Nadine Whitfield

Agenda:
1.    2009-2010 Election and ballots
2.    Kickoff social
3.    Annual reports
4.    Email listserv issues/problems
5.    Website
6.    Communication and participation rate at activities
7.    ABJ meeting
8.    Acting Officers

1. Our elections are late this year because we did not meet during the months of Jun and Jul. No nominations were turned in by members for this election. Leslie told us the minimum officer positions that needed to be filled in order for our section to keep its charter, and we all volunteered for positions to ensure minimal coverage. This lineup will be put into a ballot and sent out to our membership email list. One member, has requested a paper ballot. We will try to accommodate this request. 

2. Tentative date for the kickoff social  is Sep 19 2009 from 5 - 8 pm. . Marilyn volunteered to host this event at her home. Activity would be a BBQ. We are also considering holding a business meeting 30 minutes before the event officially starts. The event will be by rsvp/advance sign-up, and maps will be sent to all confirmed guests.

3,5,6. An informal survey of turnout for our events this year showed some areas that could use improvement. For the coming year, we noted that it would be beneficial to concentrate on reaching out more to busy, professional members. Another point that surfaced was the SWE listserv. It is hard to determine how effective it is at we don't have a tracking system in place, and it appears that some members may not be getting the messages. As an alternative to the listserv, Leslie suggested that we look into using social media to improve communication with members (sites such as Facebook, Twitter,etc). We all thought this was a good idea and made space for this on our Sep 2009 agenda.

4. Annual reports due from our section include the Section Summary report and the Treasurer's report. Elizabeth Gregory moved out of the state in July 2009. Her duties will be covered by Chiao-ih Hui for the interim period. It is unclear whether Elizabeth completed the treasurer's report before leaving.

6. The website is a concern and is generally under-utilized by our members. Is there a way to change that? Also, there have been some maintenance/performance issues. The last known problem in July was user error (webmaster) and has been resolved. Nadine volunteered to put in time for substantial upgrades but requests input from members and officers as to what those improvements should be.

7. Our regular section representatives were not available to attend this meeting, so Nadine volunteered to attend and represent our section at the upcoming regional ABJ meeting in Whidbey Island, WA (Aug 14 – 16 2009). The officers concurred that she should be at least partially reimbursed for travel expenses.

8. During this interim period, we have two officers covering positions other than the ones for which they were elected: Nadine Whitfield is acting as secretary and Chiao-ih Hui is acting as treasurer.

ACTION ITEMS:
Leslie will check our bylaws to verify that we have covered the correct positions to maintain our charter. Once these are verified, Nadine will post this ballot on surveymonkey.com and send a link to listserv members

Nadine will complete an expense report to turn in to the treasurer for the ABJ Conference

Add website review to next agenda

Leslie is in process of compiling the summary report and will check with Chiao-ih for status  of the treasurer's report

Nadine will investigate the listserv issues and draft preliminary questions for the activity survey

Leslie and Marilyn will verify that the date and time is clear with their schedules and confirm the date with Chaio-ih
 

NEXT AGENDA (tentative meeting on Sep 19 2009):
Review website

Election results

Activity survey

Social media

Kickoff social