Agenda AEESP Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Spring 2016

Thursday, April 28th from 11 am - 1 pm ET.

Attending were: Shankar Chellam, Andrea Ferro, Heather Shipley, Jean McRae, Peter Vikesland, Brian Schorr, Sarina Ergas, Robin Autenrieth, Joel Burken

AEESP Foundation Board Members and terms:

Robin Autenrieth, Chair (2014-2016)

Sarina Ergas (2014‐2016)

Andrea Ferro (Treasurer, 2015-2017)

Jean McRae (2015-2017)

Heather Shipley (Secretary, 2016‐2018)

Shankar Chellam (2016-2018)

AEESP Board Liaison to AEESP Foundation: Peter Vikesland

Investment Advisory Committee:

Gene Parkin (Chair, 2013‐2016); Sharon Walker (2014‐2016); Joel Burken (2016-2018)

Staff: Brian Schorr, AEESP/AEESPF Business Office

Participants:

Robin Autenrieth, Chair (2014-2016)

Sarina Ergas (2014‐2016)

Andrea Ferro (Treasurer, 2015-2017)

Jean McRae (2015-2017)

Heather Shipley (Secretary, 2016‐2018)

Shankar Chellam (2016-2018)

Gene Parkin (IAC Chair, 2025-2017)

Joel Burken (IAC Committee, 2016-2018)

Peter Vikesland (AEESP Liaison, 2015-2016)

Brian Schorr (Executive Administer)

Agenda:

  1. Welcome / Call to Order[R. Autenrieth] Robin called the meeting to order at 12:01pm ET. A quorum was present to conduct business. Robin introduced the new Directors to the Board: Shankar Chellam and Heather Shipley, whose terms run through the end of 2018.
  2. Elect Foundation Secretary [R. Autenrieth].
  3. The position of Secretary is vacant as Sarina’s term expired on 12/31/15
  4. Heather Shipley was nominated and unanimously approved
  5. Review of minutes from Sept. 16, 2015 [R. Autenrieth]. Robin reviewed the minutes from the Sept. meeting and discussed highlights.
  6. Action items addressed in agenda so no further discussion
  7. No changes to minutes and minutes were approved unanimously
  1. Business Office Report [B. Schorr]. Brian presented the business office report (attached).
  2. 2015 Financial Review Plans
  3. Highlights overall numbers and what current balances are and were money is still owed
  4. 1st Q 2016 Report has been created by CPA Bill Riesenberg. Brian will review it and thenand will send it to Andrea for furtherreview. ACTION ITEM
  5. Allen K. Murphy, CPA has verbally told Brian that the charge for conducting a 2015 Foundation Financial Review is $2,035, representing a $40 increase from his fee for the 2014 Review. He will send Brian an Engagement Letter to sign (ACTION ITEM) if it is identical to the one provided to the Board for last year’s Review. If it is substantively different, aside from the fee, he will notify Robin and Andrea for further consideration. Mr. Murphy expects the review to take approximately one month to complete.
  6. Board discussed if this was still agreeable and agreed to move forward with a unanimous vote
  7. 2015 Tax preparation
  8. Bobby Grohs prepared the Foundation’s 2014 taxes last year for a fee of $500. He proposed the same rate for 2015’s tax filings. Brian advised that Mr. Grohs prepares TTC’s taxes, as well as those of its other clients and are satisfied with his work. Mr. Grohs will file an extension until August 15th to account for the Financial Review.
  9. Board discussed if this was still agreeable and accepted Mr. Groh’s proposal to move forward with a unanimous approval to file 2015 taxes.
  10. DLS Speaking Tour
  11. 2014-15 Bruce Logan
  12. One university remains unpaid: Howard University. Brian is reaching out to Kimberly Jones to complete payment of that invoice.
  13. 2015-16
  14. Dr. Love’s tour concluded with 18 schools and $29,900 invoiced, 10 schools have paid to date.
  15. 2016-17 Menachem Elimelech
  16. May 16this when applications are due for schools interested in hosting next year’s Tour. Fees are $1,200 for domestic and Canadian schools and $1,500 international schools.
  17. DLS Honorariums
  18. A host school for Dr. Love’s tour has expressed interest in providing an honorarium to Dr. Love directly in addition to covering the host speaking fee that the Foundation charges. Dr. Love declined accepting the honorarium pending a decision from the Foundation Board. Institutions are wanting to offer honorariums on top of the reimbursement from AEESP
  19. Board discussed if they wanted to allow this personal honorarium: Robin’s thought: this was fine if it doesn’t affect selection of speaker sites;Sarina: maybe consider donation to Foundation instead of speaker. Sarina was concerned over how it changes the process; speakers should report additional monies received;
  20. Brian advised that there is no current mechanism in place to prevent the host school from providing a personal honorarium and that if the Board objected to the concept, it would need to create that rule. The Board declined to take that action, but the sense of the Board was also that speakers need to disclose to the Board acceptance of such honorariums if/when they occur. Agree to allow to take additional honorarium if disclosed.
  21. The AEESP Foundation Handbook has language incorrectly written to mandateeach host school must pay travel expenses and a $2,000 honorarium to the Speaker. In fact, it is the responsibility of the Foundation to pay the travel expenses plus one $2,000 honorarium for the full tour. DLS Committee Chair Karl Linden advised new language to clear up the language. Upon further iterations by the Board, the following sentence will replace the existing language in the Handbook: “Institutions selected for inclusion on the tour agree to pay a fixed fee, which the Foundation uses to cover the travel expenses of the speaker and the honorarium for the overall tour.”
  22. Board had no objections
  23. Brian advised that the previous two DLS speakers, Dr. Mark Von Loosdrecht and Dr. Bruce Logan were not paid $2,000 honorariums, as he was unaware of that provision until he consulted with the Foundation Handbook for Dr. Love’s honorarium question. Neither former DLS Speaker requested the honorarium. Brian asked if the Board should move to pay those honorariums. The sense of the Board was that the Tour does require a considerable amount of work and commitment from the speaker and a payment is appropriate. Brian will reach out to the two speakers to notify them of the honorariums that are to be paid to them. ACTION ITEM Pay an honorarium for speakers, hasn’t been done the last two years: discussed that should be offered an honorarium and that the past 2 speakers should be asked if they want this
  24. Board had no objections
  25. Foundation Administrative Costs vs. Other Non-Profits.
  26. Foundation spent about 8.4% of total expenses for management cost, similar to other organizations
  27. Foundation Grant Proposal [B. Schorr]
  28. The Foundation awards up to 3 grants annually, with each grant up to $750 to support activities that highlight and raise visibility of environmental engineering projects to students in grades K-12. The Foundation received one proposalfrom Dr. Harmonie Hawley from UT-Tyler, proposed initiative for raising awareness to Tyler, Texas school students (K-12) about compositing in their city. She is seeking $690 to complete the initiative. The Board agreed to provide the grant with the request that she take lots of pictures and provide a report upon its conclusion that may be included in the September Newsletter or other correspondence with AEESP’s members. Robin will communicate this message to her directly. ACTION ITEM.
  29. Sarina advised that Brian should notify the listserv about a month before each deadline (April 1 and October 1) if they are interested in submitting proposals to do so. ACTION ITEM
  30. Investment Advisory Committee Report [G. Parkin]
  31. Gene: Options for reducing spending include either reducing award $ or travel stipends. Trends in long-term principal – performance over the last year, we’ve gone from $350k to $364k today. We’re on pace to raise the $15-16k/year we need to self-support the awards. Longer-term trends, we are very conservative in our investments. Financially, we’re in good shape. We may want to consider moving investment funds around a bit.

Joel: I like our current investment plan. We should follow up yearly to ensure the investment plan continues to serve our needs.

Andrea: we are also investing heavily in bonds and that may be more opportunities to invest.

  1. Action item is for Andrea to implement the balance between the corporate and municipal bond investments. ACTION ITEM
  1. AEESP Liaison Report [P. Vikesland / G. Characklis]
  2. Peter: soon, there will be a proposal to endow anew award in name of Walt Weber. Also, AEESP concluded that of remaining awards, the publication awards, teaching awardsand education awards that don’t have names now would in perpetuity remain unnamed in anyone’s honor. In the future, there will be an effort to endow them as AEESP awards. Also we have the Grand Challenges Workshops…one at USC in January, one at Rice March 31-April 1, and Virginia Tech, Arlington Campus next month.
  1. Treasurer’s Report [A. Ferro]
  2. Andrea: Vanguard account is 10k higher than end of year. $67k in Wells Fargo checking account + $10k owed from AEESP. Brian reported that the $10k has since been moved over. In 2015, we changed the stock funds to be more socially responsible. Current balance is $364,110.01 in Vanguard. Long-term, we have a 4.0% rate of return. So with a 4% rate of return, we don’t make enough to cover our Awards. We’d need to be closer to $400k or need 4.4% rate of return on the $364k.
  3. Robin: Let’s just sit tight on our current investment plan because we have some items to discuss regarding endowments.
  4. Old business:
  5. Guidelines for group that wants to endow an award

Peter: AEESP Board is working on developing these guidelines. We have language for what we don’t want for these awards. It’s not far enough along to provide any more information than that at this time.

  1. New Business:
  2. The Board requested Brian put a new directory on AEESP’s Members’ Only website for Foundation meeting minutes. He will need to give permission for Foundation Directors to access it. ACTION ITEM
  3. Robin: On May 6th, Jim will finish endowment history so we can get it into the May Newsletter and on the website. The website will explain the history of the awards and the significance of each one.
  4. Brian to ask Bobby Grohs about donation link from main website. ACTION ITEM
  5. Robin: I was contacted by dan Oerther about being involved in foundation., maybe join investment or advisory committee or short list to nominate to board for fall.
  6. Plans for Next Meeting [R. Autenrieth]
  7. The AEESP Foundation Board meeting should occur before the Autumn AEESP Board Meeting, which will be scheduled in May. As soon as it is determined, Brian can poll the Foundation Board for a date for its second meeting. ACTION ITEM

Robin adjourned at the meeting at 1:39 pm ET.

Action Items from April Conference Call:

Brian will review 1st Q 2016 Report created by CPA Bill Riesenberg and then and will send it to Andrea for further review.

Brian will signAllen K. Murphy, CPA Engagement Letter if it is identical to the one provided to the Board for last year’s Review. If it is substantively different, aside from the fee, he will notify Robin and Andrea for further consideration.

Brian will reach out to the two speakers to notify them of the honorariums that are to be paid to them.

Robin to discuss increasing honorarium with larger committee, Karl Linden, chair of committee

Brian: communicate the change in DLS honorarium language to Karl Linden so he can change the handbook. [new language: Institutions selected for inclusion on the tour agree to pay a fixed fee, which the Foundation uses to cover the travel expenses of the speaker and the honorarium for the overall tour].

Robin will communicate Dr. Harmonie Hawley from UT-Tyler on her proposal that that she take lots of pictures and provide a report upon its conclusion that may be included in the September Newsletter or other correspondence with AEESP’s members.

Brian will notify the listserv about a month before each grant proposal deadline (April 1 and October 1) if they are interested in submitting proposals.

Andrea to implement the balance between the corporate and municipal bond investments.

Brian put a new directory on AEESP’s Members’ Only website for Foundation meeting minutes.

Brian to ask Bobby Grohs about donation link from main website

Brian will poll the Foundation Board for a date for its second meeting in the Fall.

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