Thread:This meeting and future Quarterly Meetings (1)

I am quite confused about the function of this meeting as planned.

A little history... When I first joined CCCOER these meetings were called Quarterly Membership Meetings although few members attended and the program was dominated by COT projects. We dropped "Membership" out of the name, added my CCCOER presentations to the programs and continue to spend CCCOERs very limited funds on putting them on.

In staff discussions I have suggested that we hold Birds-of-a-feather sessions at major conferences so CCCOER members could find each other and schmooze. Such sessions should not cost the organization much, take much staff time to plan and require no extra effort by the members. Also, if no one happens to show up there is nothing lost.

Somehow my ideas have resulted in two consequences I did not intend:

1. There is no "membership" meeting at all. We used to have a fair showing at Steering Committee meetings but since these have become Governing Board (GB) meetings those members who did not join the GB have dropped out.

2. Members who do not pay to attend the League of Innovation Conference cannot attend our "Quarterly Meeting" which is costing the organization about $6,000.

I suggest that CCCOER not hold further meetings after this one until the following are in place:

a) a functional Program Board

b) an overall plan for CCCOER Activities for Spring Quarter, 2011

c) an overall budget for CCCOER for Spring Quarter, 2011

d) a specific program budget (including local arrangements and publicity) for each activity to be undertaking

e) approval for the activity by the GB.

There has been discussion around College of the Canyons hosting a future Quarterly Meeting. Perhaps we can use the model above to plan and execute that meeting. It would be a good way to demonstrate to ourselves, our members and our prospective funders that we are really ready to operate in a self-sustaining manner before we are turned loose in July, 2011.