Board Meeting Minutes
Conference of Interpreter Trainers
Conference Call Board Meeting
May 1, 2011
Persons present: Brian Morrison, Carla Mathers, Richard Laurion, Liz Mendoza, Lynne Wiesman, Annette Miner, Julie Simon, Leslie Greer, Gino Gouby.
The meeting was opened by President Brian Morrison at 5:00 pm EST.
Minutes from the face-to-face meeting on April 1-2, 2011 were approved. (Leslie/Carla)
President Report
Met with Kellie about the 2012 conference. That discussion will be on hold until later.
Need to contact the current person in charge of ASLTA to let Gino attend the conference instead of me. Is Glenna the contact person now?
Vice-President Report
1) With respect to ASLTA, I met with Larry Forestal via VP and we discussed the items that CIT wanted before extending them the use of our non-profit status for a temporary period of up to one year. As you know, the recent news regarding Larry's health may stall the process, but he did charge Betti Bonni with preparing the information for an attorney and retaining one which was one of our issues. Among other things, we asked for:
a. Proof of ASLTA's insurance and adding CIT as an "also insured" on their policy. ASLTA's insurance broker reached out to obtain CIT's address for this addition and we decided to use Richard's address for now.
b. A copy of ASLTA's by-laws and Financial Report. (Still waiting).
c. An agreement with an indemnity clause to avoid any possibility that CIT might be held liable for ASLTA bad acts. (pending, I am happy to write it, but will wait until most everything else is in place).
d. A request to inform of us of their current tax year. Larry said it was either April or October and they follow NAD's tax year. (will need follow up).
e. A copy of the reports they were required to submit to NAD for their tax purposes. (pending).
2) We will likely have to do a formal board resolution outlining the terms of our agreement. I did not see anything in the by-laws that required us to put it to a member ship vote, but I will double check.
3) With regards to a home office, I spoke with Robin Lanier who is the Executive Director of NAJIT and who owns the Association Management Company which serves as a centralized and coordinated space for several non-profits. There is a process she suggested we go through in terms of identifying which aspects of management we want centralized and then she suggested we prepare a RFP and submit it to the trade industry association for Association Management companies where we will receive bids from other companies, in addition to hers. I have looked at the sample RFPs on their website and suggest that I investigate it further and let the board know what the options for different aspects we could farm out to an association management company. There was one small issue that came up with NAJIT and providing sign language interpreters for their national conference in May, which made me hesitate to go forward with them, however, it seems that issue has been resolved and interpreters will be provided.
Treasurer
I just
wanted to give you an update on some of my to do list. I checked on our
Board of Directors' insurance. We do have a policy bonding the activities
of the Board. It is held with the Philadelphia Insurance Companies and I
just renewed our coverage for another year.
I met with our new accountants this morning. They are from Boyum &
Barenscheer, PLLP. agency. Our primary contact with be
Elizabeth A. Franklin, CPA [email protected].
During this initial meeting, we reviewed the CIT accounts and looked
over our historic activity. Included in the meeting was one of
the firm partners, Joseph A. Rusche, CPA, MBT. This initial
consultation was free but any further service will be billed at their customary
rate of $100/hour for Beth and $240/hour for Joe.
As you all know, the accounts need some work. It looks like it might take
about 10 hours of Beth's time or $1000 worth to get the accounts balanced as of
January 2011. This does not mean that she will be cleaning up all the
history, it just means that old accounts will be closed and what we have in
Quickbooks will balance with what is in the bank. We plan to open a new
set of books starting with January 1st of this year. The old accounts in
Quickbooks to date will be closed-out including the remnant accounts of various
prior treasurers. As is appropriate, I will be researching all these
accounts to make sure we've not got hidden funds in a location we don't know
about.
Beth and Joe are both confident we can get the 990 filed by mid-June.
However, this will require filing an extension (which we are doing now).
It seems we have missed a couple of forms over the last few years and our
tax filings have been incomplete. Beth and Joe believe we can correct
this without too much trouble and going forward we will make sure to file the
correct 990 documents.
Beth is also researching our financial obligations, if any for registration in
Kansas.
So, things are moving forward and we should be able to respond to the
membership motion to publish our financial statement each quarter starting with
the fall edition of the newsletter. I know that's behind where the
members may have wanted to start getting the information. However, it is
earliest we can deliver information that is completely accurate, which is
certainly my preference.
I have not heard back from Stacy Storme about using her address for our Kansas Registry. I also wanted to add to Carla’s report that I had talked with our auditors about our desire to potentially have an executive director and office space. I discussed with them that we will need to have a clear financial picture (and history) before we can answer that question.
Secretary
No report.
Professional Development
Marlene Schaetcher and Betsy Winston are interested in joining the committee. They will contact the Board about how they will serve on the committee.
Communication and Technology Report
1.
Set up an electronic method of group email (Yahoo
group, [email protected] <x-msg://2897/[email protected]>
, etc.) - sent the directions just how to set up a "group" in email.
Have set up a yahoogroup and invited all - here is the info as well:
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: [email protected]
2. Investigate video conference calls - I have access
to Wimba through Blackboard, which will not allow all to sign at the same time
but one at a time and all can see who is speaking at that time. I don't have
access to SVRS to be able to get a Z number and investigate that. Most video
conferencing seriously degrades quality with more than 2 people on the screen.
At this point, it is not feasible to try to have 8 people on individual video
feeds. Willing to set up a Wimba video room for our use and send out the link
by May 1st if you all would like?
3. Check the website for updates (Board, front page) -
addressed incorrect information (2010 conference and contact info)
4. Work with Leslie to videotape a welcome to members
on the CIT home page - working on VP meeting to establish goals and timelines.
Working with Doug BB to upload the video to the CIT website.
5. Communication & Technology Committee formation - Have a person who has
expressed interest in joining the Communication & Technology committee AND
the publications committee: D'Mita Boyd (director of the Georgia Perimeter
College in Atlanta.
Public Relations and Outreach
1. RID and ASLTA ads are finished.
2. Working with Lynne tor finishing up the video for the website.
3. Jeff (don’t know last name) from ZVRS and I are in negotiations for donating devices for the hearing people on the Board so that all 9 people will have VPs will contact them tomorrow (May 2, 2011).
4. http://www.pe.com/video/?bcid=924845958001&bcpl=260803777001
Membership
Regarding
the membership committee:
Jessica
Bently-Sassaman has joined the committee and we had a conference call to review
goals of the Membership Committee. She teaches in the ITP at Bloomsburg
University in Pennsylvania.
Regarding the membership survey:
I've requested
that this topic be added to the agenda for Sunday so we can decide how to
proceed with regard to ASLTA.
If ASLTA
is interested in collaborating on a joint survey, we'll need to discuss the
selection of a facilitator, as well as a tentative timeline. If ASLTA is not
interested in collaborating, I'll move forward with developing the survey.
If we move forward with the survey on our own, Jessica and I will draft
the questions and send them out to the Board for review and
input. Jessica and I talked about a tentative timeline for
disseminating the survey, getting it back from members and having time to
review and synthesize the information before the face-to-face Board meeting in
October.
DECISION:
1. Move forward with CIT sections of the survey and contact ASLTA to see if Glenna is interested in participating. Develop parts of the survey that we can disseminate during the RID conference.
2. Include a
question to see if CIT members are also ASLTA members (current/previous).
Membership
database:
I plan to contact
Doug Bowen-Bailey soon so I can learn how to fully use the member
database. This will help me do outreach to both current and lapsed
members when we are ready to disseminate the survey and membership renewal
notices in September. Jessica and I will work on a new demographic survey
to be sent out with membership renewals in the fall.
Research and Publications
1. Contact 2010 conference interpreter coordinator how much CIT paid for his/her services
One interpreter co-coordinator was paid $500. However, there is no record of paying the other co-coordinator. After talking to the past conference Board liaison (Cindy Farnham), who couldn’t remember what the agreement was for payment of interpreter coordinators. I contacted the on-site conference coordinator, who did not know either. She gave me the email for the interpreter coordinator who was paid the $500. I emailed her to find out if she paid the other co-coordinator out of the $500 or not. I have yet to hear back from her. I will continue to follow up.
2. Investigate link to ProQuest
Have not done this yet. Will complete by next meeting.
3. Update CIT email addresses (PD)
Although this was on my Action Items list, I think Lynne took care of this.
4. Check “CIT Archives” CD to not duplicate efforts with digitizing all CIT archives.
It turns out the Archive CD has many of our past newsletters already digitized from 1983 to 2004. Some years look incomplete, so I will work with Carolyn Ball, who has hard copies of all of them to see if we are missing any, and digitize what we don’t have. Then I will work with Doug Bowen-Bailey, our webmaster, to upload them to the website. There are past newsletters on the website, beginning with 2009. All are in website format (html), but several need their pdf versions uploaded on the webstie. I will work with Doug on this, too.
5. Research and recommend to the membership the appropriate academic structure for future publications of digital journals. I compiled a list of potential committee members for this project consisting of:
· Individuals who expressed interest in being on this committee at the conference
· Individuals based on recommendations by Jemina
· One person who responded after reading the CIT News
Next steps:
· Develop a “job description” to describe the goal of the committee
· Send the “job description” out for the Board’s review
· Send it out to my list of potential members and invite them to be on the committee
· Figure out how we will meet (AIM, some video format, etc.)
· Begin meeting!
6. Call for website translator
This wasn’t on my action items list, but I recall during the meeting we decided to put out a call for someone to translate the homepage of the website. I have questions about this since the meeting. The homepage changes often, so I’m wondering if this is really the page we want to have translated.
After our discussion during the May 1 meeting, I will develop this call.
7. Journal Orders
We have had two journal orders since the last meeting. I have had to do follow-ups for both orders.
For one order, I got information I needed from Richard to deposit the check into our account. I also got an address from Richard to send a copy of the check and deposit slip for his records. In the future, I hope to be able to just scan and fax the documents. Doug and I need to determine our process for when I get checks for the journal to ensure that the organization that sends the money gets their subscription. I am still working on getting the contact information to make sure the organization gets access to the link for the journal. I will complete this next week.
For the other order, I again got information I needed from Richard to order it from Lulu.com. Since it is an international order, I need to have it sent to me, then send it myself through the post office. Lulu.com does not handle international addresses well. I will complete this next week.
Conference 2012
Can inform attendees about making their own shared arrangements. Will go with the Hilton in Charlotte and not the Marriott. The Hilton has more features and meeting space than the Marriott.
RID Conference event
Gino will draft a “Save the Date” for presenting at the CIT conference.
Old Business:
None
New Business
Brian (Leslie) moved that we approve up to $1000.00 from the General Fund for preparing the books and filing the 2010 990 forms with the IRS. Passed. (B11:09)
Leslie (Richard) moved that we accept the Conference Committee’s recommendation on the Hilton Hotel as the 2012 CIT Conference site. Passed. (B11:10)
Annette (Leslie) moved to pay Trenton Marsh for co-coordinating the interpreters at the 2010 conference. Passed. (B:11:11)
Next meeting is June 5, 2011
The meeting was adjourned at 7:12 pm EST.