June 13, 2012 Mosaic Board Meeting Minutes
Present: Gogi, Lara, Tari, Jose, Mark, Kristin, Lynne (facilitator), Jay,
Shivani, Erica; staff: Eden (notetaker)
Absent: Michele, Jon, Cynthia, Amanda, Brett,
I.
Prior Minutes: 2/22/12 minutes approved
II.
Board packet review
III.
A.
addition: new website went live today
B.
Program/Project updates - no comments/questions.
C.
Committee reports – no comments/questions
D.
Financial update – no comments/questions
Finance committee report
A.
Cash reserves policy: Presented at Feb mtg. Jon raised concern of
not addressing deficit years, so we agreed to revise for this meeting. Last
sentence added to address this and Cash Reserves Policy presented for
approval. Revised policy approved as presented.
B.
Investment policy: saw most of it at Feb mtg. Section 2, SRI (social
responsible investing) was added and with more specifics about how we
view SRI. We also tightened up the policy overall and removed the yearspecific targets, so that this is the overall policy, which will complement
an annual strategy (specific funds, percentages, etc). We discussed
equities and agreed to drop to 0% minimum (keeping the same
maximum), as there will likely be years where we won’t want any
equities. The finance committee will make that change. Explanation of
the spending issue within this policy: all earnings will be reinvested
rather than rolled into the annual budget, unless the board approves
otherwise. Explanation of how this will be implemented: the finance
committee will present an annual investment strategy, specifying funds,
percentages, and timelines for investing that year at the annual meeting,
for board approval. The Finance Committee will propose strategies that
fall within the policy guidelines. The policy (as amended with the 0%
minimum for equities) was adopted.
C.
Strategy: recognize we are in recession. For the coming 18
months, we plan to allocate 60% of reserves to CDs, 25% to money
market, 15% more aggressive (still low risk, but not yet defined). We
agreed that the staff/Finance Committee could implement the
investment via CDs and money markets (before next mtg). Will wait on
aggressive investments. Kristin would like to contribute ideas to next
finance committee mtg on investment strategy. Initial 2012-2013
investment strategy approved as to CDs and Money Markets for 85% of
our cash reserves.
IV.
BRETT CONCERT
A.
Ticket sales/Promotion: 98 tickets sold. Goal is 200 tickets. We can
do this, would like to encourage folks to SHARE SHARE SHARE.
(Post/repost on Facebook, Twitter, etc.) Peter Finch posted interview on
KGO. Check out new Mosaic website. Invite your friends, get the word
out there. We need to make money. We want to reach our goal, esp
since we did not do as well as expected at the brunch this year. More
guests helps drive auction items up. Makes live auction fun. More
money, more people, more fun. The date has moved a lot, folks don’t
remember when it is. Please remind your contacts.
B.
Job assignments: Eden sent around job list, please review. Will
email final jobs list.
C.
After party: Awaken Cafe has offered after party for us organizers.
Beer and wine free. Secretly want Brett to sing a song, no promises.
D.
V.
Set up: 5pm Friday to help set up and run through.
Board goals review
A.
Governance committee: The Governance Committee changed its
name from the Nominating Committee (the board approved). We
reviewed the proposal in the board packet. Specifically, the Governance
Committee took all the feedback from the board retreat and addressed
11 categories. All the questions we addressed are in a google document
on the board’s google docs. Many things remained status quo, many
things were changed. We highlighted the table of board member
expectations and accountability. We also discussed the section on
committee chairs and officers, which makes significant changes to role
and responsibilities. Question: are these roles retroactive? No.
President is happy to fulfill these duties until end of year, but would love
help now (to reduce Gogi’s workload), but that is voluntary. We
discussed the ideal board size (15-17) but the bylaws remain broad at 525 (which we want to keep that way). We all agreed that annual retreats
as proposed are good. Major shout out to Mark for leading this
extensive work! We approved the governance proposal as is.
B.
Development committee: Gogi presented in place of Jon since he
is travelling. This was a board goal (from retreat). We are behind it! We
are not proposing mandating an amount that would be raised, but we
are mandating effort by every board member. Jay comment about
accountability: Nice sentiment to say it’s about effort, but we need
results! We all agreed that we embrace the culture shift. Everyone is
capable of raising funds! We will amend the BMAP (board member
action plan) for 2013. The proposal calls for a special meeting re: events
and individual fundraising in general and to clarify the board’s role.
There is no longer an events committee; implementing the events has
become a staff responsibility with assistance from the board (and
Kristin’s hosting the concert). We agreed to a joint board/staff meeting
on July 18. Erica and Jay will be absent due to summer travel. We
discussed the buddy system and reaffirmed our commitment to it. We
approved the Development Committee’s proposal in its entirety.
C.
Strategic plan: Cyndie Benjamin, who facilitated two prior
retreats (one being an initial strategic planning session though not a full
process) is willing to work for us pro bono in strategy consulting. She was
not present at the meeting at Gogi’s suggestion, because of recent back
surgery, given that everyone on board has worked with her before
(except Lynne). Cyndie met with the core strategy team (Shivani, Mark,
Jay, and Gogi) this spring, and we outlined a plan. She presented a
power point presentation outlining the strategic planning process to
culminate in a board/staff retreat in early 2013. The framework is from
her work with other corporations and involves defining key decisions,
values, and issues. Pre-work will involve 1) Gogi & Lara meeting, 2)
revising the mission and drafting a vision statement, 3) interviewing all
of the board and year-round staff, as well as opt-in facilitators, and some
other stakeholders (youth & kids board, donors, parents,
teachers/school administrators). From these interviews, we would
define the issues and create a strategy table of strategic decisions and
alternatives. Following board review of this table at the annual meeting,
we would conduct a board-staff retreat to discuss/decide among the
alternatives and generate a strategic plan.
Next steps: We offered other board members to join the core strategy
team, which none did. We agreed to revise the mission statement and
draft a vision statement for the board to review at the August meeting
(Gogi, Lara, Shivani), and Eden/Lara will reach out to staff for input. The
core strategy team will conduct interviews over the summer. Shivani will
follow up with absent board members. We will set a date at August mtg
for Jan/Feb 2013 board-staff retreat. Lara/Gogi will look at
mission/vision and get feedback from Shivani and staff. We adopted the
proposed process presented and are very grateful for Shivani & Cyndie’s
leadership!
D.
MCP update: Lots of things going on: Stanford alumni event,
Kaiser, Gap 6/27, Old Navy marketing team, Hidden Villa, Monkey
Business, SF Dept of Health. We have 5 contracts to date totaling $25k.
Goal is $40k for year. Reminder to board to send connections/contacts
to MCP/Brian. This is one of our goals and a board commitment, so we’ll
be calling each board member for leads. Does not have to be big
corporate partners – all types of entities are great prospects.
E.
Org vision committee: Org covenant/pledge was presented as
final draft 6/6/12. This will be an internal document. We will include it
in every board packet, read it at the beginning of the annual board
meeting and include it in the board orientation and staff orientation. It
is aspirational and documents for ourselves how we want to try to be in
relationship to each other and the organization. Include in the board
packet. Approved as presented.
VI.
Meeting assessment
A.
No parking lot (no tangents – yea!)
B.
Loved everything Cyndie said, but phone presentation very
difficult. We definitely prefer in-person where possible and understand
why she didn’t come this time. In future, presentations by persons not
present will be minimized and better technical arrangements will be
made to improve sound.
C.
Ending early is amazing!
D.
Getting board packet out early is great.
E.
We have accomplished a lot after retreat.
F.
Bummer that less than half of board is present (esp re:
accountability).