Membership Committee Conference Call

January 10, 2007 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Attendees: Brian Rank, Lisa Stephens, Matt Flory, Megersa Kumbi, Nicole Bennett Engler

Agenda Items

1. Changes to bylaws, including term limits and number of SC seats

    A. Length of Terms

·   Two-year turnaround does not give members enough time to learn about the  

   Alliance.

·   If we extend the term do we do it indefinitely or do we have additional terms?

·   The term limit is one that evaluation members have discussed as well.

·   Per the last SC meeting notes, the membership team will make recommendations to the committee on length of terms and number of SC representatives.

·   Should we look at examining ways in which we could help those who would like to remain on the committee after their term expires?

·   If we continue with two years terms, we risk losing engaged professionals who know the coalition and the system.

·   Other professional boards have 3 or 4 year terms; we have to find something that works for the Alliance.

This discussion has been tabled until 2008, when we have a more clear vision of

how these term limits can be most effectively utilized.

B. Number of SC representatives

·   Per BCBS incident of having a full slate but wanting to have an organizational     
representative, we may want to look at increasing the number of SC members allowed (which is currently 18-20), outlined in the bylaws.

·   If we as a committee want more flexibility in numbers for 2008 committee, we can increase the number by 2. This increment helps illustrate that we did not increase the number for a specific position.

·   Do we need an open position for a member of the tobacco control community? Pat McKone, American Lung Association of Minnesota, sounded open to being more involved with the Alliance and may be a good fit for this position.

Action Item: Brian will report to the SC (whether at Jan. or next meeting) - The membership committee would potentially be in favor of increasing the size of the SC if it were deemed important to accelerate the work of the Alliance.

2. Nominations for vice chair

·   The committee nominates DeAnn Lazovich, because members feel that she has been a dynamic, talented and aggressive leader who has helped us think through the future direction of the Alliance.

    Action Item: Brian to discuss this nomination with DeAnn to see if she is
    interested. Brian to recommend DeAnn for vice chair at upcoming 1/16/07 SC
    meeting.

3. Task force and committee membership

·   How can the membership committee help engage the SC members by having

  them become more involved in Alliance task forces and committees?

·   Is it this committee’s role?

·   It may be the job of this committee to foster ideas of how we could help better engage the SC meeting.

While this is an important factor in the future success of the Alliance, this item has been tabled until post 1/16/07 SC meeting, when SC members may be offered a better sense of what is expected of them regarding extra-curricular involvement.  

4. Nominations/applications for 2008

·   Should probably put out a call for 2008 SC members and even operational committee and task force members around the Summit when people

  are paying the most attention.

Action Item: Nicole to draft an e-mail for Brian, Liz or Ken to send around April.

5. New member orientation

·         New members currently do not know much about the Alliance. What can we do to make sure that we are developing relationships with member organizations to maximize the reciprocity of these relationships?

·         There are probably ~30 member organizations that know little about the Alliance

·         Preliminary Summit plans include a new coalition member “Introduction to

·         Comprehensive Cancer” orientation, which Nicole will work with Liz to try to help incorporate Alliance messages into. Hopefully this will help hit a few new members, and others can be oriented post Summit.

·         We need to put a call out for Alliance leadership, including SC members, task force leaders and program staff interested in helping orient new members near their respective geographic areas. We can create a master orientation list of volunteers willing to help and new member recruitment can be assigned on a rotation basis in the metro and a geographic location basis in greater MN.

·         Orientation would include

o        Alliance overview presentation (which Nicole has created and will soon
          post to the Web),

o        Overview of MN Cancer Resources

o        Request of submission of resources, etc.

o        We will also continue using new membership packets, which will be
          evaluated by Nicole.

·         Volunteers would agree to help with ~1 one-hour-long orientation per
month, if necessary. 

·         Matt will pilot test this new strategy on member/potential member visits with Anna Ourada when meeting with stakeholders re: Web site.

·         Brian, Matt and Nicole are willing to help orient new members.

    Action Item: Brian to ask SC members to contact Nicole if they are interested in
    being a part of this orientation group.

6. Member organization recruitment list

    Tabled for future meeting

7. Additional committee members

    Tabled for future meeting

8. Future meeting dates

·      The group will meet every 2 months. Nicole will send out list of other future
   meeting dates.

   -The next meeting will be held from 12:30-2 p.m., Thursday, March 29.