Minutes of the ChoralNet Board of Directors Meeting
February 2005
This online, asynchronous meeting was called to order by President Michael Shasberger on Friday, February 11, 2005 9:04 AM (MST) with the following meeting protocols:
Board members are requested to report their presence in the meeting as soon as possible by return e-mail.
If a Board member will be away from their e-mail for longer than 24 hours during the meeting, please inform the group of your departure and estimated time of return.
Develop a mailing group with everyone’s address in it rather than replying to "all" for meeting correspondence. Include both addresses for Shasberger and Feiszli to ensure complete recording of all correspondence
Limit the discussion in any individual e-mail to one topic with that topic clearly indicated in the subject line.
More than one topic may be under consideration at a time. If a topic generates no discussion in a 24 hour period, the Chair will close discussion on that topic and announce the closing of discussion in advance of a vote or other action.
Voting is open on an issue until a majority of Board members present is established.
The following agenda was presented:
Call to order
Approval of minutes
Reports: (These may or not require action or discussion)
a. Treasurer’s Report (Hoffman)
b. MUSICA status report (Feiszli or Fuller)
c. IFCM news (Feiszli)
d. Website report (Simon)
e. Fund Drive Planning Report (Stubbs)
f. Partners Reports
i. ACDA (Fuller)
ii. IFCM (Feiszli)
iii. CA (Stubbs)
g. List and Forum Committee report (Albinder)
Discussion/Action Items:
h. Recommendations stemming from List and Forum Report
i. Board Development
i. Setting Board term limits and/or rotations
ii. Soliciting and preparing potential Board members
j. New initiatives
i. Keeping ChoralNet relevant in a quickly changing web world
ii. Enhancing international services
New Business
Setting Next Meeting Date and discussion of "in person" meeting plan
Adjournment
A quorum was reported by Shasberger on Saturday, February 12, 2005 at 9:42 PM with the following Board members present: Allen Simon; Frank Albinder; Frank Stubbs, James D. Feiszli, and Shasberger. Hoffman and Fuller registered their attendance shortly thereafter. On February 14, Vice-President Stubbs tendered his resignation from the ChoralNet Board due to personal reasons. As Chorus America representative to the Board he had already communicated his decision to Ann Meier Baker, Executive Director of Chorus America. Baker was made ex-officio member of the Board until such time as a permanent replacement for Stubbs could be named by Chorus America. Dion Ritten joined the meeting on February 24.
Shasberger called for a motion to approve the
minutes from the previous meeting as posted on the Board website at:
http://music.sdsmt.edu/choralnet/2005-02/2005-02.htm
Stubbs moved to accept the minutes and Albinder seconded. With no corrections, the minutes were approved at 7:14 AM Monday, February 14, 2005.
Hoffman presented the Board with a final report for FY2004 and a report for January/February 2005. No discussion was made and no action was taken.
Albinder presented a Lists and Forum Report from the ad hoc committee comprised of Albinder, Simon, Feiszli, ChoralNet Manager Martin Knowles and Moderator Coordinator Carol Hague. Shasberger asked for action items based on Albinder’s report. Feiszli moved that a committee consisting of: Frank Albinder, Martin Knowles, Carol Hague, and two others of Frank's choosing begin to institute the changes necessary to achieve this item as reported by Albinder in his report: "Make Choralist the main listserv for the Choralnet site, and create a series of sub-groups, loosely based on ACDA R&S areas, to further sort posts." and furthermore that these changes be in place by July 1, 2005.
Simon seconded. In discussion Shasberger asked four specific questions:
Would you like a formal endorsement of the plan from the Board?
Do you need to recruit new/additional moderators to implement?
Do you have a timeline for implementation?
Given Dion Ritten’s presence on the Board, should we explore any language/regional/nationality based lists at this time?
Albinder responded:
Yes--taken care of with Feiszli motion.
Not to implement, though more moderators will be wanted eventually and will be recruited as the changes take place so the new moderators can learn with the existing moderation staff.
The motion states July1, which seems reasonable.
Not immediately. Just implementing the changes will be enough of an effort. Language-specific lists have been discussed in the committee, but are seen as something to address after these list changes have been implemented.
Feiszli made the point that the basic structure of ChoralNet lists has not changed since 1995 and that, gradually, the lists have slipped from the mainstream of the choral discipline. Major choral figures do not subscribe. Many leaders of major choral associations do not subscribe. With ChoralNet representing choral organizations with a membership of over 30,000 people, the lists have slowly ceased to represent those memberships. The sociology behind this phenomenon is that human communities cease to have relevance once a group grows beyond a specific number. Smaller groups of people create stronger bonds of community and those bonds create more relevant networks of people. The list committee recommends one centralized list with many sub-categories. A subscriber would choose any number of sub-categories and messages pertaining to those sub-categories would be delivered to that person based on their choices. Such a system would create smaller communities grouped around topics of specific interest, which in turn would rekindle the sense of community that was the impetus behind the original online communities. ChoralTalk would be maintained for those who desire chat, although ChoralNet might eventually want to develop some specific chat rooms or forums that specialize in various specialized topics. Simon followed by stating that moderators would categorize messages on Choralist and users could choose which categories of messages they receive; thus each subscriber would only get a subset of Choralist messages. The committee thinks this method will attract more subscribers who only want messages in a few areas. The default for existing subscribers will likely be to receive all categories, and if they take no action they will notice no change from the existing setup. The technical aspects have been researched by Martin. ChoralAcademe will become a category within Choralist, so it may get more activity since many academic questions are already posted on Choralist instead. The committee hopes also to create a better distinction between Choralist and ChoralTalk. The motion was passed on Tuesday, February 22, 2005 at 8:36 PM.
At 7:46 AM on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 Feiszli moved that ChoralAcademe be eliminated and replaced by a subcategory in the revised Choralist and that it ceases operation by July 1, 2005. At 7:48 AM on Wednesday, February 16, 2005 Feiszli moved that the link between ChoralTalk and Rec.music.makers.choral be severed as soon as is feasible and that Brent Boyko, who has maintained this link for its entire existence be publicly commended on ChoralTalk and Choralist and with other means as deemed appropriate by the List Chair and ChoralNet President. Albinder seconded both motions and asked that they be considered jointed for the sake of efficiency. Feiszli agreed to amend the motions to create a single motion with two actions. After voting, the motions were declared passed on Saturday, February 26, 2005 at 8:31 AM.
On Tuesday, February 15, 2005, Shasberger called for discussion or action items relating to Board Development and/or Board Term Limits. On Thursday, February 17, Feiszli moved that ChoralNet Directors, excepting Partner representatives, serve on the Board of Directors for a period of three successive years with the explanation that the Board has the ability to rotate people on and off the Board. But the tendency is to maintain a status quo, which will eventually cause stagnation – deadly in this technological medium. ChoralNet cannot tell the Partners who to place on the Board, but the other positions could expire after a certain time. Term limits could initially be staggered expiration for the present Directors so that all experienced Directors do not leave at the end of the same year. Simon seconded. Discussion as follows:
Albinder: it's standard operating procedure for maturing boards to implement 3 year term limits, though some allow serving two consecutive terms before a mandatory 1 year break (with the ability to rejoin the board after the year off). Because our smaller board is a relatively new thing, might we want to consider having two terms instead of one?
Fuller: If the motion is approved, we must identify and recruit replacements. That means we need a mechanism in place to do so if we are to make changes for the next year. Putting off the decision until later in this year will place us in a bind at the end of the calendar year. If we make a decision, we then have to implement.
Simon: How to stagger the terms? There are five current Board members affected by this: Michael, Frank, Christine, Dion, and me. Doesn't divide conveniently by 3.
Shasberger: It would be good to be clear about the impact on current Board members. If I have it correct in my thinking we currently have the following years of service (including this one) on the Board following the official incorporation and reorganization that became effective in 2003:
Feiszli – 3
Shasberger – 3
Simon – 3
Albinder – 3
Fuller – 3
Hoffman – 2
Ritten – 1
Only three of us are affected by the motion: Shasberger, Simon and Albinder, since the others are Partner reps and are thus exempted from term limits under the conditions in the motion. Given that we get a new Partner rep from Chorus America yet this year, we would be looking at a Board of 5 returning members and 3 new members for 2006. Given that the model would be for 1/3 of the Board to be new at any time, this is not an extreme turn-over.
Simon: once someone's term has expired, how long before they can be re-considered for the Board?
Feiszli: We should not discourage *multiple* terms, but rather *successive* terms. In that manner Directors can rotate in and out and the Board would have a reserve of experienced people in case of emergency.
Shasberger: Generally, a one year absence is all that is required, but more time usually intervenes in such cases. This allows for a critical and motivated contributor to come back on fairly quickly if needed/desired.
Feiszli: Charles suggested a sub-committee look at the issue. Frank suggested two successive three year terms with a mandatory year off. If the motion were amended to include Frank's idea, a) how do we begin to recruit new blood so that we do not become too set in our ways? b) does that then make the issue less crucial and so Charlie's idea of a sub-committee looking at it is a better idea?
Fuller: I move that we table this item (Term Limits) and that we charge the President with appointing a study committee charged to bring a recommendation to our next "in person" meeting this summer. Feiszli seconded.
The motion was tabled on Friday, February 25, 2005 at 4:08 PM
On Saturday, February 26, 2005 at 8:36 AM, Shasberger called for discussion and action on the annual fund drive. With the resignation of Stubbs, who was to head the drive, there is a need to decide how to proceed. Shasberger suggested four possible actions: 1) A current Board member leads this effort, 2) The Board acts as a committee of the whole and each take specific aspects to enact, 3) The Board seeks for a person outside the Board to run the fund drive, 4) The Board elects an interim Board member to cover Stubbs’ role. Hoffman volunteered to run the fund drive.
In preparation for Fuller’s impending participation in the Musica International Board of Directors Meeting to be held in March, Simon moved that ChoralNet extend its agreement with MUSICA for one year, to December 31, 2005, with the exception that if MUSICA becomes a pay-only site, the agreement ends. Furthermore, that ChoralNet objects strongly to the current login requirement for online users and encourages Jean Sturm to work with James Feiszli to improve the user interface. Albinder seconded. The motion passed on Tuesday, March 08, 2005 at 5:10 PM.
After tentatively setting the next meeting for May 24 in Chicago, the meeting was adjourned on Sunday, March 27, 2005 12:34 PM.