2008 August

Board Notes, August 2008

Compiled by Robert J. Lang from minutes by Rachel Langley. These notes cover some of the highlights of the Special Meeting for Election of Officers and the OrigamiUSA Board meeting of August 7, 2008.

Special Election Meeting

The election of officers of the OrigamiUSA Board of Directors was held in a special meeting on August 7, 2008. The election was delayed in order to double-check with our legal counsel that the bylaws permitted the office of President and Treasurer to be held by the same person; Marc Kirschenbaum, acting president, reported that this was indeed the correct interpretation, endorsed by our lawyer. With that, the election proceeded.

The following officers were elected:

  • President: Wendy Zeichner
  • Local Vice President: Marc Kirschenbaum
  • Remote Vice President: Robert J. Lang
  • Treasurer: Wendy Zeichner
  • Secretary: Ros Joyce

It was then decided to elect a third vice president so that the Executive Committee (consisting of the officers) would have 5 members, preventing any deadlocked votes. After nominations, a vote was held, with the following result:

Third Vice President: Ruthanne Bessman

The meeting was adjourned at 8:31 p.m., so that the regular Board meeting could continue.

Regular Board Meeting, August 7, 2008

President's Report: Wendy, as new president, thanked the other candidate for president (Ros) and noted that she hoped to improve communications within the Board and that it would lead to "great things" for the organization.

Back at the end of May, the (prior) Board had held a retreat to discuss strategic issues for the future. The minutes from that meeting had been recently sent to the Board by past president Tony Cheng, minutes that included "meeting agreements." Wendy felt these agreements would be good guidelines in general for Board communication and read them to the Board. They were:

Meeting Agreements

The board adopted the following guidelines for participation in the discussion:

  • One person speak at a time
  • Repeat before you speak when there are differences
  • Use "I" language
  • Stay on topic
  • Don't interrupt
  • Speak concisely
  • Listen for understanding
  • Take a break between speakers to allow time to reflect
  • Speak up – participate fully
  • Be respectful
  • Be kind to each other

Treasurer's Report: Wendy presented the final 2007 financials received from the auditors. After much discussion, Wendy announced that she was looking for a "Treasurer in Training." Shrikant Iyer stepped up to take on the role, to general acclaim and enthusiasm.

Administrator's Report: Marc Kirschenbaum requested a new PC for the Home office for use of the Publications team, which is expanding their use of electronic publishing technology and is finding that pubs team members are waiting in line to use the existing computer. Also there are some indications that one of the existing computers is on its last legs. There was a motion, which was approved, to buy the new computer.

Election Committee: The Election Committee has been re-formed, consisting of Shrikant Iyer, Margaret van Sicklen, and Tricia Tait. Michael Naughton will continue as the vote tallier.

Convention Committee: Wendy presented the results from the convention:

  • 617 paid convention attendees
  • 400 T-shirts were sold
  • 360 Annual Collections were sold

Additional information will be available once all the accounting for Convention is completed. It usually takes a few months to get everything settled.

Sorry kits have been packed and are in the process of being sent out.

The Paper: Issue #99 will be devoted to the Convention issue, illustrated with copious photographs from Susan Dugan. Toby's plan is to get the Convention issue of the paper out in the fall.

Finance Committee: Kathryn Wagner has joined the Finance Committee, and has started working on developing a new accounting system that will allow monthly tracking of income and expenses against a budget.

PCOC Committee: The 2009 PCOC (San Francisco) Executive Committee will consist of Vicky Mihara Avery, Jan Polish, Lori Gregory, and Robert J. Lang. The local team is a somewhat larger group. Their first planning meeting will be in early September. Vicky has solicited bids from area hotels.

Policies and Procedures: There are now eleven policy/procedure documents posted on the website. More to come soon, we hope.

Library Committee (Lending Library + Reference Library): There has been an ongoing discussion between the Library and Copyright committees about posting a listing of the contents of the Reference Library on the website and what rules may be imposed on visitors with respect to copying, handling, and photography. deg farelly noted that libraries in general are not required to police the copying of books, but must post notices deterring individual from copying if copy services are available in the library (which, in the case of OrigamiUSA, would be the copier in the Home Office).

In the past, the policy of the Library Committee was that there was no copying of Library books allowed at all. That policy is now being reconsidered. Ros requested Board input, and it was decided that the Copyright/Library committee email discussion would be extended to the full Board, and to continue the discussion via email.

Exhibition Committee: Marcio reported that the committee is working on a policy document, but has immediate needs to repack exhibition models in the (climate-controlled) New Jersey storage space and the (uncontrolled, and very hot) Museum crawl space.

Fundraising/Grants Committee: Shrikant reported that a fundraising event was held at the LIFE festival in Stonybrook, Long Island, New York.

Online Presence Committee: Robert reported that:

  • The photo gallery infrastructure is up and working, several galleries are up.
  • Convention pictures are posted from Andrew Cribb: more to come.
  • Convention pictures from Susan received, to be posted soon.
  • Editing instructions for gallery-builders have been posted.
  • All OLP members have enhanced access, which allows them to see instructional documents.
  • Lori Gregory is now onboard as Groups, Calendar editor.
  • Norm Budnitz is coming onboard.
  • The Special Sessions redesign is in progress: like convention, electronic registration
  • The Holiday tree 2008 page is up and a News item has been posted.
  • Galleries of past Holiday trees are also up and posted.
  • We are discussing and actively pursuing posting original and reprinted articles on the website.
  • In order to keep costs down, Robert is the point of contact for giving assignments to Trevor so that we can control expenses related to the website.

Special Folding Fun Sessions: Wendy report dates for the 2008 fall sessions: : 10/12, 11/9, 12/14. Prices will be raised starting with the fall session. $20 for one class/$35 for two classes for members. $35 per class for non-members.

World Origami Days: Margaret reported that no logo has been created, but the team will consider using the design of last year's postal stamp as a design for advertisement use in The Paper. The committee will be meeting on August 19 to come up with ideas for how groups around the country and around the world can celebrate World Origami Days.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 pm.