North Alabama Chapter of ASTD, Inc.

Minutes of Board Meeting

June 8, 2006

            The board meet at the ADTRAN building at 901 Explorer Way Boulevard. The following persons were present: Gloria Stover (president), George Houk (board member at large), John Hightower (treasurer), Rhonda Williams (programs chair), and Cindy Dodd (membership chair).

            The minutes from the May 5, 2006, meeting were approved.

            John presented the treasurer’s report. John noted that the expense of having chapter meetings was exceeding the income collected—mostly because of no-shows. The board discussed policy about this. The board reached consensus to continue to follow a long-standing policy of allowing the treasurer to bill no-shows who frequently don’t show; otherwise, people will not be billed for not showing. Rhonda also agreed to put an announcement in the e-mail messages about informing the treasurer if a person knows that he or she is not going to “show.” In addition, there was a need for a short article in the next edition of the newsletter about informing the treasurer when a person may become a “no show.”

            Cindy presented a membership report. The board reached consensus that members would be e-mailed copies of the membership directory. Marsha Dollarshide was to make sure this appeared in the newsletter. John was to check up on an unpaid corporate membership that he had arranged when Cindy was very busy.

            Through e-mail discussions, the board reached consensus that Marsha, as communications chair, would be responsible for making sure that meeting announcements appeared in the Huntsville Times.

            Rhonda reported on all the upcoming programs for the rest of the year. The next program is “It’s Not Rocket Science, It’s Life,” presented by Cyndy Morgan, president of Junior Achievement of North Alabama. Rhonda also presented an idea for a program during 2007 about “Recipes for Training Success.” This would become a chapter project with a “recipe book” being published. The board agreed that this would be a good idea.

            George reported that we had had 34 responses to the membership survey conducted through Survey Monkey. The board reached consensus that the results of this survey should be put on our web site.

            The board reached consensus that the chapter could list community-service opportunities in our newsletter and web site with a disclaimer that such opportunities weren’t sponsored by the chapter.

            The board discussed revising the chapter’s bylaws. The board approved the draft presented by John (incorporating changes suggested at the last meeting). The draft is to be posted on our web site and e-mail messages are to be sent about the draft. In addition, John volunteered to take care sending out letters informing people of the vote on the new bylaws. However, the board didn’t set a date for that vote.

            The board agreed that the web site could have listings for training service providers so long as there was a disclaimer about the training provided. The board reached consensus that the price of advertising on the web page should be $20 a year. The board also reached consensus that if a vendor purchased advertising in four consecutive issues of the chapter newsletter (published four times a year), the vendor should get a free listing on our web page. This information was to be mailed to Marsha for inclusion in the newsletter.