Board Meeting Minutes

Back to Minutes Listing

CIT Board Meeting
San Juan, Puerto Rico
February 8 – 11, 2008

Persons present:  Carolyn Ball, Brian Morrison, Laura Covell, Leslie Greer, Annette Miner, Kellie Stewart, Cindy Farnham, Doug Bowen-Bailey, Cindy Volk

February 8, 2008

President Carolyn Ball opened the meeting at 9:30 a.m.

  1. Board members started with personal updates.
  1. Doug reported the following:
    1. He has received many positive comments about the website and newsletter online.
    2. He is working on setting up a discussion board for all members.
    3. He is setting up a way to register for the conference online and a way that only those who are members will get the member rate when they register for the conference. Non-members will automatically receive the nonmember rate when they register for the conference.
    4. It is possible to upload lengthy video files onto the website now .
  1. Discussion about PayPal and registration for the conference. Doug stated that the website can show a list of who is paying for the conference, who is paying for the registration, etc. It will give the PayPal receipt number so Cindy F can reconcile this. Carolyn stated that her secretary, Donna Freed, is willing to work on the registration.  Donna will be the Registration Chair. The Registration Chair and Exhibit Table Coordinator must be present at the conference. 
  1. Discussion about committee chairs must be a member. Committee members do not need to be a member.  All conference chairs must be members and get their registration waived.  Liz and Myrelis are the planning chairs.  Everyone else is a conference/committee chair.  They all get registration waived. Committee members do not need to be a CIT member. If they want to go to the conference, they still have to pay for registration. 
  1. Free conference registrations go to organizational members, RID, NAD, ASLTA, CODA, AVLIC, NAOBI and PRRID. A letter from the CIT President will go out to each of these organizations.  Only people who pay for the conference, get a conference bag.  Free registrations also go to the interpreters, the board, the Mary Stotler Award winner from the previous year and scholarship recipients. The scholarships are determined by application. The Scholarship Chair solicits the applications and makes the decisions.
  1. Doug (Leslie) moved that we offer 4 scholarships for conference registration to those who do not have internal support.  Motion carried.  (B08:1)
  1. Myrelis and Liz are the primary parties responsible for the conference.  They are our key points of contact for the conference. 
  1. Discussion regarding meals and conference badges for students/volunteers.
  1. The budget for proceedings editor is $750.00.  Because it is 2 people this time, each will receive $400.
  1. Myrelis will contact the Program Chairs about their waived registration.  
  1. Discussion regarding the registration of the interpreter coordinator.
  1. The AV people will be through Turabo University here in Puerto Rico, and they do not need to be members of CIT.   We need to include them as sponsors for the convention.  Turabo University has already said that they will donate the equipment and an AV person to be on-site.  We need to list them as an in-kind donation. Turabo needs a monetary value to be attached to this donation.
  1. Discussion about the official language of the conference.  It is ASL.  Discussion regarding ASL presentations having priority. If a person wants to present in English, they need to request an interpreter. 

Saturday, February 09, 2008

  1. Discussion about the finances of the convention – Possibility of presenting awards at the business meeting instead of the banquet.  We have to notify the hotel by July 23 regarding how many rooms we need.  We have 150 reserved.  We will know the speakers by May 30.  May 15 is the early bird deadline.   July 15 is the regular registration deadline.  The cut off for online registration will be October 10.  People can still register on-site.  $325 for early bird registration, $375 for regular registration and $550 for on-site registration.  $475 for late registration. Moved by Cindy F (Carolyn) that the above dollar amounts and dates will be for member registration for the 2008 conference.  Non-member rates are an additional $100 in each category.   Motion carried. (B08:2) For this conference year, people can join up until August 1 and they will get one full year of membership instead of just three months.  Their membership will not expire in October as the others do. Discussion about the possibility of joining anytime rather than just October 1. 
  1. Discussion about what CIT will pay for people who are involved in the conference.  Decisions are as follows:

Conference coordinators – Pay for registration, pay for air, pay half of hotel
A/V – Pay for registration, Local/don’t need airfare, don’t need hotel
Interpreter Coordinator – Pay for registration, pay for airfare, pay half of hotel
Registration Chair – Pay for registration, pay for airfare, pay half of hotel
Exhibits/fundraising/proceedings,/program/program book/ special events/scholarship-volunteers – pay registration, don’t pay airfare or hotel
Board – pay for registration, air and hotel
Sister organizations – pay for registration, but not airfare and hotel
Parliamentarian – pay for registration, airfare and hotel
Scholarship recipients – pay for registration, but not airfare and hotel
Interpreters – pay for registration, airfare and half of hotel. Up to $300 for the airfare. 

Cindy F (Brian M) moved that we accept the above.  Motion carried. (B08:3)

  1. Discussion regarding tours in Puerto Rico.  Doug will put the tour company web link on our website.  Leslie suggested giving CIT a promotion code so the tour company knows it is someone from the CIT conference.

 

  1. Discussion about sponsors and what their costs /benefits will be:

Level         Registrations   Banquet                       Ad                   Tables in
                                          Tickets                                                            Exhibit Hall

Starfish                 4                      4                      back cover                   3
$10,000 or Highest bid  (also can speak at the convention)

Seahorse                 2                     2                      2 pages                        3
($5,000 – 9,999)

Red Coral              2                      2                      1 page                          2
($3,000 – 4,999)

Black Coral            2                     0                      ½ page                          1
($1,000-1,999)

Nemo                    1                      0                      ¼ page                          0
($999 or less)
Advertiser/Exhibitor – Can advertise in the booklet without being a sponsor

Annette (Brian) moved that we adopt the above for sponsorship.  Motion carried. (B08:4)

  1. From now on when we send board emails, be sure to indicate a person’s name if you need them to answer something right away.   Liz, Myrelis, Laura and Annette need to be CC’d on all emails concerning the convention. Liz and Myrelis need board approval before spending money for the convention.
  1. Brian will look over the conference binder and get it ready for this convention.
  1.   Brian will take on the duty of the strategic planning document.
  1. Brian will also look over the CIT archives and report to us.
  1. Doug showed us the data base.   He will set it up where board members can access the CIT member base and then will send us the information on how to access it.
  1. Carolyn reported that she reviewed our contract with the hotel and it states that the additional costs that are already covered in our contract are:   bellman fees, maid, porter .  Laura will type a letter describing this benefit, and that the tour company can provide a shuttle from the airport.  Doug will put the letter on the website. There will also be an ASL version of the letter.
  1. Discussion about paying the plenary speakers.  The board will choose the keynote speaker for the first night.
  1. Discussion regarding tours of Puerto Rico for the convention.   People need to  deal with the tour company directly. The tour company can set up a form with the tour choices.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

  1. Discussion about ASL as the conference language. Leslie will do an introduction in the opening ceremony about this.
  1. Annette gave a report from the committee working on the journal.  Discussion of the costs of doing a journal, should it be on line, printed or both, also how many times a year.  Discussion regarding publishing through a company or by ourselves.  If we go through a publishing company, who owns the copyright?  Cindy F (Carolyn) moved that CIT approve $1,000 for 2008 as a budget for the journal committee for their meeting expenses. The $1000 is temporary until a final budget is submitted to the board.  Motion carried.  (B08:5) Leslie mentioned that Sign Language Studies has an abridged version on line. For the full version, you have to buy the printed copy.  The board gave approval for the journal committee to go ahead and start submitting proposals to publishing companies.  The Board would like to suggest 2009 as a possible target date for the journal, if feasible.  It was decided that the editor of the journal would be an unpaid position, since it would be part of their university service obligation.  Discussion about whether or not the current committee would also be the editorial board.
  2. Cindy F (Brian) moved that the minutes from August, October and December be approved pending changes.  Motion carried. (B08:6) Cindy V reported that Marie Stewart, Jeremy Brunson and Stacy Storme all reviewed the minutes from the past CIT business meeting.  These should be put on the website pending the approval at this year’s business meeting.
  1. Cindy F will send us the exact amount in each of the accounts for the treasurer report.
  1. We will start the next face-to-face meeting on Monday at 6pm, October 20.  Leave on Sunday, October 26.
  1. Discussion of Strategic Plan:  Brian is documenting the discussion on this. We discussed what items had been completed and what still needed to be done.
  1. Discussion of Action Items from the August face-to-face meeting and what still needs to be completed. Those items will be put into the action items from this meeting.
  1. It was decided to let Myrelis decide about the interpreting needs for the convention.

Meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.