XIV. LERA Annual Reports
Executive Board Meeting Wednesday, June 13, 2007 Capital Room, Hotel Washington Washington, DC
Call to Order—The meeting was called to order at 3:15 p.m. by President Eileen Hoffman. Present at the meeting were officers Tony Oliver (president-elect), Peter Feuille (secretary/treasurer), Adrienne Eaton (editor in chief) and Bill Canak (NCAC chair). Members present included Sara Adler, Ralph Craviso, Rob DeLucia (appointed to complete the term of Jerry Calhoun, who resigned), Jill Kriesky, Julie Martinez-Ortega, Gordon Pavy, and Nancy Peace. Committee chairs in attendance included Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Marlene Heyser, and Paula Voos. Also present were guest Clint Card (FMCS intern) and national office staff Emily Smith, Lisa Sprinkle, and Paula Wells. Board members not able to attend were Paul Almeida, Jacquelin Drucker, Jack Fiorito, Morris Kleiner, David Lipsky (past president), Lisa Lynch, and Donna Wilson Renner.
Approval of Minutes—A motion was heard to approve the minutes of the Chicago, IL, board meeting held January 4, 2007. It was seconded and approved.
Committee and Officer Reports
Report on 2007 National Policy Forum—NPF meeting coordinator Jim Auerbach reported that National Policy Forum registration was at 175 pre-registrants with more to register on-site. He briefly reviewed the guest speakers and program.
Editorial Committee—Adrienne Eaton, editor-in-chief, presented the Board with the proposal for the 2009 research volume, reporting that it had been approved and recommended by the LERA Editorial Committee. Editors were to be Jim Gross and Lance Compa and the working title of the volume would be Human Rights in Labor and Employment Relations: International and Domestic Perspectives. The motion to approve it as the 2009 volume was seconded by Martinez-Ortega and unanimously approved.
Adrienne also reported that Perspectives on Work editor Charles Whalen had informed us that because of other writing commitments, he would be reducing his editor duties to only one issue per year beginning in 2008, the December issue. The board discussed finding another editor to take on the spring (June) issue but after putting out a call, no individual or group had expressed interest. It was decided that if another editor could not be lined up for the spring issue, Perspectives would revert, at least temporarily, to an annual issue to be distributed only in December.
Finance and Membership Report—Secretary/treasurer Peter Feuille projected we will end the year with a $70,000 deficit and that next year that deficit will grow unless we take immediate steps to cut expenses and/or look for other ways to bring in revenue. He reported our cash position would not allow us to sustain such deficits for more than a few years. Membership committee chair Paula Voos echoed that expenses must be cut—only doing one issue of Perspectives would help a little but we should also look at other nonessential programs to cut back. Paula Wells reported we would again be having the annual fund drive in the fall and hoped to raise another $12,000 from that effort, but we need to look at other possible revenue-building opportunities as well.
Wells also reviewed the membership report, pointing out we are making some headway in reducing the numbers of members not renewing memberships and that we continued to gain new members, closing the gap. Julie Martinez-Ortega inquired if there was any analysis of who is leaving the field or makes up the field today. After discussion, Julie and Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld agreed to look into how to pull such information together.
Bill Canak brought up several ideas on building membership. First was the idea to approach companies and unions with collective bargaining agreements and ask them to dedicate a tenth of a penny to fund LERA industry councils. This idea was deferred to the Development Committee for further exploration. Second, he discussed how the ASA had published a New Yorker Cartoon Book to celebrate their one hundredth anniversary; it is being sold to members and used as a gift item. He said that low press runs were possible and that books came in both soft and hard covers. An exploratory committee was set up to review the financial feasibility of such a project and to recommend whether we should or should not do this additional publishing project. The ad hoc committee was to be chaired by Bill Canak and to have Eileen Hoffman, Tony Oliver, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Adrienne Eaton, and Marlene Heyser as members.
Sixtieth Annual Meeting Report—Eileen Hoffman reported that forty-two proposals were submitted for considerations and that about half were able to be included. One of the meeting rooms will be set up in rounds to enable breakout discussions. A number of sessions, including the distinguished panel, would be focusing on the theme. The distinguished speaker is Claudia Golden, professor of economics at Harvard. The distinguished panel is being organized by Mary Ellen Shea. Sara Adler is working to put together a list of organizations taking volunteers for a half day and has worked with the New Orleans Public Library to arrange sale of t-shirts at the registration area, with all proceeds going to the library. A number of anniversary activities will be planned, including a cake at the reception.
Strategic Planning Report—Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld and Nancy Peace reviewed the five major goals that came out of the strategic planning year (2006). Regarding the first goal of expanding our community online, it was discussed how we might survey LERA members concerning what they consider of value in the organization. The goals regarding reshaping our meetings and building bridges with our chapters needed further clarification and thought and were to be set aside for later work. The fourth goal, increasing academic membership, included working on special issues with other journals (headed by Morris Kleiner), supporting the institutionalization of the PhD Consortium, and looking into how best to develop other membership categories. The fifth goal, institutionalizing the Development Committee, has been accomplished, though much work remains to be done in terms of raising funds. Joel pointed out the work of the Strategic Planning Committee was essentially completed and that the next step was to assign working groups to begin meeting concerning accomplishment of the goals.
Adjournment—The meeting was adjourned at 6:03 p.m. by President Hoffman.
Executive Board Dinner and Meeting Minutes January 3, 2008 Vieux Carre B Room, Intercontinental Hotel New Orleans, LA
Call to order—The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m. by President Eileen Hoffman.
Present at the meeting were: officers Tony Oliver (president elect), David Lipsky (past President), Peter Feuille (secretary-treasurer), Adrienne Eaton (editor in chief) and Bill Canak (NCAC chair); board members: Sara Adler, Ralph Craviso, Jackie Drucker, Jack Fiorito, Morris Kleiner, Jill Kriesky, Lisa Lynch, Julie Martinez-Ortega, Gordon Pavy, Nancy Peace, and Bonnie Summers; incoming (non-voting) board members for orientation: Beth Almeida, Bob Chiaravalli, Ellen Dannin, and Christian Weller; committee chairs: Bonnie Castrey, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Marlene Heyser, David Lewin, Paula Voos, and Charles Whalen; invited guest: Janice Bellace, president-elect of the IIRA; and LERA staff: Emily Smith, Lisa Sprinkle, and Paula Wells.
Board members unable to attend included Paul Almeida and Rob DeLucia.
Awards, Recognition, and Announcements—President Hoffman introduced and welcomed incoming board members Beth Almeida, Bob Chiaravalli, Ellen Dannin, Jon Goddard (not present), and Christian Weller. She thanked and presented retiring board members Sara Adler, Paul Almeida, Rob DeLucia, Morris Kleiner, and Jill Kriesky certificates of appreciation for their service and presented special meritorious awards to Charles Whalen for his outstanding work as editor of Perspectives on Work and to David Lipsky for his groundbreaking work as chair of the LERA development committee.
Approval of minutes—A motion from Ralph Craviso was heard to approve the minutes of the December 11, 2007 Board Meeting held by Conference Call. It was seconded by Tony Oliver and unanimously approved.
Committee and Officer Reports
IIRA World Congress—Guest Janice Bellace, president-elect of the IIRA spoke about the upcoming 2012 IIRA World Congress to be held in Philadelphia in late May or early June. She noted that at the January 2009 LERA meeting she would be trying to organize a group of people from LERA to help organize academic sessions and to plan the 3–day conference. Board members expressed support and advised her to contact and work with FMCS to coordinate the 2012 IIRA World Congress date so it would not conflict with their National Labor Management Conference.
Editorial Committee Report—Editor in chief Adrienne Eaton reported there was no 2010 research volume proposal to recommend at this date but there were options being developed. She also reported on a proposal from Walter Gershenfeld that LERA publish an updated 30–page arbitration booklet. The Board agreed it would like more information to consider it and requested staff to develop a profit/loss scenario of such a project to review in June.
The Editorial Committee brought two motions to the Board:
1) that the Annual Meeting Proceedings would go to an electronic format to be distributed online beginning in 2009 and that print copies would no longer be distributed to libraries and authors. This was to be put in place to save publication costs. The motion unanimously passed.
2) that we should go to an electronic format for the monthly newsletter with an option for members to get paper newsletter also, recommending we start by giving members the option to get newsletter by email rather than print version in September 2008. There was further discussion and Pete Feuille suggested amending the motion that we should just make the conversion and begin sending the electronic newsletter to the 90% of membership we had email addresses for and printing/mailing a paper version to the other 10% with the staff to work out the timing for the conversion.
The motion unanimously passed.
Strategic Planning Initiatives Report and Discussion
Nancy Peace and Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld provided an overview of the 5 strategic goals developed and approved by the Board last June and facilitated a discussion of the progress made in some of the areas: 1) fostering an intellectually vibrant community; 2) serving as the leading forum in our field; 3) networking with chapters and other organizations; 4) expanding membership; and 5) strengthening our financial base and governance structure.
Initiatives Related to Strengthening our Financial Base and Governance Structure
Peter Feuille, Secretary/Treasurer presented and discussed the semi-annual Finance and Membership report and 2008 LERA Budget. He pointed out that since 2000, LERA has had its operating budgets in the black 4 years and in the red 4 years; the last three years being in the red. This is primarily due to the fact the grant money has allowed us to expand programming to do new things for membership. As the grant support subsides, LERA must transition to a more modest operating budget and look for ways to retain and afford programs important to its mission. The cost-saving move to more electronic publications is important. Phasing out or down-scaling little used programs in the future will also be necessary. Additionally LERA will need to look to increase revenues by adjusting membership dues and by developing new sources of support to sustain member programming.
After discussion, Finance and Membership Committee Co-chairs David Lewin and Paula B. Voos brought forth a motion from the Committee to increase member dues beginning in the fall of 2009 to the following levels:
Regular members to $165 Emeritus to $85 Students memberships to remain at $25 Family membership to $25 Contributing membership to $300 ($135 considered a tax deductible donation) Library memberships to $250. International mailing fee to be added to all memberships $20
It was estimated this increase in dues would help to close the annual deficit by half, or $30,000.With discussion, the motion passed with 13 voting “For” and 3 “Against.”
The 2008 LERA Budget was discussed and unanimously approved.
Development activity—Development Committee Report—Outgoing Committee Chair David Lipsky indicated that the new committee chair, John F. Burton, Jr. would be assuming chair duties for this committee following this meeting. The Development Committee brought forward the motion:
To redefine the mission and responsibilities of both the Development and Foundation Committees as follows:
to narrow the scope of the Development Committee to focus on seeking donations and contributions from members, unions, corporations, and other sources from ongoing programs, and [ongoing] operations, including support for the national office and the annual research volume. The committee will consider the possibility of creating an endowment fund. The name of the new committee would be the Development and Contributions Committee.
to broaden the scope of activities for the Foundation Committee to focus on seeking grants from foundations and sponsorships by unions, corporations and other funding sources from specific events, such as the National Policy Forum, the reception at the annual meeting and the awards presented at the annual meeting, and further develop organizational support from corporations, unions, etc. The name of the new committee[s] would be the Grants and Sponsorship Committee.
The motion unanimously passed.
Grants—Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld reported that a grant proposal from 5 doctoral program institutions had been forwarded to Sloan. If approved later next year, it would partially fund a LERA staff member in exchange for their administrative support for that grants program. The grant itself would not be administered by LERA, rather LERA would be “contracted” to provide support.
New Initiatives Related to Expanding Membership
Practitioner membership development—President Hoffman reported that she, with Gordon Pavy’s help, had been able to build liaisons with the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to work more closely with these liaisons to develop organizational sponsorship support and to better identify labor leadership and representation within the LERA.
Practitioner and academic membership development—Morris Kleiner put forth a motion to establish a mid-career level award to academics and practitioner members of the LERA, those who have been in the profession for more than 10 years, by designating them as LERA Fellows. This designation would recognize scholars and practitioners who have made contributions of unusual distinction to the field. They are to be selected through a process of nomination by the membership and election by the LERA Awards Committee, who will not be eligible for election as a Fellow for their term on the Committee. Following the initial selection of Fellows in 2009, only those who have been members of LERA for at least three consecutive years can be elected. Nomination and election would be open to scholars and practitioners from any country. The initial group of Fellows, to be given in 2009, will consist of five scholars and five practitioners. In subsequent years, normally three Fellows will be selected within each category. The awards will be presented at the appropriate meeting event for each group of Fellows.
The motion was seconded by Lisa Lynch and passed unanimously.
Academic membership development—Jack Fiorito, Board and Editorial Committee member, reported on his initiative to provide academic members access to journal publication opportunities in the field via LERA. His proposals were:
to explore LERA annually working with particular journal to arrange a pre-conference day or post-conference day symposium on a particular theme. The journal would review and then select from among the papers presented a group that could be published as a symposium in that journal, and to collaborate with outside journal editors to enhance publication prospects for the best refereed papers
The Board expressed interest in the proposals and asked Jack Fiorito to contact the publications to further develop. It was suggested a formal proposal further defining these activities be circulated via email later in the month with a motion to approve.
One-on-One Member Recruitment—Paula Voos emphasized the need for the Board to do more on 1–to-1 membership recruitment. In past years, the staff has helped to organize committees and motivate members to do this and such support was again needed. She asked for a report in June on outreach efforts and agreed to send a sample of her low pressure colleague encouragements to join to board members, asking them to reach out to their colleagues to join and support LERA.
New Initiatives Related to Community, Forums and Networking
LERA Meetings and Meeting Architecture—Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld opened a discussion on the challenges of LERA’s current meeting architecture and the opportunities to improve or enhance member participation. It was noted that attendance at LERA’s Annual Meeting over the past decade has been flat. Several constraints were recognized—there were difficulties drawing practitioners to the conference because the schedule conflicted with corporate strategic planning activities, ASSA time and hotel meeting room space limitations, and others. The chief constraint for the spring National Policy Forum was the reality that NPF was so reliant on sponsorship and contributions to make or break the bottom line. In regards to the strategic plan, relevant options regarding meeting architecture are: to leave things as they are, enhance/expand the spring meetings, especially for practitioners, and adjust the winter annual meeting. There was an extended discussion and many ideas were put forth regarding enhancing and refocusing the meetings while keeping both meetings of interest to academics and practitioners. It was decided to continue the “What is the best architecture for the meetings?” discussion at the June 2008 Board meeting, where a more formal strategic action plan could be developed and approved. Joel asked for volunteers from the Board to form a small working group to prepare for the Meeting Architecture discussion. Julie Martinez-Ortega volunteered.
National Labor-Management Conference—It was discussed and agreed that Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld should proceed to contact FMCS and develop a LERA track of sessions to possibly be included in the National Labor Management Conference program in June 2008.
New Yorker LERA Cartoon Book—Bill Canak reported the Cartoon Book was published and available for sale and thanked Eileen Hoffman, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, and the entire Cartoon Book committee for their help. The book will be offered for sale to members, chapters, and others to raise the profile of the organization and create new member interest.
LERA Blog—Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld reported that a LERA Blog was in development and would roll out this spring, creating new LERA community opportunities.
Other Business
Next Board Meeting—The date and time for the next LERA Executive Board Meeting was discussed. It was tentatively scheduled to be held the day before the NLMC, on Sunday evening June 8, 2008 in Washington D.C. Several Board members asked the staff to poll members and explore the possibility of holding it on June 9th instead, provided there was no conflict with NLMC activities.
Closing Statements—President Eileen Hoffman encouraged board members to become local chapter members and to urge chapter members to join and be active in LERA. She congratulated Eileen Appelbaum of Rutgers University as the 2010 President Elect nominee. She thanked co-vice chairs Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Bonnie Castrey and the LERA Program Committee for their efforts in developing the 2008 Annual Meeting Program. She acknowledged and thanked Board member Sara Adler for her work to organize a tee-shirt sale to benefit the local New Orleans Public Library.
Meeting Adjournment—President Hoffman adjourned the meeting at 10:39 p.m.
|
