Board of Directors Meeting Agenda – Meeting Minutes

Friday, September 22, 20069:00 AM – 4:30 PM EST

Location:

In Person:

Hyatt Regency, Reston, VA

Tele-Conference:

Dial in: 866-279-0222, meeting number: *6671747*

  1. Introductions and Check-in
  2. The following attended in person: Brett Champlin (President), Nancy Bilodeau (Member Services), Andrew Spanyi (Education), Mark Treat (Communications), Chris Jensen (Marketing), Tony Benedict (Relationships), Bob Etris (Washington DC); Dale Cohen (Finance, for Patricia Fenoglio)
  3. The following attended via phone: David Heidt (Chicago), Jerry Mirelli(Information), Art Costa (SE New England), Sandra Lusk (morning only - Portland, OR)
  4. The following were unable to attend: Patricia Fenoglio (Finance), Brad Reynolds (Operations – afternoon only), Ramon Cardenas (San Francisco Bay Area), David Duignan (San Diego), Janyce Wolfe (Metro New York), Joey Johnson (Chapter Services), Gail Raynus (Boston), Vijay Khatnani (Philadelphia), Anene Nnolim (SE Michigan), Wayne Alford (Phoenix)
  5. A quorum was established with at least 5 directors present.
  6. Approve Minutes of Last Meeting
  7. Minutes of Feb. 19th meeting approved
  8. Agenda approved by the Board. No new items were added.
  9. Old Business:
  10. Chris Jensen will take over the posting of the privacy policy to the website from Brett Champlin.
  11. All ABPMP officers have signed the code of ethics. This action items is completed.
  12. There is an administrative need for Directors to update Finance with the 2006 budgets. 2007 budget templates will be coming out late this fall along with detailed steps for completing the budget process for the 2007 calendar year.
  13. The details of the vendor sponsorship program are reviewed later in the meeting.
  14. Nancy Bilodeau and Jerry Mirelli will work on making the Code of Ethics part of the on-line membership application.
  15. Brett Champlin noted the need to contact another lawyer regarding the use on language for on-line forms. Mark Treat offered the service of another contact if needed. Brett to follow-up.
  16. Report on membership of 2004 was included as part of the later discussion in the meeting.
  17. A copy of the vendor relationship contract was sent to both the Information and Vendor relationship directors.
  18. Dale Cohen put new controls in place for authorizing payments and other financial transfers.
  19. Dale Cohen re-issued financial reports after updating program fees and some other income figures.
  20. The task to review and revise the procedures for recognition and formalization of new chapters remains open and is assigned to Joey Johnson.
  21. Director Status Reports
  22. Membership –Membership soon will have one record of memberships via the Affiniscape database. Membership will need to sync the existing membership spreadsheet with the database and can then retire the spreadsheet. There was some discussion on putting onus on Chapters to increase memberships. Some directors highlighted dependencies on financing, relationships, marketing. It was clear this needed to be addressed for strong growth. There was additional discussion on having a process for growing memberships. Some asked if there is a national strategy and inquiredhow local chapters execute to that strategy? If there is no national strategy, then local chapters will naturally create their own and execute to it. All agreed chapters need guidelines (besides strategy) from corporate. All further agreed that chapters should have a plan to increase members via local events (BPM monies, etc.) based on corporate direction. Membership services also noted a need to perform a financial analysis to make recommendations on optimal distribution between chapters. All broadly agreed that the upcoming year afforded the opportunity to monitor this more closely and that chapters needed additional details that explained the funds available to them.
  23. Chapter Services – Brett Champlin read the report in the Chapter Services Director’s absence. No substantive discussion followed.
  24. Education – The education director discussed the status of the Body of Knowledge (BOK) and its tentative timeline for review by the Board and, potentially, the broader membership community. After this presentation, it was noted that SAP wants to inform ABPMP members of their BPX community can ABPMP contribute material to their BPX site. The question was posed should we (ABPMP) collaborate on educational materials for certification. Per this agreement with SAP, our responsibility is to inform ABPMP members of SAP BPX, and SAP should inform their BPX members of ABPMP. It was then discussed to what extent ABPMP shouldcollaborate on education/certification with SAP.
  25. The following motion was posed: ABPMP will inform members of SAP BPX community on condition that SAP inform their BPX members of ABPMP. The motion was seconded and subsequently accepted. The criteria for “informing”were determined to be a link on each website. It was further determined that there is no need to exchange content and the arrangement will be restricted to links on respective websites. General Director sentiment agreed that ABPMP members pay for BOK content and SAP shouldn’t benefit from it.
  26. A second motion was posed and seconded: ABPMP should restrict content exchange with SAP to posting respective website links. Motion accepted.
  27. A third motion was posed and seconded: The Chair of Education Committee of ABPMP and SAP collaborate, at a level to be defined, on certification at a later date to be determined. Discussion focused on what the ABPMP roadmap is with regard to finalizing the BOK, establishing a certification program, etc. General sentiment agreed the sensitivity of differentiating between vendor sponsorship and improving ABPMP certification based on industry buy-in. All agreed the SAP BPX certification might be a useful secondary, optional certification for the technical community but that ABPMP’s certification should remain the driving and featured item in this effort. Motion accepted.
  28. Finance – Dale Cohen gave a presentation on the status of Corporate and chapter finances. The following points were highlighted, particularly with regard to the 80/20 rule’s proposed change by general community membership:
  29. Corporate financial position is strong. Balance and P&L sheets were reviewed.
  30. ABPMP is, from a tax perspective, a non-profit corporation. As such all references to “National”, “Parent Organization,” and similar references will all uniformly change to “Corporate” to be consistent.
  31. Individual chapters have the ability to manage their money viaCorporate accounting, At this time Philadelphia and Portland have open ed their own checking accounts and do their bookkeeping in conjunction with corporate finance, Portland has experimented with PayPal for event registration fees. Chicago has its own savings account but has its finances managed thru corporate. Other chapters process their income and expenses thru corporate finance. This shall continue for the foreseeable future. All chapters use one instance of Quickbooks Online edition (“QBOE”) for their accounting. This provides a picture of the entire organization for internal and external (e.g. IRS) needs.
  32. The 2007 budget cycle will use new budget templates to be completed by each Chapter and managed with input from Dale throughout the year.
  33. Dale Cohen is available to all Chapter Finance VP’s for periodic phone conversations as-needed.
  34. Information Services – Jerry Mirelli described the work he and David Heidt undertake to maintain the website. A lengthy discussion followed about various shortcomings in the existing vendor providing the web service and on-line editor tools. Attendees agreed that the site needs to allow for better content sharing across chapters, improved navigation and appearance, and potentially other features. The following motion was raised and seconded: Look at other application service providers and develop assessments based on the best approach for posting website content going forward. Jerry and Mark will take the lead with input from David, Nancy, and Dale in the assessment process.
  35. Communications – The communication update discussed a series of initiatives and ideas, including a potential certificate of membership, having a new member location on website, and developing a quarterly newsletter. Mark will need format on the format and design. A related action item appears later in this document.

A series of comments were raised both in this portion of the meeting and in some previous discussions. All points centered on issues of strategy, strategic planning, and a series of related points. These topics were deferred until a later discussion at the end of the meeting. A summary of this discussion appears at the end of this document and attached presentation.

  1. Marketing – The marketing presentation discussed developing potential co-marketing arrangements with conference providers, having chapter reps at other BPM conferences, and developing a press release for the BOK.
  2. Vendor Relationships – The vendor relationships presentation, looked at a variety of issues including the following:
  3. Consider dropping Affiniscape as our vendor due to lack of production after 18 months of “sales” work
  4. Assign responsibility of service vendor relationships to someone at the Director level. An action item was developed later that appears in this document.
  5. Target larger financial and insurance organizations for practitioner sponsorship. Seek involvement of the government space and centers of excellence within public and private sector corporations.
  6. Operations – No presentation was given.
  7. President – Brett’s report was read by Andrew Spanyi. Brett’s involvement with speaking was highlighted. D&O insurance still needs to be purchased and there is an ongoing issue with the rights to the logo.
  8. It was noted no motion could be made on “honorarium” changes without clarification from Brett;
  9. The motion was made and seconded that the Board agree to license the BPM 101 course and that Brett will negotiate the terms of that arrangement pending the signed approval of two Board Directors.
  1. Chapter President Reports
  2. Boston, Chicago, New York, and Southeast New England, and WashingtonDC all gave updates on their chapter status. The following points are highlighted:
  3. Boston interested in forming a chapter but consensus wants to wait until organization evolves at corporate level.
  4. Chicago is developing a speaker abstract form for use by other chapters.
  5. Metro New York had a successful year as a start-up with 3 events at 30-35 attendees each.
  6. Southern New England (“SNE”) is taking an organic approach to growth through smaller, invitation programs. Planning 3 major events for 2007
  7. Washington had its kick-off meeting that week during the BrainStorm conference and is wholly focused on networking growth and programs.
  8. Portland Chapter update can be found in Appendix I.
  9. New Business Items
  10. Appointment of Patricia Fenoglio was ratified by approved Board motion.
  11. Assignment of Chris Jensen and Bob Etris to nominations and elections committee was passed by approved Board motion.
  12. Previously passed motion to license BPM101 was reiterated with the clarifying point that the Board will actively monitor how the value of “net profits” will be defined in the context of such an arrangement to ensure it is fair and equitable for ABPMP.
  13. Issue on revising the “honorarium” issue was tabled for the next meeting.
  14. Nancy gave an overview of the membership management process. Local chapter membership VP’s all have copies of this documentation.
  15. Motion to leave the 80/20 distribution as-is was passed. The following points of emphasis were made:
  16. Chapters need to be made aware that money is available to them thru internal chapter services grants, or thru internal grants from other departments.
  17. Centralizing funds with corporate eases the management of money for Finance making it less expensive to perform accounting and tax filing..
  18. Chapters should work with the VP of Finance in 2007 to better track budgets and expenses so that data can be used to inform any change to this decision at a future date.
  19. Future Meeting:

Agenda (tentative) – include updates on strategic initiatives, propose operating budget for next year, and discuss corporate sponsorships.

Motion passed to set date and time for December 2nd, noon to 4pm eastern.

Action items / Person responsible: / Deadline:
What
Criteria and process for local chapters to ask for monies to support special events with the goal of increasing memberships / Who
Joey / When
TBD
Look at service providers and do assessments on best approach for posting website content going forward. / (David, Jerry, Mark, Nancy, Dale)
ABPMP BOD Members to submit newsletter topics to be included in Quarterly Newsletter. / ABPMP BOD members
Create sub-committee(s) on communications, marketing, member and chapter services plus relationships / Mark, Chris, Nancy, Tony, Joey
We could then augment with “click through” advertising for author’s books on Amazon, etc. and generate incremental revenues from book sales while still remaining objective to our membership. / Tony
Explore vendors that manage website branding and marketing. Many of these vendors’ expertise are with placing key words on the sponsored website that will generate hits on commercial search engines like Google and Yahoo. The thought process here is that when people search for key words like business process management using Google or Yahoo, they will get hits back based on key words. Look into / Chris
Need criteria for Vendor neutrality for Sponsorships
Vendors: Software, Service / Tony
ABPMP BOD members to provide ideas/feedback on Corporate/Vendor Sponsorship proposal / ABPMP BOD members
Art and Tony to work through local vs. national strategy on corporate sponsorships / Tony and Art Costa
David to send DAMA, et. al, vendor neutrality statements as examples to Board for review and input to sponsorship work. / David Heidt
Do we have copyright protection on the content of BPM101? / Brett
Clarify the motion for “honorarium for BPM101 instructor changes” / Brett
Post Privacy Policy for the Website and ensure we are staying within the guidelines. / Information – Chris Jensen to take over and work with Brett / TBD

ABPMP – Strategy Discussion Summary and Outcomes

Umbrella Strategy of Inter-related Components – Chapter Services, Communication, Membership, Relationship, Marketing

Goal: Add 10,000 members by 2010 with a retention rate of 70% and a satisfaction rate of over 80%.

What are threats?

-Volunteer-based organization

-Lack of clear value proposition

-Lack of burning platform or “slave driver”

-Lack of resources (money/staff)

-Competition and lack of differentiation

List of ABPMP Products and Services

  1. Face-to-face programs
  2. BOK
  3. Certification
  4. Practitioner network
  5. Credibility
  6. Content from the Community of Practice

What’s Our Approach?

These action objectives below detail the elements of our strategy for success and note the products/services (by numerical reference from the above section) related to each.

  1. Raise funds by targeting corporate sponsorships. Base this list on speakers that have given BPM presentations in the last 3 years. (applies to all products/services)

-Corporate memberships

-Access to content

  1. Develop a value proposition through the body of knowledge program first (#2, 5, 6)
  2. National rollout strategy
  3. Locally delivered orientation seminar
  4. Webex availability to members
  5. Sale on our website to non-members
  1. Develop the certification program second (#3, 5, 6)

-What are the application criteria – Education Committee; What are continued professional education requirements?

-What is cost?

-Governance?

-TARGET AUDIENCE

  1. Develop a training course third either internally or through third-party relationships (#5, 6)

-Develop delivery partners and a certification approach for the training program (IIBA and PMI model)

-Examine potential for developing package

  1. COP Network (#4, 5, 6)

-Chapter speakers / P2P / content

-Job postings

-Web-ex and presentations/content

-Set-up events to time with local BPM conferences

NEXT STEPS:

The Board agreed that these action items would be completed by the next BOD meeting. Each group should meet at least once, where meeting are needed, and circulate progress at least 1 week prior to the next meeting. At that point, the strategy will be revisited and a follow-up set of next steps established to maintain progress and momentum.

-Slide deck for value proposition to use with targeting sponsorship – Mark, Chris

-List of corporate targets by industry - Tony

-Brochure for members, flyers, brochures, Improved Website – Chris, Mark

Website Content Criteria

  • Look and feel
  • Content Management
  • Better support of community of practice

-Aggregate chapter content for members area – Joey, Nancy

AT THIS POINT – COMMUNICATION BLITZ

-Revamp chapter start-up and new member package – Joey

Appendix I – Portland Chapter Report[1]

Portland Chapter Report

ABPMP Board of Directors Meeting
September 21, 2006

Submitted by: Sandra Lusk, President

Activities

  • We continue to hold monthly Chapter meetings from September through May. Topics included Tony Benedict on Business Architecture at Intel; Importance of Business Processes for Nonprofits, Habitat for Humanity; Maintaining Competitive Advantage: A New Paradigm for Designing Enterprise Architectures, Roger Parrish
  • On June 30 we held a very successful class taught by Brett on Business Transformation. We had 30 students registered with 3 last minute add-ins for a total of 33 students.
  • Our next meeting September 27 will be a case study on Implementing BPM and Business Rules Management at the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS). In October, Alec Sharpe, Clairteq Consulting will be coming from Vancouver, BC to speak on Five Common Errors in Process Improvement and How to Avoid Them. Then in December we will have another case study from Bonneville Power Administration along with our annual meeting.
  • Membership growth continues at a slow but steady rate. Attendance at our Chapter meetings has been increasing since the change to our new location at the OGI campus.
  • In July we had a table display at the Portland State University Programs and Projects Conference.
  • I taught the BPM101 class at the San Francisco Brainstorm Conference in June.
  • We continue to build relationships with other professional organizations such as PMI, IIA, DAMA through hosting links to each other’s websites as well as offering complementary member pricing for various events.

Issues

  • We are currently short two Board Members, VP of Information Services and VP of Programs which are two key positions.

[1] Included as reference for Portland Chapter update.