ACC New Jersey Board of Directors Retreat November 14, 2016 Basking Ridge, NJ

ACC New Jersey Board of Directors Retreat
November 14, 2016
Basking Ridge, NJ

WELCOME

1. Introduction
2. All were welcomed at 8:35am. Board Manuals were pre-distributed and permanent (official) board name badges were given to board members to keep for future events.
3. Tori was introduced as Associate Vice President for Leadership and Development and Ariel Moyer as Chapter Director.
4. All board members introduced themselves to Tori and Ariel.
5. Board members were asked to take notes through the morning to use as reference points during the planned brainstorming sessions prior to lunch.
6. A photo compilation of chapter highlights was shown titled “ACC New Jersey Reaches for the Stars.

BOARD ORIENTATION

1. Explanation of Board Manuals and Retreat Objectives (the following is a list of inclusive materials in the manual – specific discussions about particular sections will be listed thereafter)
2. Agenda
3. Mission/Values ACC
4. Bylaws
5. BOD/Sponsors/Committees & Chairs & dates of meetings
6. Chapter Requirements & Recommendations
7. ACC Reserve Requirements & New Rebate Policy
8. Internal Financial Controls
9. Conflict of Interest Policy/Code of Conduct/Expectations
10. ACC New Jersey Highlights
11. Sponsorship Opportunities 2017
12. Financials
13. Strategic Plan
14. An additional handout was given, outside the manual titled “Homework” which includes Pre-Retreat Questionnaire Revised to Post-Retreat Expectations, Goals for Post-Retreat, Regarding Strategic Planning and Goals, Regarding Board Meetings, Regarding Personal Performance. This document will be referred to at future meetings serving as jumping points from the retreat and a means to achieve follow through.

[following are notes from discussions of particular portions of the manual]

1. Sponsors and Sponsorship Opportunities
2. The list of sponsors was read and correlation was made with the section of the manual for sponsorship opportunities.
3. Strength of sponsor firm commitment and participation was discussed and several sponsors were noted as questionable for renewal for 2017 (Advanced Discovery, Pashman Stein)
4. Ad Hoc versus Metal sponsorship was differentiated.
5. It was decided that each board member would be assigned one sponsor to reach out to attorney contacts to promote more open communications from attorney to attorney so that we can assess that their needs are being met.
6. Lowenstein Sandler – Nicole
7. Jackson Lewis – Nicole
8. Fisher Phillips – Catherine
9. Gibbons – Liliana
10. Advance Discovery – open
11. Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete – Kevin
12. DLA Piper – Bert
13. Grant Thornton – Kim
14. K&L Gates- Bryon
15. McCarter & English – Rohan
16. Morgan Lewis – Joelle
17. Pashman Stein – open
18. Thompson Hine (not necessary due to nature of sponsorship)
19. Update Legal – Michael
20. Wilentz – Terri
21. Wyatt Partners – Kevin
22. Ad hoc sponsors: Cole Schotz - Maria, Genova – Terri
23. The question was asked if there is a conflict of interest between the BOD proposing sponsorships to firms they work with. Tori Payne said “NO!” Many boards are very overt and proactive about this.
24. Value proposition was discussed
25. What do sponsors want?
26. Aside from being invited to all events, what other value is offered? (ex. Visibility)
27. How do our board and members sell our sponsors?
28. Increased communications and programming benefits
29. Can we work together to increase attendance at programs?
30. Let’s refresh a list of benefits (Leslie will work with Nicole)
31. Leslie asked about 2017 sponsorship package that must go out to sponsors soon – no time to refresh before package goes out – [Leslie to work with Nicole as VP Sponsorship to make small changes to new opportunity package]
32. We discussed that as much as we give our sponsors visibility and marketing, the firms are also quite responsible for marketing themselves – they must be involved in our programs to help market and create their relationships with our members.
33. Leslie will get sponsor engagement notes from Tori

1. Committees
2. Committees were reviewed and the board decided to omit Mergers & Acquisitions, Small Law Department, and Pro Bono committee meetings.
3. It was decided that Health Law and Life Sciences roll together into one committee.
4. Mark volunteered to run another Data Privacy committee meeting on one of the open dates, March 7, 2017
5. The ACC New Jersey will have a morning Board meeting on the other open date, February 7, 2017.
6. We will consider adding an Ethics & Compliance Committee if we can recruit a good candidate to chair.
7. A new nominating committee was formed and includes Kevin, Bryon, Rohan, Terri, and Maria

1. Conclusion-Administrative
2. What kind of board do you want to be?
3. Responsive?
4. Engaged?
5. Active?
6. Passive?
7. Involved?
8. Tori and Leslie developed a pre-retreat questionnaire so that we could build the retreat around your needs. Most pre-retreat questionnaires were not returned so were turned into post-retreat expectations/homework to be discussed at a later time.
9. [thank you to new board members – it became clear that new board members may have clearly been uninformed about “what ACC NJ Board members purpose/responsibilities are” – and therefore needed more information to answer these questions – thank you for this insight]

1. The Strategic Plan slide show was shared for planting seed ideas for the upcoming brainstorming sessions.

STATE OF THE CHAPTER

1. Financials
2. Current checking account balance $29,062.08
3. Current money market balance $438,755.08
4. Budget was discussed
5. Statement comparisons on all large events are in all binders (with budget)
6. New items added to the budget are PR/marketing and program speakers
7. Leslie will have bookkeeper eliminate storage unit.
8. Members
9. ACCNJ currently has approximately 1320 members
10. Leslie will set up a call with Rohan and Tori to discuss Washington view of new members
11. Newsletter
12. Our “click rate” (number of readers) is approximately 7% over the last 7 months or read by approximately 92 people
13. The board decided to publish our newsletter 4 times a year
14. Leslie will confer with Washington to see if it might benefit us to provide our newsletter through National versus using our current company CommPartners.
15. Social media was discussed – how do we BEST disseminate information?
16. Communications were discussed along with PR – what services do we want?
17. Communication with members
18. Communication with sponsors
19. Increase our geographic area
20. Increase membership
21. Increase attendance at programs and events
22. Let’s gather info from members and sponsors to see how they like to receive information
23. Leslie will get resources from Washington regarding PR experts
24. The board formed a committee led by Maria and including Liliana, Michael, and Marnita to assess the needs of the chapter.
25. We will see if there are any local, successful firms we can tap into.
26. Leslie will get RFP from Washington.
27. Program Highlights
28. Chapter highlights were listed in the Board manual in the following areas:
29. Education
30. Networking
31. Communication
32. Community Service
33. Diversity
34. Pro Bono
35. Charities
36. Collaboration
37. New registration and scanning systems for CLE programs
38. The new systems received a gold star from the board (and members)
39. We now have 3 methods to utilize in lieu of hand written “sign in and out” sheets.
40. Download and log in to the app (free on phone)
41. Scanning name badges
42. Inputting in email address in system
43. CLE certificates are received by attendees within 24-48 hours
44. Evaluations (feedback) are built into the system so that attendees merely click into the program on their phones to send feedback
45. There was a concern about draining battery due to the app. Leslie followed up immediately with the company and they have already fixed this problem!
46. Rebates and Reserves
47. Tori spoke about the new rebate and reserves policy
48. All large law department rebates will stop as of October 2018
49. Individual member rebates ($30 per member) will remain as long as chapter adhere to reserve requirement
50. 6 months of operating expenses is the amount that National is now requiring for acceptable reserves in chapter bank accounts
51. Any amount over 9 months MUST HAVE AN EXPLANATION SENT TO NATIONAL FOR JUSTIFICATION. IF THIS JUSTIFICATION IS NOT ACCEPTED, THE CHAPTER WILL LOSE ITS INDIVIDUAL MEMBER RESERVE REBATE FOR ONE YEAR.
52. A justifiable and clear explanation is all that is needed to maintain reserves in excess of 9 months.
53. Note that although the requirement is 6 months of reserves, a chapter can hold 9 months with no penalty
54. Reserves are NOT to be spent down quickly and mindlessly. National expects this process of spend down to take about 5 years.
55. It was noted that it is common to plan for the future – include this in our explanation
56. NJ is currently at about 20 months of reserves, we should be very explanatory for our reasons in planning for the future –keep communications open
57. Our chapter (NJ) has the rebate history for individual and large law departments listed in our Board Manual
58. Discussion ensued regarding why the change in policy
59. This requirement is a non -profit association with members “best practice”
60. There are adverse tax consequences for over storing reserves for these entities

BRAINSTORMING

1. Strategies for Board Engagement – How can we increase board engagement and participation
2. What IS board engagement? How will our “new” board define it? What kind of board do you want to be re: engagement? What does that look like for you?
3. Strategic Plan – long term plan for chapter -where do I as a board member fit in that plan?
4. The board discussed Communication with members
5. What is the best way to communicate with each other (app? Other than Email? Is there a better way?)
6. When are programs???? Emails get lost –
7. Members (and board members) would like to see a full picture of next month or two months –
8. Let us evaluate communication vehicles
9. Can we create an app – ACCNJ **** including calendar – that will push notifications – Leslie will look into this with our programmers
10. Let’s start with an app for board specifically and then move on to our members – something more digitalized let everyone have more access to what we do
11. When you sign up for program, let it automatically get populated in your calendar (ical file)
12. Communications with and Questions about the Board
13. Can we create calendar invite for board meetings - Leslie will check ORC to have invites sent to calendar
14. Can we plan BOD meetings in advance? Ex 3rd Thursday in the month? Let’s plan for at least next 4meetings planned in advance? This will be easier for board member planning
15. Skype? Shall we consider using this for any board meeting(s)?
16. What do VP’s/Directors on ACCNJ Board do? This was asked by member and led to great discussion
17. There are lists of VP responsibilities and duties in our Bylaws
18. Leslie briefly explained some history of the chapter and stated that these jobs and responsibilities have mostly always been assigned to the Executive Director
19. Our “new board” can reevaluate and recreate our Chapter as they see fit
20. Catherine and Kimberly volunteered to review our current Bylaws that were revised in September 2016
21. Leslie will set up conference calls with VP’s and Leslie and Tori for further orientation
22. Executive summary poll
23. Expectations
24. Responsibilities
25. Key events
26. Lead contact
27. What we’re about
28. Book – Bryon will send Leslie intro welcome package for Litigation
29. We could make this for board and for committees and for members
30. Volunteer leader resource section for chapters – (Washington – Leslie will pursue and connect committee chairs and VPs with them)
31. Board meetings
32. Expectations of min # or board meetings were discussed - must attend 9 out of 12 board meetings
33. Must be in person for 6?
34. It’s important to show up at board meetings and events
35. There have been Board members who have ignored Leslie’s emails so we didn’t know who would be showing up – it’s about engagement – we need communication –
36. Have in person only designated meetings
37. If we don’t give the phone option, people don’t use it!
38. Mornings are better for some
39. Polycom system purchase – Leslie will look into buying phone conference equipment
40. Board needs to be coming to more CLE programs
41. Everyone sign up for x number CLE programs
42. Would everyone sign up for 2 programs a year?
43. The board committed to 2 programs a year
44. Can we create a charitable event for board members only - to foster closer connections
45. Request for more notice on events
46. Let’s decide on next 4-5 board meetings set now (hard with holidays – hard to preplan – may not work well)
47. Everyone is so busy – try something different – we have been doing it flexibly, let’s plan every 6 weeks for board meetings
48. If we space them out more, we may have a conference call in between – or at least with executive committee
49. Will do survey - Leslie will get survey from Tori
50. What is there to do here in sense of leadership?? SCOPE?
51. Committees should be reporting every month
52. VP, committee members, ad hoc committees, where is the strategy, where do we all fit?
53. how do we all move forward for growth of the association
54. GOAL: redefine what this board is!
55. Committees do the bulk of work for the chapter – committees should report at every meeting
56. Existing committees
57. Do they make sense
58. Are there goals and plans?
59. Board engagement final summary
60. Poll of board for feedback on dates and times of BOD meetings am/pm
61. 3 meetings maybe 3 more
62. More advanced notice and calendar invites
63. Use of app use for board comm build out to members
64. Board members committed to attending and introducing 2 CLE programs - Leslie will coordinate–
65. Speaking on panels of these CLE programs is also a great opportunity for board members and furthers relationships with sponsors

1. MEMBER ENGAGEMENT BALANCE WITH SPONSOR SATISFACTION
2. Corporate members – Kim is the only person from Novartis who comes to ACC events – questions arose
3. How do we increase member attendance at CLE programs
4. Sponsors – what do I GET for sponsorship – I get # people at programs
5. Increasing visibility of sponsors
6. Big event ex. rising stars – highlight people in that field, clients – increase visibility of sponsors –
7. Actively promoting sponsors for speaking engagements – offer opportunities
8. Approaching – how can we help sponsors solve their problems?
9. Changing framework for getting business from companies – strategize about how to make them appealing (a value add to sponsorship)
10. Develop faculty guidelines
11. Sponsors marketing themselves to members – Leslie will get models from Washington – Wyatt good example – must tap in to what works for sponsors to market themselves
12. Some members are in position to use outside counsel and some are not- many aren’t decision makers to bring in outside counsel – this could be disconnect –
13. We need more value for what they are buying other than business
14. Those paying higher dollar amounts, need more value – we need to think more about who their audience is.
15. CLO event
16. GC event
17. Lawyers aren’t marketing specialists – can we help teach them more about marketing and networking?
18. Engage with firms
19. So much pressure for lawyers to bring in $$ - can we play the role to offer a reality check on this? – there are other ways besides $$ that get and make connections
20. Should some companies invite outside counsel in to provide a CLE program? Rohan has this at Cognizant. This also addresses the issue of decision makers who will be at the meeting/program
21. How do you spearhead membership and sponsor involvement at the same time?
22. Track GCs –if GC attends event and is wowed, they’re going to push ACC to their staff
23. Consider GC program event only!!
24. HAVE CLO AND GC ONLY EVENTS –huge opportunity for us- Leslie will discuss with Bryon
25. Also chief compliance officer event
26. Explore engagement of Legal aps professionals – do we have a special category? Growing trend (non-attorneys but farming work out to firms ) they don’t have full membership benefits yet
27. Leslie will follow up with Tori re legal aps (January)
28. Kim has contact for this as well
29. Create opportunities for our sponsors
30. Speaking
31. Networking
32. Getting people in the room
33. PLI / ALM association of women’s lawyers are there organizations in the legal community that we can co-sponsor events with?
34. Key into professional development –
35. Recap
36. Legal aps program - pursue
37. GC or CLO for premier sponsor – do a survey on this to see if members would be interested -(Leslie will get from Washington
38. Develop marketing for sponsor (tips) - Leslie will talk with Tori
39. Volunteer: (document of reference – Nicole)
40. Shift responsibility of ROI to sponsor not on us
41. We’ll meet with sponsors/lunch to discuss/brainstorm – how to generate leads – marketing 101 - Tori will work with Leslie
42. Career professional development programs – Kim volunteered to lead committee (consider Sandra Bodin Lerner)
43. COMMITTEE PROGRAMMING GOALS
44. Ex. Kim should be told to bring 5 people to a health care committee meeting
45. Identify what industry board members are in–board members turned this in to Leslie
46. Committee chairswill reach out to board members in that industry to come to meeting – if needed – Leslie will advise attendance
47. Some committees seem to attract more than others – people have limited time – what will draw members to committee meetings? Make them new, different, and interesting
48. In-house, like minded collaborations – sit with peers and discuss issues and get answers to questions and ideas
49. Opportunity to have sponsors there for hot topics and attendees get CLE credits
50. Micro-networking dinners can be committee based as well
51. Are we required to have “events” for every committee? (no)
52. Focus on key committees or areas of interest for one year
53. Are we happy with number of committees?
54. Should we keep them all?
55. Should we get new ones?
56. Can we align with NJ Bar association?
57. Local orgs that don’t conflict are chapter decision
58. Yes if content is good can even include outside firms
59. No potential threats – work together
60. Committee goals
61. Encourage or set overall goals?
62. Rolling schedule – 1 meeting, then committee decides where to go
63. Should we have scope document for committee chair?
64. Tori and Leslie will write document and send to board to discuss and vote
65. Segway in networking lunches or dinners
66. CLE event with national chapter – already doing – do events with national committees
67. Can committee chairs effectively do a few meetings/programs a year?
68. Advice -chairs please get agendas to Leslie – handouts can come from ACC – Leslie will ask Tori
69. Committee chairs can also partner with member –
70. LDI
71. Miini MBA program
72. Mindfulness program
73. Double headers CLE + cultural or sporting event
74. Prudential Center – Devils game or concert
75. Ski and CLE (Guitar and CLE)
76. Free coupons
77. Promotion – Dec 1- Jan 31 incentive chapters to promote midyear meeting ($100 to chapter per person to get people to go to meeting)
78. CLO and GC programs
79. How Washington can Help
80. Marketing materials
81. Portable programs
82. ACCNJ All Abilities Program IS a portable program!
83. Increased advertising
84. Chapter specific egroups
85. ACC will manage our egroups for all committees
86. Spring LDI is April 7 in New Orleans
87. We should consider sending upcoming leaders
88. Also to mid-year
89. Online QuickBooks (we already have
90. Conference call system
91. Globalization
92. 2017 is year 5 of strategic plan
93. New plan is forming for next 5 years
94. 12 surveys will be going out to members
95. Cross border – National will sponsor audio webcasts
96. Continue initiatives between National and New Jersey chapter - collaboration
97. Leslie will look into all of the above

Retreat ended at 1:00PM