SOA Board Meeting minutes Jan 10, 2007
Present: Shin Aoki, Sandra Bengtsson, Stephen Billias, Connie Borden, Rob Kedoin, Lee Seaman, Eva Thaddeus, Michael Thompson
Absent: David Franklin, H.F. Ito
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved unanimously.
We divided the meeting into two parts: reports and strategic planning
Treasurer’s report (Sandra):
- Currently about $18,500 in the bank.
- Membership increased in 2006, primarily because of the Quebec practitioners who joined when they attended the Shintaido Farm workshop taught by Ito-sensei in the summer.
- In 2006 the online Bookstore instituted mailing charges to cover shipping.
- SoA is currently losing about $2000-$3000 per year.
- The organization provides insurance, Body Dialogue, credit card services for regional organizations, website, conference calls for Board meetings
- Sandra will put $10,000 into CDs, and will create a budget for 2007 with no more than a $2500 loss.
NTC report (Lee):
- Established “read-only” e-mail status for senior instructors who do not want to participate actively in NTC but want to stay informed of decisions, etc.
- Selected Jennifer Peringer, Jim Sterling, and Joe Zawielski as our representatives to the ISF Technical Committee. In October Jennifer represented us at the European Forum, along with Shin who acted as an unofficial representative since Jim and Joe could not attend.
- Continued to articulate recommendations regarding the qualifications for examiners at upper-level ISF exams.
- Formed an NTC subcommittee to discuss technical questions related to bojutsu. The subcommittee did keiko together on January 9, and clarified a number of points on the kyu-level curriculum.
- Shin Aoki is taking over as NTC chair in 2007.
Marketing report (Stephen):
- We have developed some additional marketing materials for instructors to use in publicizing their classes, including photo collages, brochure templates, and a list of short quotes.
Action
point: Rob will make sure that the publicity materials are available online.
Ito report (Connie):
- Copyright payment from France to use the Shintaido book -- $800 to SoA and $800 to Aoki-sensei. Thanks to Bela and Michael for their contributions of book design, photos, and translation services. The French are printing 500 copies, of which 200 will go to Canada.
- Taimyo on Omaha Beach Easter weekend
- SoA kenjutsu video to be edited early Feb 2007
- Taimyo and Shintaido for caregivers to be presented at a hospice in Japan in March
- Ito visits China Nov 23-28, 2007
Strategic planning
We identified 5 priorities, and went through a several-stage process to decide which 2 of these 5 important areas we would address at this meeting, finally ranking them as follows:
1) Role of NTC within SoA
2) Recruit new Board members
3) Increase donations
4) Mission and objectives of SoA
5) Publications and DVDs
1) Role of NTC within SoA
NTC is a loosely structured group of people who have passed the Senior Instructor or 3-dan exam. They are not necessarily administratively talented or interested. The Board wants more proactive involvement from NTC members – how can we empower this group?
The Board established a subcommittee to review visual teaching aids, consisting of Sandra and an NTC member who is willing to be a point person for visual media. The job of the committee is to 1) establish quality control and renew existing inventory if it is accurate, current, and usable, and 2) explore what is needed in future publications
The Board would also like an NTC member to volunteer as a leader/coordinator of visual productions.
Action
point: Lee will ask for a volunteer from the NTC to serve on the visual
teaching aids subcommittee.
Action
point: The marketing subcommittee (DVD committee) will meet before the end of
Kangeiko to work out who will help with the “big dream” project. The “big
dream” project was described as a 3-disc DVD set where one disc contains the
curriculum for open-hand, a second for bojutsu, and a third for karate.
2) Recruit new Board members
Connie and Eva have expressed a desire to retire in 2008, and Sandra would like to be replaced as Treasurer. David is not active, since he lives in Europe. For 2008 that leaves the Board with Stephen and Rob as general members, Michael and Ito as permanent members, and Shin as NTC chair member.
In addition to Board positions, Roby is less active with Body Dialogue work. Stephen needs to be replaced as Body Dialogue editor, and we also need a new Bookstore website coordinator.
Three issues were identified: 1) Do we need to recruit Board members? 2) If so, how many people? 3) Should the Board return to regional representation?
Our consensus was that once-a-year meeting in person is important for the Board, and so is regional representation. Also, if we are going to recruit Board members or other workers for 2008, we should start now.
The Board voted that no active recruitment of regular Board members is needed at this point. Rob recommended that Connie schedule a conference call with regional representatives to discuss regional representation on the Board.
Action
point: Sandra will look for someone to take her place as Treasurer.
Because of lack of time, the remaining three proposals were not fully discussed. For future reference, they are:
3) Increase donations – possibly solicit 3-4 donations of $1000 each
4) Mission and objectives of SoA—Emphasize a change in focus from “promoting keiko” to “supporting instructors/group leaders in promoting keiko” – our primary stakeholders would become instructors/group leaders rather than general members. Reflected in national liability insurance, marketing efforts, our website, and publications/bookstore.
5) Publications and DVDs – proposal that NTC assume leadership for instructional publications and for DVD project
6) Stephen suggested Kermit Cole as a potential director/producer for the “big dream” project. Kermit is a Shintaido student at the Shintaido Farm. A copy of his documentary, “Living Proof” was given to Connie and Shin to review.
The next SoA meeting will be a conference call in the spring.
Respectfully submitted,
Lee Seaman