[list_settings.list_name]: Board Meeting Summary for November 16-17 2013

 
From: "[list_settings.list_name]" <codalist@codependents.org>
Date: December 12th 2013


The following message is from the CoDA Board of Trustees. board@coda.org

Summary for CoDA World Board Face to Face Meeting

November 16 & 17, 2013

The Board of Trustees met November 16 & 17 in Los Angeles, CA. Members in attendance included: Hal H., Lisa B. Barbara D., Chris H., Florence F., Mercedes M., Evie S., David Mc. as voting members, and Lorraine O., and Charles Z. as Alternate Trustees. Dagmar Mc. attempted to join us via Skype, but technical difficulties wouldn’t allow her participation.

Saturday November 16, 2013 9 am – 6 pm

After our usual opening procedures, we approved the previous minutes from the October 2013 Board meeting. We ratified the following Board group conscience decisions that were made during the previous month:

  • GC for second back up legal liaison to be Lorraine
  • GC for Limited Royalty-free Publication Agreement that gives authorization to at least two people per country to make copies and trademark the publications.
  • GC for extra meeting room at CSC 2014 for Spanish Speakers & Workshops
  • GC for the Embassy Suites hotel as venue for Nov. 2013 CoDA Board f2f meeting
  • GC for proposed response to China re: payment for Translations
  • GC for posting of thank you letter from our founders on the coda.org website

We briefly discussed completing the assignment of Voting Entity (VE) Liaisons. Several of us agreed to meet after the Board meeting to finalize the assignments.

We started the meeting with a check in/sharing time, focused on a group inventory format. Board members were given a list of questions to consider that included an opportunity to review how well the Board is functioning, as well as how well we, as individual Board members, are doing in our service work.

Following the group inventory, our treasurer gave her report. We received Seventh Tradition donations from Netherlands. We discussed moving CoDA’s money to another bank account that is federally insured so that we are in compliance with CoDA’s investment policy. We approved closing the existing account, and moving the bulk of the money to our new bank account. Any funds in excess of the federally insured limit will be put into a second account at another federally insured bank. Our treasurer will coordinate getting names and signatures for the accounts.

Next we heard a report from our Association Management Company (AMC) liaison. She reported on four projects that are:

  • A policy & procedure manual for the Board, and for CoDA, Inc. as a whole.
  • Bylaws - some items in our bylaws need to be moved to our policy & procedure manual. The bylaw may need some changes to protect us legally. There should be a draft to present to the Board at our next face to face meeting 2014.
  • Email Votes - the way we are conducting email votes at this time is not appropriate. We may need to include something in the bylaws.
  • Webmaster: Discussed the future maintenance of our new website. Our Account Executive (AE) shared some ideas of how we can do this with a professional webmaster or a combination of a professional and Fellowship Service Worker (FSW). We discussed the possibility of a conflict of interest with a Board member and the current webmaster.

A decision was made to ask the Board member to leave the room when it was time to discuss the AE’s suggestions.

After our lunch break, we heard from the legal liaison. Work is progressing on the procedures for signing the various Voting Entity Agreements. The procedures were reviewed, and several members agreed to work with the liaison to streamline the procedures.

The Board secretary then gave a brief description of what the committee updates are for, and how we use them. Board liaisons may choose to provide an update if needed, and they are used internally among the Board members.

Following we discussed the CoDA Phone (C-phone) and the recent change to an all-volunteer answering process. A report was provided detailing the types of calls that have been received and answered. We discussed the structure of C-Phone and their efforts to have adequate backup when volunteers are unavailable to take calls.

Our Website Project liaison to the AMC reported on the progress of the Website Project. After distribution of the Request for Proposal (RFP), only 6 proposals were received with 4 of those chosen as potential candidates. Our AE is working on gathering contacts from various 12 Step program websites to find other potential candidates. Our liaison will review the RFP to clarify some terms that could be confusing to potential candidates. It was suggested that if a member of the Board wanted to recommend someone for the job, that he/she send the contact information to our liaison who will ensure that the AE receives them so that they will receive the revised RFP.

Discussion turned to conducting of the interviews and who would participate in the process. We formed an interview committee consisting of four Board members, and the AMC.

We moved into executive session at 4:13 pm to discuss the maintenance of the future website. Executive session ended at 5:20 pm. Evie S. left for the day.

A co-liaison was chosen for the Website Project.  This liaison will work in conjunction with the primary liaison.

We adjourned for the day at 6:04 pm.

Sunday November 17, 2013 8:15 am – 5:10 pm

We resumed our meeting with the Serenity Prayer, followed by a brief check in/sharing time. David Mc. left at 9:45 am.

We continued the meeting with a brainstorming session answering the question, “How can we better communicate, support and carry the message to our Voting Entity/Intergroups and local groups?" We developed categories from the session. , and we plan to use these ideas at our next Board meeting which will include a strategic planning session. We chose some tentative dates for our next face to face meeting for sometime in January or February 2014. It will be a 3 day meetings with one day for strategic planning and two days for Board business.

We broke into three small groups to address the following issues:

  • Update meeting process & VE Intergroup Contact Maintenance
  • Website Guidelines & Web Liaison description/procedure
  • Storage of archive materials/hard copies

Each group presented on their topic. A motion was passed to remove an Excel file from the Committee Work Area that contains private information.

Several items were tabled, and others were assigned to Board members to work on. These included:

  • Abstention voting/election process - assigned
  • Alternate Trustee description/VE Liaison description - tabled
  • Further categorizing of the brainstorm notes - tabled
  • Personnel policy - assigned

We ended the meeting with brief closing shares, and decided to make this a regular part our face to face meeting format. The meeting adjourned at 5:10 pm.

Future Board Meeting:

  • Saturday, December 7 2013, 8:30AM Pacific Standard Time
  • Sunday January 12, 8:30AM Pacific Standard Time

Next Face to Face Meeting in Phoenix, AZ (tentative)

Saturday-Monday January 18-20, 2014

or

Saturday - Monday February 1-3, 2014

or

Saturday - Monday February 15-17, 2014

 

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http://coda.org/service/conf-call-guidelines.htm.


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