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March 12, 2002
Cleveland Park Library
6:30 to 7 social, 7 to 9 meeting
In attendance: Jill Caras, Jenn Carle, Carrie Dennison, Allison Denny, Rachel Dubois, Alycia Eck, Suzanne Hough, Ann Marsteller, Karen O'Donnell, April Roberson, Katherine Spivey, Angel Venable, Jamila White
President
Alycia noted that she had filed all the paperwork she discussed at the last meeting and had received copies back with a "filed" stamp on them.
A woman in Richmond inquired about starting a Richmond chapter. Alycia stated in no uncertain terms that we are not set up to have chapters and have no interest in setting up chapters. The liabilities are too great. Lunch bunches are fine, however. She suggested that we send anyone asking about setting up a chapter to her, but to tell them upfront, we just don't do it.
Alycia asked Jill Caras to fill the SC in on what had happened to the membership directory -- it's gone. It had been created by the husband of a former SC member, was housed on their servers, and now is defunct.
SC Chair
Membership database:
Suzanne Hough passed out a working document for plans to create a DCWW Membership Database. She has a co-chair for the project, Joan Keiser. She asked for volunteers for phase I, evaluating database design and technology needs, and plans to set up a meeting.
Pins and DCWW gear:
Allison Denny passed around samples of membership pins and after researching it found the best deals were with a local (VA) vendor. Prices ranged from $.70/unit to $1.25... the Steering Committee was most interested in the Cloisonné pins ($1.25). The vendor will make up a sample for $25 and since the coffers are healthy, we decided to go ahead and make up the prototype. After a branding/logo discussion we decided to use the DCWW logo that appears on our business cards and website (at least for the sample). A suggestion was made to see if we could find some sort of a charm that could be hung from or added to the pin to denote SC/EB members & volunteers. The pins will have to be housed somewhere and we will need to decide what to charge...
Allison also looked into Café Press gear and everyone was enthusiastic about starting up a store. Items are created on demand and the web site handles distribution. If we want to make a profit on items, we simply need to add that amount to their base prices. We all more or less agreed that it made sense to use it as a fundraiser.
Treasurer
April noted that our bank account is higher than it has ever been. Playpal is turning out to be a great success!
She also noted that she was concerned about taxes/ tax exemption filing and asked if anyone had suggestions on who to speak to about this (or experience themselves). Alycia told her than since we are doing well financially that we should find a professional, since paying for their services won't be a problem (within reason). Allison Denny offered to sit in with her.
Lastly, April noted that she ordered deposit slips and needed to change some of the names on the account. She also asked that we fill out forms to get her an ATM card, so that she could more conveniently (and thus more frequently) deposit money into the account. Forms were filled out and signed by the President, Treasurer, and Secretary after the meeting.
Programming
Katherine and Angel noted that they will hand over the reigns of the programming committee to the new co-chair(s) -- Carrie Hane Dennison and Ann Marsteller in April at the Anniversary Party. They handed out two sheets, one covering all the meetings held during their term in office, a very impressive 26, and also a separate 2002 calendar of events going out to June 19.
Angel said that she is working with April on ideas on implementing PayPal and RSVP functions more efficiently.
Katherine noted that they had a stunning menu for the Anniversary Party at Teaism, again people will get their own drinks. She is hoping to invite all the columnists so that the membership can meet them and the lovefest can continue. Corri Ling, will be helping specifically with special events, such as the anniversary party and pretty-in-pink-slips parties. She noted that the programming committee is working well.
Lastly Ann & Carrie told us that they have some great ideas and want to put out a short survey asking the membership what types of programming they are most interested in (educational, networking, etc.)
Ann & Carrie also hope to start adding summaries of events to the website (not enough to dissuade people from coming), but just a taste.
We also discussed the media kit. Celenie S. apparently rewrote part of the text(?) but didn't finish redesigning it. Angel and Katherine offered to team up to finish it. Rachel said she'd pass along some information about what should be included. Alycia noted that we wanted to keep it a press kit, rather than letting it morph into a membership kit.
Columns
Katherine Spivey will remain in the role of content queen of the website and has been busy! The Legalese column will be going on hiatus, at least for a little while until we can find a new author. A new Life at Work Column should be coming out soon and P. Frame's column is running smoothly. Katherine is as always, on the lookout for Hot Shots. The member spotlight may be taken over by a volunteer. Katherine would like to see more SC members spotlighted.
Workshops
Ruth left word that: Three partners right now, working on one more. Packed schedule. DCWW is paying for pizza for westlake workshops now. And we are using paypal very successfully now, which is great!
Technology
Jill provided a website redesign plan. They are almost done with the IA, but still want input now (rather than later after the site is up). They will be doing more testing and then plan to move into the Graphic Design phase of the redesign.
Rachel noted that they would like to put a note out to the membership allowing them to "submit" (but not choose or vote on) designs. There is a separate design team and coding team.
Jill also told us that she is moving back to Boston. She would like to remain as Technology co-chair and doesn't think communicating virtually will pose a problem. (Val B., our listserv admin., is also not local). Good luck in Boston, Jill! We'll miss seeing you at meetings.
Executive board
Job board:
Jamila passed along some great information about the Job Board! She has a demo, which she'll be e-mailing us the link to. The company providing the board is Top Eschelon. They are based out of Ohio. We could let members try it out on a trial basis.
No money is needed upfront and all profits are split 50/50. We just need to promote it. This could be a good source of revenue and Top Eschelon is anxious to work with us, hoping that the Association Wrrls on the list will take note of their services.
It would be free for members to post their resumes. This might help with some privacy concerns and would better serve our members since many don't want to add their resume to the resume postings if their boss might be onlist. Contact information can be blocked out and certain companies can be blocked from seeing one's resume (so you can make sure your boss doesn't see it)
The revenue would come from charging for companies posting ads. Jamila noted we'd really have to discuss this since we have different types of job posters (companies posting an ad, recruiters, people forwarding posts, etc.). We'd have to find out what they'd pay for/want and be sure that we don't adversely affect the list.
She also noted that the resume bank can be hooked up to Top Eschelon's nationwide network -- so this may help our members a lot. Also, they can set up agents to forward jobs to them based on criteria. One way of getting these job posts to the list might be to set up a dummy account that would forward to the list.
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