1. Call to Order
Chair, Aslynne Howes, called the meeting to order at 8:03 pm EST
2. Roll:
Present: Niels Duinker, Chris Garcia, Matan Presberg, Scott Steiskal, Benjamin Domask-Ruh, Afton Benson, , Martin Frost, Aslynne Howes
Absent: Amy Wieliczka
Recorder: Matan
3. Approval of Agenda
Motion: Scott Steiskal
Second by: Niels Duinker
Discussion:
Vote: passes unanimously
4. Motion: Motion to appoint Benjamin Domask-Ruh as a member of the IJA board of directors
Author: Aslynne Howes
Motion: Matan Presberg
Second: Scott Steiskal
Discussion:
Niels: some discussion around the process of appointing a new board member and wanting to ensure everyone got a fair shot.
Discussion clarifying what the process was, and affirming that the board considered all candidates via email before this meeting.
Vote:
In favour: Matan, Scott, Chris, Aslynne
Oppose:
Abstain: Niels
Result: motion passes
5. Approval of Minutes:
Business Board Meeting (LINK)
Motion: Niels
Second: Chris
Discussion:
For clarification for new board member, any meeting minutes that have a motion needs to be approved at the next business meeting.
Vote: Passes Unanimously
6. Reports
Please keep verbal reports to 5 min or less except for festival discussion.
2022 Festival Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion: No updates, see last month’s meeting for detailed status report.
Financial Report (Afton Benson)
Discussion: IRC Draft Director Contract and Appendix A
Matan: will this directly affect IRC Director’s job?
Afton: no – used job description and draft contract to come up with this, and IRC director contract was never signed.
Future Festival Site Report (Mike Sullivan)
Discussion:
Membership (Marilyn Sullivan)
Membership Data
Discussion:
Marketing Report (Erin Stephens/Matan Presberg)
Discussion:
Matan (right before meeting):
Instagram – 77,757 followers, +261 overall in August
231,709 accounts reached (+49.7% from July)
19 posts
Facebook – 4,350,811 3 second video views (August 15 – Sept 11)
141,009 follows +1626 follows (Aug 15 – Sept 11
Youtube – 19,700 subscribers, 1 new video in August
IRC Report (Erin Stephens)
Discussion:
Chris: is the Mexico competition still going? Fimex?
Aslynne: will message Erin about status
YJA Report (Galen Harp)
Discussion:
Afton: reached out to Galen, haven’t heard from him, reached out to someone close to him, also haven’t heard. Given how long it’s been since we heard, it’s probably time to have some official correspondence from the IJA, and potentially find someone new to run YJA program.
Aslynne: Know that Galen had a lot going on, and that European rep still doing YJA things.
Afton: Gordon Tyler is the European YJA rep.
Scott: will reach out to Galen as OpsO
OpsO Report (Scott Steiskal)
Discussion: Main goal has been to find a place to invest 250,000 in donated funds.
- I have reached out to dozens of organizations and advisors.
- It’s been a frustrating process because one of the two following things has happened:
- They don’t work with non profits.
- The endowment (money) we are shopping is too small.
I think it is extremely unlikely we will find someone to actively manage the account. Therefore we’re looking at a mutual fund, s & p or money market account.
When investing you need two services:
- brokerage- basically an investment bank account (only brokerage I have found willing to work with a non profit our size is vanguard
- Fund- what we are investing in, there are endless options
Afton: one issue we’ve faced as an organization are volunteers who have their name on accounts, then leave the IJA. Specifically, we had an account with Vanguard that we had a lot of trouble getting access to since it was under Kim Laird’s name.
We need to make sure we have checks and balances, and appropriate processes for people joining and leaving the organization. Can be a /lot/ of paperwork. Multiple people on the account definitely helps.
Niels: leaning towards mutual funds, both lower effort and thinks they perform better
Scott: long term would like to have an endowment large enough to be actively managed, but for now agrees the simple option makes sense for now.
Martin: should be doing dollar cost averaging for moving money into the investment account? Avoids the problem of market crash immediately after we put money in.
Scott: have to watch out for minimums, as our amount to invest is considered very small.
Scott: will move forward with concretely finding a mutual fund w/o a brokerage – will not take action before consulting with the board, but will come back with a recommendation.
7. Motions for Consideration
A: Motion to…
Author :
Motion :
Second :
Discussion :
Vote :
In favour:
Oppose :
Abstain :
Result :
8. Varia:
Virtual Hangouts Report
Summary of responses: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Cn2CGKImXOgnGSfht5A2g98PEIQvz6hiOOZDk_Znc0Q/edit#responses
Currently 10 hangouts hosted. Very active at first but then dwindling attendance. I think the main problem is it’s not a good time for people to attend, or the platform we’re hosting on makes it difficult to join.
Low attendance again this month ~2 people
Do we want to change the day and time of week?
Are members/non getting value?
Does it encourage membership sign up?
Do we want to continue hosting this?
Niels: what if we included a workshop along with the hangout?
Afton: that’s somewhat similar to Mike Moore’s masterclasses idea (currently in the works, nothing finalized yet).
Scott: recommending less often virtual hangouts
Some discussion about the use of Chris’s time to run these.
Conclusion: tabling virtual hangouts for now, will discuss doing them less frequently or for special occasions. Will make a public post letting people know.
9. Confirm Next Meeting
Next meetings will take place on…
for the next vision meeting TBD
for the next business meeting TBD
- Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 9:07pm EST.