XVIII. IRRA ANNUAL REPORTS

IRRA EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
January 2, 2003
Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
Capitol Room

Call to Order--President John F. Burton, Jr., called the meeting to order at 7:15 p.m. Present were officers: Adrienne Eaton, Peter Feuille, Marlene Heyser, Maggie Jacobsen, Stephen Rynecki, and Paula Voos. Board members in attendance included: Nancy Biagini, Ron Blackwell, Dan Cornfield, Tia Denenberg, Teresa Ghilarducci, Cynthia Gramm, Rick Hurd, Sandy Jacoby, Anthony Oliver, Dennis Rocheleau, Art Schwartz, John Truesdale, and Arnold Zack. Also present were incoming board members: Jackie Blanchard, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Ann Frost, Andy Levin, and Wilma Liebman. Guests included committee chairs: Dale Belman, Morris Kleiner, Lavonne Ritter, George Strauss, and Greg Woodhead. Also present were Suzi Millas and Paula Wells of the National Office. Board member Doug Gamble was not able to attend the meeting

     Burton acknowledged exiting board members Teresa Ghilarducci, Rick Hurd, Tony Oliver, Doug Gamble (absent), and Arnold Zack, who had served for the past three years, and presented each a certificate of appreciation. He announced that this would be past president Maggie Jacobsen's last board meeting and thanked her for her service to the IRRA. Paula Voos then presented President Burton with a token of the board's appreciation for his service, an engraved clock.

     Burton acknowledged and welcomed the incoming board members for 2003.

Approval of Minutes--President Burton pointed out that a revised copy of the June 2002 minutes, a committee roster, and an agenda were distributed and asked the Board to review these. Following their review, Ron Blackwell moved to adopt, Rick Hurd seconded, and the minutes were approved.

Nominating Committee Report--Chair Morris Kleiner reported on the current nominating committee roster and briefly described the process of deliberation. Kleiner explained that Steve Sleigh had been a member of the committee but had recused himself at the urging of the committee. Following his departure from the committee, the committee nominated Sleigh as the candidate for 2005 president elect. Kleiner reported that Sleigh, in a follow-up phone call, had agreed to stand for president-elect elect. The slate of academic, management, labor, and neutral/government/other nominees were presented and reviewed by the board. Steve Rynecki moved to accept the slate of candidates, Marlene Heyser seconded the motion, and the slate was unanimously approved. Burton indicated that the board would be notified as soon as the slate was confirmed.

Statistics Committee Report--Chair Dale Belman stated that there would be a statistics committee workshop held by the census bureau tomorrow during the meeting. He indicated that the board needed to find a member in the Washington, D.C., area who could attend quarterly COPAFS meetings in the capitol. Sanford Jacoby asked Belman about a current article in that day's newspaper regarding the Bureau's discontinuation of its data series on massive layoffs. Dan Cornfield asked if the board should ask the Statistics Committee to draft a letter reaffirming the importance to society of the high quality data collected by the federal government. Belman agreed to further investigate, to contact his colleagues at COPAFS to see what was being prepared as a response from that group, and to prepare or to forward a draft of a response for the board to review. It was agreed the review of a possible response would take place via email to the board.

Education Committee Report--Committee member Morris Kleiner reported in chair Cheryl Maranto's absence. The committee reviewed the Excellence in Education Award, and worked to clarify criteria in order to obtain better examples from candidates of their teaching philosophy and impact. It was determined that emeritus (or retired) educators would not be eligible for nomination for an Excellence in Education Award and that past award winners would be encouraged to become committee members. The committee would submit to Charles Whalen examples of innovations in teaching for possible use in the Perspectives on Work.

     Perspectives on Work Editor/Editorial Advisory Report--Burton introduced Editor Charles Whalen. Charles indicated that this was the beginning of his second year as Editor and that the Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) and the national office had both provided a great deal of support to him. Whalen reported the "policy forum" organization of the magazine had been working out well, and stated that the topic for the June issue would be "The Right to Organize." He also suggested that he would be working to start up a section of the magazine titled "Best Practices" to involve more practitioners, and would be inviting chapters to submit ideas for articles, in hopes of bridging the gap between national IRRA and the local chapters. The EAB had also suggested providing a subscription to Perspectives on Work for chapter members who are not national members, as it was a highly valued benefit to members. Marlene asked about the charges, and Paula Wells said that the IRRA currently offers the magazine to any individual for a $19 rate.

     Whalen also reported the EAB's discussion of other ideas and options for the future: possible joint publication of an issue with AEA, NAA, and/or the Academy of Management, providing complimentary issues of Perspectives on Work to local, state, and federal policy makers to reach out to this sector and improve the dialogue, and the possibility of publishing an interim web issue of the Perspectives on Work to address important issues in a more timely fashion. Board members asked if the EAB had considered looking at prospective constituencies of the organization versus existing constituencies, and if promoting advertising in the Perspectives on Work were possible. Whalen pointed out his role with Perspectives was in an editorial capacity and did not include advertising.

Report of the Secretary/Treasurer and Executive Director--Peter Feuille and the Board discussed administrative salaries in an executive session. Upon the staff's return to the meeting, Paula Wells discussed the deficit under which the association was operating in 2002 and would be in 2003. This was partially due to reduced earning/increased costs for the 2002 National Policy Forum, the significant drop in interest earnings due to reduced interest rates for CDs, and the increase in expenses to produce the Membership Directory, which is published every four years. In addition, the grant monies in 1999-2001 that had supported programs like Perspectives, other IRRA publications, and meeting expenses were no longer available. With the continuation of all publications, and services, expenses were outpacing revenues and would continue to do so until new revenues could be found. Wells indicated that the IRRA needed to focus on four options: look to increase the number of members (build revenue), conduct fundraising activities or apply for grant money, increase member dues, and/or determine cutbacks in programs and services to reduce expenses. She pointed out that the association's cash reserves were being depleted and that the board needed to take action this year to reverse the situation.

     Membership numbers were discussed. Board members noted that the rate of decline across the membership included both academics and practitioners. It was noted that members in the business and labor sectors seemed to be leaving the association in larger numbers than academics and neutrals, and it was discussed that the labor-management dialogue could be very important to the association's future growth. Board members asked how many chapter members there were among all local chapters. Wells reported that the national office did not receive full membership information from the local chapters, but estimated that one-third of the chapters provided address information for 5,000-6,000 chapter or prospective chapter members. Wells also pointed out about one-third of national IRRA members listed affiliation with a local IRRA chapter. So there was much room for cross-member development between chapters and national. Discussion on various promotional ideas such as combination memberships and distributing national publications at chapter meetings followed.

     Wells reported recent IRRA membership survey results on the perceived value of IRRA national membership. She indicated that the analysis provided some interesting information and asked for help from board members in analyzing the data. Demographic information (age) on the membership was discussed. Perspectives on Work and the IRRA research volume were rated overall as the highest valued benefits, although different member segments ranked the benefits differently. The overlap of IRRA members with other associations was also captured in the survey.

Finance and Membership Committee Report--Chair Greg Woodhead went into the membership numbers in more detail, pointing out that not only were practitioner numbers down in membership, academics were also dropping out, and the association had few student members. He reiterated that finances for the association were at a critical stage due to the depletion of reserves and the association needed to come up with some solutions. Ideas included were sponsorship/advertising in the Perspectives on Work, reviewing (renewing, revisiting) the Dunlop-Kerr commission, possible FMCS support, grants from Sloan or other sources, USPS support, a stepped-up program to make repeated contact with new members to keep them involved and in the association, and/or possibly creating new committees to involve more members in activities and committees.

     Woodhead asked that Board members take on this issue and recruit new members, and make contact with current and prospective members. He urged Board members to look for ways to help the national office and to generate more income. He recommended the board should raise dues to $95 (from $85) to take effect January 1, 2004. In the past, dues were raised every two to three years. Woodhead also asked Paula Wells to develop a proposal for the appropriate increase of other dues and present that to the Board in June. A motion was made to increase regular dues to $95 on January 1, 2004. The board asked for clarification regarding the student membership dues, and suggested keeping student dues under $30. President Burton indicated the possibility of adopting a dues structure similar to the AEA.

     The board then discussed the IRRA structure and the fact that it seemed that chapters were somewhat disjointed from the national office. The question of the nature of the relationship between chapters and the national office was raised. Several board members pointed out that the discussion of increasing chapter members in the national association was ongoing, and the division between academics and practitioners exacerbated the situation. The board discussed working closer with chapter leaders on this issue, as well as reviewing an appropriate dues structure in conjunction with chapter dues to the national office. The board generally agreed with this course of action.

     NCAC Chair Marlene Heyser pointed out that the chapters were somewhat autonomous and that the board needed to be aware that some of these issues have been raised a number of times (unsuccessfully) over the years and require some historical perspective and sensitivity. Other ideas discussed included: fundraisers in which chapters provided contributions to the national office, the board working more closely with chapter leaders on regional programs and membership recruiting, and creating incentives for chapters to recruit national members--for example, giving the chapters back part of the national membership money collected in lieu of offering first-time discounts to chapter members.

     The question of what the national office does for the chapters, or could be doing for the chapters, was raised. Paula Wells reported that the national office maintained the records and filed reports with the IRS each year to maintain the non-profit status for all chapters; maintained web pages for chapters, a chapters profile, and a chapters database as provided; helped chapters to set up websites; provided a board members speakers list; coordinated newsletter and listserv articles and announcements regarding chapter news; organized national NCAC and chapter rep meetings and phone conferences; coordinated the chapter grants program; and coordinated the annual chapter award programs. Wells pointed out that the most frequent request from chapters was for money from national to promote local membership and meetings. She reported the new budget item in 2002--to provide small chapter grants, or up to $250 financial support for NCAC-approved programs--had been well-received. In reality, Wells said, dues collected from chapters barely matched the out-of-pocket expenses for chapter awards, meetings, grants, and chapter mailings from the national office. This analysis did not included costs of overhead, materials, free publications, and staff time.

Editorial Committee Report--Chair Adrienne Eaton discussed the research volume and the proposal received for the 2005 volume. She stated the committee wanted to further review the proposed idea but would probably recommend significant changes. She stated that an alternative plan would be a review of research, and that this could fall back for another year if needed. When the question was raised, President Burton, a former IRRA Editor in Chief, along with recent Editor in Chief Paula Voos briefly discussed the process of the call for proposals, and the general procedure for inviting ideas. It was proposed that the annual research volume be geared not only toward existing constiutiencies, but also toward prospective constituencies. Indeed, it was proposed that all IRRA publications and program content should be thus focused.

NCAC Committee Report--Chair Marlene Heyser reported on appointments of members to the NCAC, including Bonnie Castrey and Rachel Hendrickson, and the appointment of Lavonne Ritter to chair the Committee. The Committee discussed developing workshop proposals for the San Diego meeting, arranging possible CLE credits, and ideas for chapters programming and promotion.

Policy Forum 2004--Incoming President Paula Voos discussed rethinking the NPF, which has been held in Washington, D.C., and to carefully review the success and failure of past meetings. Ideas to revamp the meeting included alternating the meeting between Washington and the FMCS meeting in Chicago, holding it alternate years, not holding it at all, moving it to a different location, or changing the format. Greg Woodhead mentioned the combination of lower 2002 revenues in sponsorship funding and higher costs in holding it at the National Press Club combined to create the financial problem in 2002. President Burton reviewed the NPF history (Attachment C). Other ideas mentioned included adding a day for training sessions and looking for grant support.

Program Committee 56th Annual Meeting--Voos discussed the program committee roster and the theme, Industrial Relations and Democracy. Burton mentioned the call for proposals and that the deadline was January 20, 2003.

New Business

Special Strategic Membership Committee--Burton stated that the purpose of the new committee was to increase membership and to promote and improve the financial status of the association. He discussed the possibility of enhancing the current IRRA listserv by adding a weekly e-news bulletin, the IRRA News. This new service was actually an extension of the TERRA news; items will be batched and summarized by the national staff for a trial period and sent out via the IRRA listserv. Bill Canak would do a trial run for the spring, and a survey will be conducted in May. The board would then evaluate the service in June at the Board meeting. Board members who were also members of TERRA discussed the value of the listserv, and mentioned positive aspects such as the lack of editorialism and wide range of topics covered. The suggestion was made to offer the IRRA News to students for free and to try to generate membership that way.

     President Burton stated that the committee will also review the mission statement and possibly discuss the name of the association. A report to the Board will be forthcoming in June.

     Members suggested that the association needed to direct increased efforts toward younger prospective members. There was a discussion about the structure of the association, that perhaps sections related to various industry segments could be explored (for example, working with the Sloan Foundation or their industry centers). The association's challenge of determining its products and how to appeal to the different communities was discussed.

Fund Raising Committee--President Burton discussed developing a committee to spearhead fundraising for the association, and hoped to have the committee organized before the June meeting. He welcomed ideas and participation from board members, and reiterated the importance of the matter.

Awards Report--Paula Wells pointed out the attachment in the board packet listing the 2002 Awardees was being distributed throughout the conference. She acknowledged new board member Ann Frost had received an outstanding Young Scholar Award. She also reported that the awards would be presented at the Saturday evening general membership meeting, rather than the presidential luncheon.

UCIRHRP Joint Administration Proposal--President Burton reported that over the past year, discussions between the University Council of Industrial Relations and Human Resources Programs (UCIRHRP) officers and IRRA officers had taken place, with a general agreement that it would serve both organizations to consolidate administrative duties for UCIRHRP into the IRRA. Burton discussed the structure of the UCIRHRP and pointed out that the group meets annually during the IRRA meeting. He discussed the proposal letter, which was distributed to the Board. Burton asked for a motion for approval of the proposal, Sandy Jacoby so moved, Dan Cornfield seconded the motion, and the motion was unanimously approved.

Appointment of the 2003 Nominating Committee--Paula Voos discussed the distributed list of 2003 Nominating Committee appointees and asked for approval. Ron Blackwell made a motion to approve the list, Rick Hurd seconded the motion, and the slate was unanimously approved. President Burton reminded the Board that the next meeting of the board was scheduled for noon on June 14, 2003 at the Radisson O'Hare in Rosemont, IL and adjourned the meeting at 10:05 p.m.