BPA Board Meeting Minutes: February 19, 2013

BPA Board Meeting Minutes – provisional until voted on at next Board Meeting : Mar 19, 2013

Attendees: Markus Fromherz, Nancy Hamilton, John King, Art Liberman, Gwen Luce, John King, Linda Elder, Doug Moran

Absent: Lynnie Melena, Lydia Kou, Christian Kalar

Guest: Lisa Landers, Romie Georgia (Green Team)

1. Volunteer (or Assignment) of Secretary to take minutes for this meeting

The January board minutes were reviewed and approved with one abstention.
Markus agreed to serve as secretary for this meeting.

2. Announcements and brief items

Nancy reminded the board about the March 1 deadline for the BPA ‘push’ newsletter. Since several businesses wanted to advertise, but haven’t sent money for an ad yet, Gwen volunteered to remind them.

Lydia (not present) wants to organize another cultural event, this time the Indian Holi Celebration at Bol Park, from 1 to 3 PM on March 24. She is looking for volunteers to help.

Lydia is also proposing a pet parade at the May Fete. There may not be enough time according to John. There could be a Agility Dogs or Search and Rescue demo if there’s a volunteer. No decision is made.

John reports that everybody has confirmed for their elements of the May Fete on May 19.

3a. Presidential Job Description

Lynnie has announced that she will resign as board president following the June meeting. The board is still looking for a candidate.

The board reviews and discusses the job description of the President. The following duties are seen as being the core of the job:

1. Make all of the preparations and preside over the monthly board meetings. (This is the main duty stated in the bylaws.)
2. Ensure that board members and committees do their work and have what they need. (The entire board can be vigilant and support this task.)
3. Disseminate news which has been sent by outside sources to the President. (As a practical matter, such news are often sent to the President. There is an email alias for the President.)
4. Ensure representation of the BPA board at City Council and City Staff meetings. (This duty is as needed only.)

The following duties are sometimes done by the President, but can be delegated.

1. Write an article for the quarterly issues of the newsletter. (This could be done round-robin by the board members. It is pointed out that the President’s message could also be simply a summary of board and association activities of the last three months, instead of the discussion of a particular topic.)
2. Organize the annual meeting. (This is actually the Vice President’s duty and can be delegated.)
3. Manage special requests and projects. Represent the board on longer-term studies or projects. Work with other officers and event managers on problems that may come up. (These are not usually required. Sometimes the President has to be present at official meetings to put weight behind a board opinion, but most of these tasks can also be delegated or should be done by committee chairs.)
4. Work to maintain positive working relationships among all board members. (The entire board can contribute to this.)

Those present feel that no changes to the bylaws are needed, but that the job description should be captured as thus described.

4. Board policy for BPA funding of non-BPA events and activities

Art explains the desire to establish a policy for providing funding to non-BPA groups. This includes extending our insurance coverage to groups holding meetings in PAUSD buildings. A request was received from Annette Puskarich to extend our insurance coverage for a movie evening event sponsored by the BP Green Team.

Romie Georgia (Green Team) describes the organization, its recent activities, and the upcoming movie event in more detail. In part the goal is building community. They are interested in the BPA’s insurance coverage and promotion capabilities. It is further discussed that the Green Team reports to the city, and is not a BPA committee, and Gwen questions whether it should be on the BPA application form (or CERT, the Garden Network and perhaps the Book Group, could be on the application form as well). Alternatively, we could also offer our reach through an insert instead, and we could put it in the push newsletter. In other words, we could provide a platform for community organization with our newsletter, website, and application form. There generally appears to be support for this.

A motion to extend insurance coverage to this Green Team event is approved with 6 pro and one against (Doug Moran). Doug expresses concern with how the event would be announced on the BPA-news email list.

3b. Change to Presidential Succession

Markus has proposed a change to the bylaws as follows.

Goal: limit the president position to a manageable term, ensure a flow of new blood, and make succession planning a regular board process. Also, get back in compliance with the bylaws.

1. The BPA board has one President and one Vice President.
2.  Both positions are one-year terms, after which the Vice President normally becomes President and a new Vice President is elected.
3. Both positions are voted on and to be confirmed by majority vote at the board meeting in the month before the new term starts.
4. It is the responsibility of the Nominating Committee to identify one or more candidate for Vice President by mid-year and bring him or her to the vote. In addition, anybody can propose and nominate candidates.
5. The candidate for Vice President is normally a board member with at least one year of experience on the board.
6. There is no limit as to how many times a person can become Vice President and President, but there should be at least one year between being President and becoming Vice President.
7. Any if these rules can be suspended in a year by majority vote of the board (e.g., to extend a term in exceptional circumstances).
8. The term starts in October.

Today, the bylaws specify a two-year term.

The board is generally supportive of these ideas. Art propose to ask that everybody should be president at one time, and that nobody should become president a second time until all held this position once. In the discussion, most don’t think that’s is practical.

There is some discussion about a one-year term vs. a two-year term, without a clear conclusion. If the Vice President is supporting the President and normally becomes President the next year, it is somewhat of a two-year term.

At the end of the discussion, the board asks Markus to articulate the concrete proposed changes to the bylaws. The plan is to vote on those at the next board meeting.

5. Board Member Discussion of some issues that arose during the preparation of BPA Board statement to BSA

John argues that this should be discussed next month. A motion to that effect is made and approved.

6. Proposal for Community Outreach regarding the “BPA-news” policy adopted in November

A proposal was made by Doug Moran to provide background information to the BP community about this policy and solicit their feedback in advance of the March meeting discussion that will review the policy. A lively discussion about the policy ensues. Various proposals and explanations are put forward, including one to just modify the policy to be clear that it’s about restricting the addition of personal opinion, not about highlights and links. Doug is asked to propose an alternative policy. There is no agreement in the end and only a decision by the majority to keep the policy until the March meeting.

The meeting is adjourned at 9:40pm.

Future Board Meeting Agenda items

1. Revision of the BPA-Board policy for BPA-news email (Doug, Lydia, Nancy) – March
2. Reevaluation of BPA relationship as charter organization of Boy Scout Troop – tbd: sometime following the national BSA May meeting
3. Review of the Lunar Day Celebration and BPA Board policy for supporting future Diversity Celebration events (Lydia) – March
4. Review other job descriptions, e.g., business liaison and membership.

Respectfully submitted,
Markus Fromherz
2/25/2013