IYAMW Board Meeting
November 13 – 14, 2010
Ann Arbor, Michigan
In Attendance:
Jennie Willliford, President
Julia Gibbs, Treasurer
Aaron Fleming, Secretary
Jess Kane
Natasha Julius
Becky Meline
Laurie Blakeney, Vice President
Saturday, November 13, 2010
*Trademark Enforcement
What does Trademark Enforcement mean to us and how to deal with it when it comes up: We decided
that we would not police in a negative manner but build up the community in a positive light. Besides
FTH, some possible ideas being YouTube Channel, Cable spot / commercial, posting video interviews
of members or practitioners from all traditions, rewrite brochure after FTH to include certification /
trademark information.
*Long Term Goals
-Virtual Institute Teacher Training Program. Aaron volunteered to research teacher training programs at
other Iyengar institutes.
-Yearly Retreat for Members
-Book Club
-Supporting Workshops in small communities. We would create a fund to supplement senior teacher
workshop fees.
-Movie Nights
-Monthly Events to raise money for a charity / non-profit
-Natasha volunteered to interview someone who is involved with Yoga Serves.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
*Recap of minutes from past meetings in January and July.
-Publishing in magazines: No ads that need payment Encourage folks to write for free “rags” about
Iyengar Yoga.to promote the method. Laurie suggests having some articles archived, already written,
that members could submit. Could have them archived on the website.
-FB page is set up.
-September Events: Photos and feature stories have been collected. Followup email and thanks has
been sent.
-Need to have Finances, Minutes, Bylaws posted on website for members: Aaron will do this.
-Considering having membership meeting at FTH.
Presidential Report : Jennie
*Board Communication:
-Email vs phone communication: Email is best primary means. Phone conversations for something
more involved.
-Try to eliminate emergencies. Try to have at least a week to make decisions.
-Is Google Site working? Board members are encouraged to subscribe to page changes. All committee
heads should go on to their page and update information
-Deadlines for more regular postings needed
*New Members
-Kathy Simon, teacher of MO is now a member.
-Should we create a formal process to include new states? Not at the moment. Smaller regions work
better than larger.
-If they are members at large, are they eligible to be supported by IYAMW?
-Best idea to reach out to communities in our region.
Need to be prudent.
-Paul Cheek was added as a member – lives in Portland.
-Member communication: 1) Renewal reminders to those that are secondary members because
IYNAUS does not cover this.
-2) New member welcome letter. Becky will work on this letter and will have it done by 11/20.
-Cash checks quickly!!
*Annual Filing
-Dave Larsen helped with the refiling. We are filed now with the old state number. All paid up. Julia
will reimburse Dave.
*Short Term Goals
-FB Updating: Post pictures. Weekly quote. News.
-FB and iyamw site relationship? Needs to be coordinated. NJ will send Julia weekly updates to post.
Would be a nice volunteer job.
-By Christimas NJ will come up with monthly conversation topics for FB.
*Membership Communication:
-Monthly email or 6 per year.
-Newsletter will serve as main communication
*2011 Charity?
-Scholarships for FTH?
-Regional cause is a good idea.
-Last years’ donation was $350.
-Could give a donation to FTH?
Treasurer Report : Julia
-T-shirts: we have little profit from the T-shirts. Have been better advertising than money-maker.
-Shore Bank was taken over by Urban Partnership Bank. We purposefully sought out Shore Bank
because it was a local bank and seems like Urban will continue in their footsteps. Will wait to see if
they will be just as great to work with.
-Credit card limits were raised.
-Receipts should be submitted to Julia in timely manner so she can keep up to date books.
-Julia will get a signature stamp.
-PayPal is set up. Small user fee. Laurie says it works well, in her experience, but the fees add up. It's
still money lost.
-A committee would be good to cover all treasurer tasks.
-Donations for scholarship funds: no convenient way set up now. We need this set up asap. Should we
use checks sent in or PayPal online?
*Should FTH and IYAMW donations be kept separate? Still to decide.
-2011 proposed budget: (See Document on Google Site)
*IYAMW should receive $10K-$15K from FTH. IYNAUS agreed to give 50% of the profit
from FTH to the regional.
-What are the possible 2011 projects? We should concentrate on FTH and think about projects and
events for 2012.
-Julia would like to hire a professional accountant for better training on the bookkeeping. Ginny
Harlow, who is an accountant in Evanston and helping with FTH, could help out without a fee. Jennie
will hook up Ginny and Julia for this purpose.
-Aaron will send Julia the Ascott invoice from the last t-shirt purchase.
Website / Newsletter : Natasha
*Newsletter
-Caitlin O'Connor working on articles.
-Future issues: FTH preview, FTH wrap up, let Natasha know of issue ideas
-3-4 issues per year
*Website
-Right rail: FB link, link to FTH, Donation button,
-Jennie keep Natsha up to date when FTH site goes live.
-Front page: Decision was made to condense the welcome article to make more space for more up-todate news.
-Twitter????
*PayPal Development
-Found Drupal plugin for PayPal that covers all our needs.
-Donations page: static text with a button. Button will pull up page for standard amounts.
*Do we want to think about making a donation to a specific fund? We should shelve this until
after FTH.
-Button for paying for membership fees: Should handle as site registration. We could fold a poll into
registration.
*Advertising
-In lieu of advertising we decided to create an “endorsed” prop page where vendors would pay aregular
fee (quarterly, annually, ??).
*Wish List for Website
-Event Calendar for right rail.
-Becky will find a volunteer to collect all the event information called a Regional Events Coordinator.
Decided not to charge for this list of events.
*Creating New Teacher Profiles
-Laurie suggests contacting Mary Reily and asking her to send a list at the end of assessment to send a
list of folks who passed their Intro 1 test.
*Building out Yoga Serves info:
*Email Client:
Aaron will set up Mail Chimp account to regulate the various lists.
Membership : Becky
(See submitted report)
*What are the member perks? What are they getting besides just joining and supporting the
community?
-promotes iyengar yoga in region
-supports a charity with annual donation to
-website with regional activities
-newsletter
-voice in our community grows
-discounts for select events
Events: Jess
(See submitted report)
*September FTH Target Class Membership Drive was a success
-considering doing something similar every year
-teachers are membership promoters;
-maybe designating a specific membership month
*Winter Movie Night
-Laurie doing Leap of Faith event
-too soon for a regional January movie event
-2011 still building membership, 2012 will be about retaining
-Winter Movie Event: January – March, 2011, $60 for new members, $15 existing. Host keeps $35 as a
stipend for hosting costs. Jess will take on the announcement of these events.
*Summer Event
-Will brainstorm and ask around for ideas. Need to ask teachers what they would be interested in.
*FTH Teen Class
-goal to have 60 teens
-curriculum committee will look for a teacher for the class
-suggest that people loan their props to the class for the afternoon
FTH Report : Laurie
*Responsibility
-IYAMW board is needed for more responsibility in the conference; FTH can't function without the
support of the board. The Board should consistently view the google site for FTH to keep up with the
organizing
-Chairperson of committees report to the wheel
*Comping FTH tickets
-In lieu of comping tickets to FTH we could throw a party at the conference on Fri or Sat night or even
a luncheon at the Palmer or near by and board agrees.
-Consider budgeting $3500 for nice dinner for 35 people. This would come out of the FTH budget in
the name of IYAMW.
-Dave Larsen will tell Ginny Harlow to add this amount to the budget
Julia will do the research to begin planning for this event
*Website
-Live on Dec 13
--Will need a FTH facebook manager; NJ, Julia and Aaron will help out.
*Faculty / curriculum
-There are less rooms than originally thought for the 9 teachers so Rebecca Learner and Mary Reilly
will be sharing a slot.
-Pranayama class reduced to 75 minutes to allow people to use the restroom
*Special Events / Extras
-Could spend the $1700+ Yoga & Artistry fund : $700+ for scholarships and $1000 for FTH meet &
greet or opening ceremony.
-Jennie will find out more about the plans for special events regarding the portrait artist
--Julia knows of a jazz pianist if there is any decision about music
-Jennie will ask Alexa about the cost for the art gallery. This needs to be added to the Artistry in Yoga
fund spending
-Union Art Gallery is planned as Pop-up Gallery in the loop.
-FTH Dinner Circles are planned and have a page on the website. They link conference members up to
find restaurants and dates.
-FTH Surya Times – conference newspaper will be available at registration. We will sell ad space
bringing in a bit of revenue.
*Sponsors
-Issues about allowing Ice Mountain being a FTH sponsor because of environmental and sustainability
standpoint. Jennie will contact tMary Fran with the go-ahead for Ice Mountain
*Money Needs
-FTH needs $10K to cover upcoming payments; ICON in December ($10K), Palmer House in march
($6500). IYAMW will loan FTH the $10, 000. FTH will pay back with 5% interest. $5K will be given
by end of year and $5K by end of January.
-Becky will review her volunteer budget and get it to Ginny Harlow when figured out.
*T-shirts
-Aaron will contact Karen Allgire and let her know that he is taking over t-shirt ordering for
conference. Karen needs to know what text for the website for T-shirt sales, Given hints on sizing,
etc.... T-shirts will not be available at conference..
*Sponsor and Scholarship Intersection
Wrap Up: Jennie
*Goals
-Who will be leaving the board in 2012? Three board member will need to step down.
-Keep in mind the need for nominations/elections in 2011
Tasks – all board members should add their tasks to the task list on the google site and any dates
that should go on the calendar.
*Jennie: Bob & Todd know that the $1000 will be in FTH artistry account, get with steering wheel
about meet & greet ideas, ice mountain discussion with wheel, keep nj posted on when FTH site goes
live, connect yoga chair prop guy with website committee, will tell the wheel that the board is throwing
volunteer party.
*Jess: Becky and NJ info from Target Classes, teacher emails about future events / summer event,
coordinating Movie Night Event
*Laurie: question for icon website : front page, add on volunteer page the volunteer card that becky
wants added, on sponsors page give directly to the iyamw site, change video if dan can do it
*Natasha: set up the donate page, work with Aaron on the listing, looking into batch update options,
come up with a list of monthly discussion options for facebook pages, work on membership survey,
laurie set up with web mail, work with Aaron on sponsorship page, finish up independent and second
member functionality, finishing newsletter and entering topics for next year
*Becky: will create a New Member Welcome Letter, will volunteer to find a volunteer to collect all the
event information called a Regional Events Coordinator
*Julia: follow up on facebook accounts (fth and iyamw) with Natasha, take care of finishing up 2010
financial business, appreciation proposals, giving FTH money for conference, contact Ginny about
getting Quickbook training, talk to Karen about adding scholarship line to the registration, create a
thank you template on our google site
*Aaron: will send Julia the last Asscot invoice, website right rail: donation button, fth button,
newsletter button, event calendar, website left menu: props page, set up MailChimp email list
organizer, in charge of t-shirt ordering for FTH conference (will contact Karen Allgire with size, $, etc
info),