Attending: Lee Gilmour, Alan Ours, Isaiah Hugley, Carter Crawford, Chris Hobby, Julian Jackson, Stan Kelly, Tom Couch, Janice Eidson, Jean Lord, Gordon Maner, Paul Radford, Laura Meadows, Judy, Kelley, Toni Shope
Lee Gilmour called the meeting to order and introduced Toni Shope from the Alliance for Innovation. He then called on Gordon Maner to introduce Laura Meadows, the new Deputy Director of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. Laura told the group how happy she was to be working with the CVIOG and with the folks of GCCMA.
Lee asked for a motion to accept the minutes from the March meeting. Carter Crawford made a motion to accept and Isaiah Hugley seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
Judy Kelley presented the current GCCMA financial statement and Isaiah made a motion to approve the financial report. Tom Couch seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
Lee then went through two amendments to the by-laws that would be presented to the general membership; the first, a clarification of a full member of GCCMA and the second, a change in the fiscal year to coincide with the calendar year. The board agreed to present both proposals for vote at the general membership meeting. The board also reviewed a proposed GCCMA Ethics policy that was presented by Carter Crawford. The board agreed to present the proposal to the membership and, if the membership agreed to continue this process, ask for additional input over the next few months, with a final proposal to go before the membership at the Spring 2010 meeting in Athens. If the membership agreed to move forward, the spring proposal will also include information and pricing on liability insurance.
Lee reviewed the proposed budget for the new fiscal year, provided that the membership agrees to change the fiscal year to the calendar year. All were okay with presenting the new budget to the membership with no changes.
Lee asked Toni Shope to make a presentation about the Alliance for Innovation. Toni made her presentation and asked for a written commitment from the GCCMA membership to participate in the Alliance. She explained that there is no financial obligation, merely a commitment to share ideas with one another and to promote each organization. Alan Ours made a motion to present the idea to the members and Stan seconded. All were in favor of presenting the idea to the general membership for approval.
Lee then asked for a report of the award committee. Only two nominations for the Pillars Award had been received. After discussion of the two candidates, Carter made a motion to approve Billy Edwards as the recipient and Isaiah seconded. The motion carried.
Lee explained to the board that the contract signed with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government contained an error. A corrected contract had been forwarded to board members for review. Alan made a motion to accept the new contract and Carter seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Lee brought up his concerns that dues revenues had remained constant for the past five years, yet expenses are increasing slightly each year. Also, there are new programs and services that GCCMA would like to consider. He shared three options for a proposed dues increase. After discussion, the board agreed that they’d like to present a dues increase formula to the membership. This formula would establish a minimum fee for all members and then a fee based on city size. If the membership agrees to consider this option, a further proposal will be submitted in the spring. Janice asked about considering corporate membership or exhibit and sponsorship opportunities to help increase revenue. The board asked for a proposal on those ideas to present in the spring also.
Lee informed the board that GCCMA is getting requests for its mailing list and wanted to establish some rules for who can and cannot receive the mailing list. The board decided that non-profit, government related entities should get the list, but for profit entities should not. All requests should be sent to the President for final approval. When sending the list to anyone, a disclaimer should accompany the list stating that the list may not be shared with other entities without the approval of the GCCMA board of directors.
An announcement was made that the convention program committee would meet on Friday, following the closing session. Jean Lord announced that nine proposals had been received to host the 2010 fall meeting. Lee asked Alan Ours to put together a site selection committee in the near future to select a host city for 2010 and 2011.
Lee asked Isaiah to brief the board on the ICMA Montreal Meeting. Isaiah said that the sessions were great, but attendance was significantly down this year. Lee asked district directors to come up with nominees for the ICMA nominating committee and also a name to replace Andrea Arnold in her position with ICMA.
Janice gave an update on the 501C3 process and stated that the application was with the accountants and would hopefully be returned by Friday, October 23. She informed the board that if the accountants saw problems with the application and helped to get the application in order, there would be an hourly fee for their services. She also informed the board that the application fee was $750. Isaiah made a motion to continue moving forward with the process and to give the President the authority to approve any related expenses. Alan seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
Janice reviewed the new GCCMA website and asked for any additional suggestions. Lee asked that the membership list be revised to include city contact info including address, phone and email. Any other personal info should be restricted to the membership only.
Lee asked for other member business and said that one thing he wanted to make sure GCCMA continues to do is to encourage and include new members. He wants to make sure all areas of the state are involved.
Gordon notified the board that the participation in golf has steadily decreased and asked if we should discontinue the golf tournament. After discussion, Lee asked that the tournament be continued in 2010 and reviewed again after the fall 2010 conference.
Gordon suggested that the board consider some type of mentoring program for new managers.
Isaiah welcomed everyone to Columbus and gave some updates on the program for the next few days.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Alan Ours, Secretary/Treasure
|
|