Board of Director Meeting Minutes 7/13/07
The meeting came to order at 11:31 a.m. at the Municipal Building Room 307. Present at the meeting were: Chava Case and Andrea Hixson, Legislative Chairs; Judi Just, President; Darlene Kaelin, Secretary, Veronica Pedersen, Membership Chair, Rebecca Spitsbergen, Treasurer, Nancy Thayer, President Elect
President – Judi Just
Judi gave Darlene the signed original bylaws to be filed in our permanent files.
We are now a Merit Chapter and Judi showed the group the new banner with the new logo. Rebecca said we should put in the newsletter that we are a Merit Chapter. Chava will consider that. Judi also showed the Merit Award Certificate. We will display the certificate at our meetings at the registration table.
Judi has a list from SHRM of national members who are not affiliated with our chapter. We need to make sure the Primary Chapter Designation form is available when people join our chapter. Any future members that join we need to make sure they are affiliated. Darlene will e-mail an affiliate form to Eddie Frescas, who just joined the chapter this month. Veronica will contact the people on the list who are national members but not affiliated with a chapter. We could do a mailing to them to encourage them to come to our luncheons and maybe they would become a member. Darlene and Veronica will work on the mailing.
We are getting more and more people asking us to post jobs. Judi said we are not in the recruiting business, and we don’t want this to become a burden. Nancy made a motion that we only e-mail members’ HR related job openings to our members. Also, members may announce job openings at our meetings. Chava seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Judi said to be thinking of candidates for board members for next year.
President-Elect – Nancy Thayer
Nancy said she talked with Christy McAffie from the Holiday Inn to find out why she hasn’t been attending our meetings. Christy said that she hasn’t been attending because she got really, really sick after one of our meetings. Christy said she reported it to the Hitching Post but no one ever got back to her. She will not come to the meetings if she has to eat. Judi said the Hitch has spent a lot of money on kitchen upgrades, including $30K for a new dishwasher. Judi said people have to pay even if they don’t eat. She asked Nancy to encourage Christy to attend our meetings.
Secretary - Darlene Kaelin
The revised bylaws have been posted on our website.
There are two outstanding lunch invoices from Bob Blanchard of WalMart and John Ysebaert of the State of Wyoming. Also, Anna Hutchinson owes $1.00 from last month. We don’t have a way to enforce the collection of the money, so if they don’t pay, we will have to write it off.
There is one outstanding payment for the Meth Seminar. Robert Burgin of VAE Nortrak has not paid. He has been sent two invoices. Again, there is no way to enforce collection, so we will write it off.
Darlene circulated the WebArticles Manager page so that the board could see how many times each article on our website is being viewed.
Darlene asked if our policy for meal tickets is to let people carry them over into the next year. Judi said we should not let them carry over into the next year because we might have to increase the price, and also it will encourage people to attend meetings if they have to use up their meals in the current year. Judi said people could let others in their office use the meal tickets too. Darlene said she can put an expiration date on the meal tickets.
Treasurer’s Report - Rebecca Spitsbergen
Rebecca distributed name tags to the board members. They turned out very nice.
Rebecca distributed the Checking Account Detail as of 7/19/07. The document is attached to these minutes and incorporated herein by reference.
Rebecca said she is a member of the Foundation Regional Scholarship Selection Committee along with representatives from Oregon, Alaska and California. The committee will meet via teleconference on Thursday, August 2 to select the scholarship recipients. Judi said she heard that some folks from Sheridan have applied for the scholarship. Rebecca said it will be fun to go through the process.
We received in the mail an invoice in the amount of $150.00 for the Chamber of Commerce annual membership dues. Rebecca asked if we want to continue our membership. The board agreed to continue our membership in the Chamber, and Rebecca will process the invoice for payment.
Judi said we need to utilize the Chamber more. It was suggested that Veronica attend Red Carpet events. Veronica said she used to attend when she worked for the University of Phoenix. It is every single week and she would prefer it to be once a month. Nancy said she would be interested in attending the Red Carpet events. Veronica and Nancy could alternate attending. Judi said it costs $16.00 a month to attend and the chapter will pay.
Rebecca said she had trouble getting the Chamber to post our meeting announcement because Angie didn’t have time to review it. The Chamber has a new Membership Director (Susan Kruse), so maybe that will help in the future.
Chava said she could start attending Cheyenne Young Professionals.
Membership – Veronica Pedersen
Veronica said she has invited several people to our meetings and has asked Darlene to add several people to the email distribution list.
Veronica has made contact with a Mr. Aldridge from the State of Wyoming. He is in charge of the state HR group. He said they would be interested in receiving information on our meetings and might possibly attend some of them. They might be interested in partnering on some things.
Veronica said at one time Kristy Fertig with Department of Health was in charge of the state HR group. In conversations with her, Veronica learned that the group was formed because most people in state government don’t have formal education in HR. When Kristy was in charge of it she looked into doing a study group and getting people certified, but it fell by the wayside when she left the position. She said there are only four HR people in the state who have any kind of certification.
Legislative Report – Chava Case & Andrea Hixson
Chava distributed a copy of the HR Public Policy Update that she received at the SHRM Annual Conference. She said the speaker was very entertaining. For instance, he gave another name for FMLA as “the Friday and Monday Leave Act.” The most interesting and controversial legislation is the Healthy Families Act. It requires public or private employers with 15 or more employees to provide paid sick leave to full and part-time employees. Also it is not just for traditionally defined family members. It could include domestic partnerships, roommates, etc.
Andrea distributed copies of the new Federal Minimum Wage posters to the board members.
Chava said that the FHRA link on the State Council website takes you to somewhere funky that is not the FHRA website. Judi will bring that to someone’s attention.
Monthly Meetings
The speaker for the August meeting is Sylvia Hackl. Her topic is “But that’s the law … isn’t it?” We will need the room set up for a PowerPoint slideshow. Judi has applied for HRCI credit for the presentation. On the announcement we will say that 1 hour of HRCI credit is pending.
We will have a September meeting. Judi will give an overview of the state conference and we will show a DVD; either “Ethics the Fabric of Business” or the Starbucks DVD.
Brad Cave and Jan Felton will present the October half day seminar. Judi asked Veronica or Darlene to provide a course description for Managing Performance Problems. We will keep the cost the same as the seminar last year. Darlene will work up a flyer to be sent out in August.
At the November meeting Chief Fecht and Lori Millin will give a legislative update as it pertains to HR. Chava verified that the speakers will get a free lunch.
We need to be thinking of what to do for the December holiday party. Judi said if nonmembers come to our party they need to pay. The group thought a dinner might be nice this year because we’d have more time to socialize.
Rebecca asked if we could put more information on the ice breakers. She said there were new people at her table at the last meeting who had no idea what the icebreaker was referencing. It was on EEOC but they couldn’t figure out what the question referred to. Chava said it looks like it worked as an ice breaker since it got them talking!
State Conference
Judi distributed a copy of the state conference brochure. Darlene will e-mail it to all members and ask them to let her know if they plan to attend so we can make a decision about how much our chapter will sponsor them for. They must let us know by August 2 if they plan to attend. Judi said depending on how many people plan on attending, we will sponsor a maximum of $190.00 per person, which is the Early Bird-SHRM Member plus the dinner theatre ticket. If we pay the state conference directly, we can fill out the registration forms and send everything in all at once.
Judi said there is going to be a leadership conference prior to the state conference and it will start at noon on Wednesday. All FHRA Board Members are invited to attend the leadership conference.
Judi said it takes an estimated 4 hours and 22 minutes to drive to Gillette from Cheyenne.
Chava said WSLC has something to hand out at the state conference.
Judi said she won a Sirius radio at the national conference, which she doesn’t want, so she will donate it to the state conference for a door prize.
Rebecca said our chapter needs to provide 6 to 7 door prizes. She said she has applied for the SHRM foundation to donate an I-Pod. She asked if we need to purchase some items from the SHRM store. We should set up a budget for how much we can spend on door prizes.
Andrea said she will check with her marketing dept to see if there is anything to donate.
Judi said we’ll have to haul the door prizes to Gillette so we’ll need them by the 28th, which is the day of our next board meeting.
Old Business
Judi said the Club & Organizations info has been updated in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Satellite Chapter
Veronica attended an HR meeting in Laramie. They have approximately 50 members in their chapter and there were 40 people at the meeting. It is a really dynamic group. Some of them are a little interested in becoming a SHRM chapter and others are totally against it. They want to be able to keep it flexible and not have to abide by SHRM rules. They don’t want to have to pay dues. Usually a business will host their meetings and pay for the food. They meet almost monthly but not monthly. They’re very loose. They meet when space is available and when they can find a business to sponsor lunch. They are interested in a study group for certification.
When Veronica gets their e-mail notices she will forward them to Darlene, who will forward them to the board members.
We’ll need to keep visiting them. They have a lot to offer us. Their e-mail addresses have been added to our distribution list. Veronica and Darlene will be attending their next meeting on August 15.
Judi will get something from Diana that lists the benefits of becoming a SHRM chapter so we can relay that information to the Laramie group.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 1:25 p.m. The next board meeting will be at 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at the Egg &I. Judi will try to make reservations for us.
Respectfully submitted,
Darlene Kaelin
FHRA Secretary 2007
