XV. LERA ANNUAL REPORTS

Call to Order - The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by President Stephen R. Sleigh. Present at the meeting were officers David Lipsky (president elect), Marlene Heyser (past president), Pete Feuille (secretary /treasurer), Adrienne Eaton (editor in chief), Lavonne Ritter (NCAC), Steve Rynecki (Advisory) and board members: Sara Adler, Paul Almeida, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Ann Frost, Morris Kleiner, Jill Kriesky, Andy Levin, Anthony Oliver, Nancy Peace, and Robert Taylor. Other invited guests included Board-elect members: Jack Fiorito, Gordon Pavy; president elect-elect Eileen Hoffman; committee chairs and coordinators: Janice Bellace, Cheryl Maranto, Paula Voos, and Charles Whalen and NCAC chair elect Bill Canak. National Office staff present included: Paula Wells, Lisa Sprinkle, and Anna Mehl. Board members not able to attend included: Peter Berg, Jackie Blanchard, Jerry Calhoun and Amy Dean.

Award Recognition and Announcements - Steve Sleigh recognized outgoing board members Jackie Blanchard, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Ann Frost, Andy Levin for their dedicated work over the past three years. Also honored was NCAC chair Lavonne Ritter who was completing her three-year term. Newly-elected board members whose terms will begin following the 2006 annual meeting were also introduced: Jack Fiorito, Lisa Lynch, Gordon Pavy, Nancy Peace, and Donna Wilson Renner.

President Elect David Lipsky recognized Steve Sleigh for his service as the 2005 LERA President.

Approval of minutes - A motion was heard to approve the minutes of the Washington DC LERA Board meeting on June 21, 2005. It was seconded and unanimously approved.

Committee and Officer Reports

Nominating Committee Report - Chair Janice Bellace reported the slate of candidates on behalf of the Nominating Committee. The 2005 Committee included Michael Belzer, Marlene Heyser, Jody Hoffer-Gittell, Jerry Glass, Gordon Pavy and Arnold Zack. Bellace announced Anthony Oliver as unanimous selection as the 2007 president elect. A motion was made to accept the slate of candidates presented and was seconded (Feuille). The motion passed unanimously.

Perspectives on Work Editorial Advisory Board Report - Charles Whalen, editor and chair, reported the current state of the Perspectives magazine and reported that from the readers surveys, sent out in the Summer 05 issue, it was found that readers view Perspectives as a balanced magazine, the most valuable publication of LERA, and a nice benefit. Another survey is included in the Winter 06 issue.

Whalen thanked Robert Taylor, who will end his tenure as a book review editor in 2006 and said, Eileen Schwab and possibly another interested member will take over those duties in 2007.

Foundations Committee - Marlene Heyser, chair, reported that this was the first committee meeting in 2 years and that the committee was going to work on identifying and applying for grants to feed into the Development committee effort. She indicated the Committee might focus on the topic of retirement income and benefits as a way to ask for new grants. Heyser reported that Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld will remain on the committee as liaison to LERA Industry Councils and continue to work with the current Sloan grant for that project.

Education Committee - Cheryl Maranto reported on the Excellence in Education award and suggested it was time to reconfigure this award as the number of nominees has dropped in the past few years. The Committee agreed to continue to focus on the impact on students as main criteria. They will look into identifying a partnership to underwrite the education award to increase the benefit and interest of nominees, possibly a cash award. President Sleigh mentioned that a representative from the United Federation of Teachers would be in attendance the next day and that it would be a good idea to discuss a partnership with them. He also asked for a formal proposal from the committee to discuss this more in 2006.

Industry Council Coordinating Committee - Chair Joel Cutcher-Ger-shenfeld discussed the growth of Industry Council participation within the LERA membership and commented briefly on the activities of some of the Councils, including their participation of five out of six councils on the program for the upcoming National Labor Management Conference in August 2006. He requested the Board approve the two charters to authorize new councils in the Health Care and Automobile industries. Following discussion, the committee motion was seconded (Ritter) and passed unanimously.

Interest Sections Coordinating Committee - Jill Kreisky reported on the compliance of the eight interest sections within LERA; almost all have completed the minimum requirements to complete the requirements for a charter. She reported the section conveners felt it was burdensome to ask sections to serve as refereed paper readers and fulfill POW editorial advisory board requirements. Editor Eaton and director Wells agreed to look into the process to try to simplify but reiterated that the association did need (two) volunteers from each section (these should be recruited in advance) to serve as readers each year and only one volunteer appointee from each section was needed every three years to serve on the advisory board. Kriesky also reported other ideas and observations from conveners: that the busy Pre-Conference day activities were cutting into their section attendance; that the Board tell ASSA that LERA needs more than 27 program slots; that Sections would like a calendar of when different things are happening and when they need to tell the national office who the readers are, etc.

Development Committee - Chair David Lipsky reported he is ready to formally announce the launch of a fundraising effort, $1.5 million for LERA and that the Committee has been working for 2 years to plan this campaign. He said nearly $700,000 has been raised over those 2 years through grants, organizational commitments, cash, and pledges and that there is a new database in place to help track donations and donor information. The amount raised so far includes donations made in the fall for the first Annual Fund Campaign, the Sloan grant, FMCS grant, Susan Eaton award, Steve Sleigh's efforts to raise money for the 2005 NPF sponsorship, and a few other efforts. Lipsky will circulate a price list at a future date for supporting efforts by LERA. Lipsky read the case statement for the Development committee, which had been sent to board members prior to the meeting and reviewed the contribution list from the Annual fund campaign.

The next phase after formal announcement will be members contacting potential donors (past presidents). He pointed out that another key is strong organizational support, so we will continue to solicit from organizations. Endowments and planned giving is not available yet because the committee was still doing research on endowments.

Report of the Secretary/Treasurer and Executive Director - Paula Wells reported that dues income remains around the $200,000 level with total income (including grants) over $400,000. She explained Sloan grant monies are paid over a three-year period and we will receive the final installment in March 2006; we have received a one-year no-cost extension (through 2007) to spend that money. She reported that FMCS grant monies are 90% reimbursements for expenses made in conjunction with the Airline Industry Council project and that project coordinator Tom Kochan had been able to get an extension on that grant as well to enable them to finish their project.

Pete Feuille reviewed the projected year-end for 2005 and budget for 2006 noting that in 2006, meeting revenues and expenses would be considerably lower because a National Policy Forum is not be held in years when the FMCS held their National Labor-Management Conference. He also noted increased amounts set aside for fundraising activities in the new budget. The budget was approved for 2006.

Wells also reported on membership statistics noting that 1) Dues for 2006 memberships went up $10 to $105 for a regular membership, 2) there was an increase in membership renewal rate to over 90%, and 3) While we are still gaining a net number of members, we are very close to reaching positive growth. We had 256 new members in 2005, most since 1999.

Finance and Membership Committee - Chair Paula Voos pointed out that membership dues revenue presently does not cover organizational overhead and commented that we would need a lot more members for that to be the case. She emphasized we must increase membership fees and asked all board members to use networking and email to contact their colleagues who aren't members and invite them to join. She emphasized we needed to look at increasing revenue in areas other than membership. She also commented that the committee wants not only to be an active committee, but also a strategic working committee.

Voos reported the committee thinks it is important to increase dues $5 every year rather than $10 every two years. She offered a motion that student dues remain constant at $25 per year but that regular dues should go up $5 in 2007 and in 2008. Other dues categories, like family, emeritus, and library subscriptions could go up as deemed appropriate by the director and standing presidents. Lavonne Ritter seconded and the motion was passed unanimously.

Voos discussed that not only must we keep a steady stream of income coming in but we should be prudent in the use of our resources. She said the Committee had discussed the publication of the 2006 Membership Directory with the Editorial Committee and put forth a motion: Rather than mailing all members a printed copy of the 2006 directory for free, to offer the 2006 printed directory at a minimal fee to members, thereby making use of a smaller print run. Our practice would be to send only to library subscribers and new members as they sign up. In conjunction with this, the online membership directory at the LERA website would be made even easier for members to access and use. Cutcher-Gershenfeld seconded and the motion was unanimously passed.

Voos reported the committee was also looking into ways to make the industry councils self-sustaining, especially when the Sloan grant runs out.

NCAC Committee - Lavonne Ritter, NCAC Chair, reported that six members of the NCAC with expiring terms had agreed to stay on the committee for 3 more years. She introduced Bill Canak as the new NCAC chair; his term begins in January 2006 and runs through the 2009 Annual Meeting. She reported that chapter liaisons (from NCAC) will contact chapters that are delinquent with dues.

Editorial Committee - Adrienne Eaton, Editor in Chief, reported that the committee is brainstorming ideas for the 2008 and 2009 Research Volumes, the committee will meet by email in 3 months to determine '08 volume and will have a proposal to the Board in August. She also reminded the Board that Perspectives on Work has an online version published at the LERA website in April and September and that back issues of the annual proceedings, Perspectives, LERA newsletters and the member directory were also online in pdf form.

FMCS National Labor Management Conference - Joel Cutcher-Ger-shenfeld reported that the Industry Councils will be submitting proposals for this meeting and he will be working with them to organize their workshops for the August 2006 program in Chicago. LERA will once again be co-spon-soring the NLMC.

Program Committee 59th Annual Meeting - David B. Lipsky, president elect and program chair, reported that Iain Gold and David Lewin have agreed to serve as vice co-chairs for the Program Committee for the 2007 program. The program will take place January 4-7, 2007, in Chicago, IL. The theme will be "Conflict and Cooperation in Employment Relations."

New Business

Strategic Planning Discussion - President Sleigh started out with a comment that the function of the board is to provide guidance to the management on what to spend overhead dollars on with declining resources. He asked how, as a board, can we be more effective to get the Association back to growing members and building a presence for the group? There was a discussion on how best to plan to the agency's future and the board agreed there needed to be a day set aside for such strategic planning in conjunction with the next Board meeting. Sleigh asked president elect Lipsky to put together a subcommittee and to get LERA organized for the board to hold a strategic planning retreat in August, one with structure and a facilitator, in order to produce an implementation plan for the Association over the next 3-5 years. Lipsky and the board agreed.

Meeting Adjournment - President Sleigh thanked the Board and adjourned the meeting at 10:27 p.m.