IMA Lincoln Trail Regional Council - Meeting Minutes

November 10, 2001

President Bill Holland called the meeting to order at 10 a.m.

Secretary’s Report: Teresa Hattabaugh
Report from the July 21, 2001 LTRC meeting is on the website. Correction to a name spelling and one title on the report are needed. Corrections will be made & approval of minutes will be conducted at next board meeting.

Treasurer’s Report: Brenda Engel
2001-2002 Budget was submitted and reviewed. Adjustments to the Hospitality Suite items for 2001 were proposed as follows: Hospitality Chapters - $880, Hospitality Fees - $900, Hospitality Expenses $2703. Motion to approve budget as modified above made & approved.

Treasurer’s Report dated October 31, 2001 submitted and approved. There are 5 Chapters with dues still outstanding (Bloomington, Blue Grass, Fort Wayne, North Central and Northern Kentucky.) Bills submitted for payment were: Postage/Copy expenses of $91.09, Value Web $59.85. Motion made and approved to pay bills submitted.

National VP’s Reports – Julie Kern
Julie gave a report from the special Board Meeting in Atlanta October 27^th. They proposed a 5-Year Strategic Plan. Board will take suggestions on the proposal and wants to finalize the plan in February. Key points: 1- Increase member growth and retention, 2- Increase professional development offerings and learning opportunities, 3- Increase participation in certification, 4- Improve IMA standing, recognition and image, 5- Improve fiscal performance and financial stability.

Julie read the proposed mission statement presented in Atlanta. The statement had a lot of criticism (no mention of financial or accounting profession, not specific.) Everyone at Atlanta liked old one better & the proposal was scrapped.

August financials were presented at the October meeting. New software and an audit sited as reasons for not being more current. Operating losses of $291k and $697k reduction in assets for the first 2 months were reported.

Only 100 students attended the Atlanta meeting. Reasons included people not wanting to travel after September 11^th, potential conflict with midterms, poor advertising of meeting and late planning of speakers, etc.

Kinsey Jenkins is now in charge of Member Services, replacing Shari Lewis. He had planned to attend our meeting today. He has sent a letter to all Chapters stating things he would like to do to help Chapters.

Regional Directors’ Reports
Indiana East: Currently in 5^th Place in Warner. Only thing that will hurt them is they have few/no CMA’s if they only get points for that.

Indianapolis: Meetings going well, 40-50 in attendance.

Michiana: Currently in 22^nd in Warner Division. Attendance of 12-20 at meetings. All programs are set for the year. Michiana hosted a Professional Development seminar on XBRL on November 9^th. 12 people attended. Made $57.54 from the seminar, largely due to Brian choosing not to speak! Motion was made and carried that Michiana keep the profits from that seminar.

Fort Wayne: September meeting had light attendance – Sept 11^th aftermath. They are planning a November PD seminar. They have a new Board Member who is very active. Working on getting a Student Chapter at IUPU- Ft Wayne.

Northern Kentucky: The 2000-2001 Banner will be presented to the Chapter at the November 15^th meeting, and their nominee for Financial Executive of the Year will be honored as well.

South Central Indiana: Ginger White has been speaking at several accounting classes at IUPU- Columbus and USI. The Chapter will host a full-day PD seminar on November 16^th. 30 have registered to date.

Evansville: The Chapter is hosting 3 meetings per month – lunch & dinner in Evansville and dinner in Jasper. FMN sessions are being held as well as a CMA review course. Their manuscript was published in August. The Chapter is sponsoring student memberships and a mentoring program – the students are invited to a meeting where their meals are paid for. If the student is interested in joining, the Chapter pays their memberships.

Blue Grass: "The Fun Group"! The goal for the Chapter this year is to increase member participation. They are having a lottery drawing at each meeting. If the member drawn is present, they win. Otherwise, the drawing for the next month is increased.

Bloomington: Hosting an all day CPE opportunity in mid-November.

Louisville: Currently in 11^th place. The Chapter still has some open Board positions, and some members are pulling double duty. CMA (Part 2) review to start in January. The Chapter is also sponsoring the FMN tapes. They successfully participated in the October 18^th webcast.

Wabash Valley: No report. Julie to try to contact.

North Central Indiana: Last meeting had 5 in attendance and 2 speakers. They are trying to reverse the disbanding of the Chapter by National. The members had been listed as Ft. Wayne members or At-large. The LTRC VP’s should be the ones acting on this situation.

Bill completed a mailing to 176 At-Large members in Indiana. He invited them to become Chapter members. If he was aware that the member had died, moved or no longer interested in IMA, he passed that info along to National.

Member Services. Rudy McCue gave an update from the August 18^th meeting in Toronto. He has placed the full presentation on the listserve. The proposal is to separate the Competition from the Chapter Reimbursement. From the proposed strategic plan, the Committee wanted to support the ideas of membership growth and certification. The goal in all of this change is to give the Chapters flexibility to serve their members in a way they feel is worthwhile, and for National to quit micromanaging the Chapters.

The reimbursement would be based on 1- CPE’s offered by the Chapter, 2- Percentage of CFM’s/CMA’s in the chapter, and 3- Number of Chapter members. Same budget, just reallocated differently. The formula has not been finalized yet. Discussion around expanding the definition of CPE’s to include all CPE’s, not just those sponsored by IMA and not MPH’s (to encourage people to learn anywhere since IMA courses are limited.)

Members can allocate $5 of their membership dues on their renewal forms to the Chapter (default), Council or National. Chapters will be competing with the Council & National for funds. Chapters will have to track members CPE info, but that’s the only reporting they will have to do for reimbursement. The full presentation (on the listserve) went through specific chapter examples. Rudy asked us to review & get comments back to him before the February meeting.

Ethics & Governance. Paul Berrier reported that one person was expelled from the IMA for unethical practices. There is still one open case. Paul & Brian McGuire reviewed proposed changes to the ethics statement. 2002 Annual Conference speakers are falling into place well. There are 2 proposals being considered by the Governance Committee regarding the number of members on the National Board of Directors. There are currently 96 members on the National Board. The proposals are to have 48-50 on the National Board, with discussions around 1- or 2-year terms. For the 2-year term proposal, half of the members would expire each year. One of the National VP’s from the council would be on the National Board. Under the 2-year term proposal, that would commit the members to 6 meetings. A proposal from our Council was to be able to send an alternate, as committing to 6 meetings during the 2-year period could be difficult. Please send any other suggestions to Brian.

Students. Ron Luther gave an update from the Toronto meeting. The meeting focused on how students are selected for the Committee. General feeling was that it was based on connections. LTRC gave $1500 to the National Committee. The Committee composition is about 1/3 IMA regular members and 2/3 students. There are 4 sub-committees. They are working on an internship program, possibly through Robert Half, and focusing on where students are located and follow-up after graduation.

Finance. Not many members from the committee in Toronto, including the chair. Magazine ad revenues are down $200k for 2 months. Unrealized losses from investments. Still no September financials. June 30, 2001 audit not completed yet – issue of who gets Management Rep letter from the audit.

SCMS. Paul reported on the meeting at Amelia Island in October. National is not doing anything to support SCMS, i.e., no assistance with brochures, etc. SCMS is doing all on their own. The next meeting is in Palm Springs.

Miscellaneous:

2002 Hospitality Suite Report: John Engel is in charge of arrangements. He has reserved the "Lanai Suite" (translated to Hoosier-ese by Bill as "One Night Suite") at the Town & Country Hotel. The cost is $575 per night – 3 nights (Sunday to Wednesday a.m. checkout.) John is looking for corporate sponsorships of the suite.

2002 Conference: Friday or Saturday (Board Meeting.) Saturday (Exhibitors Hall opens). Sunday (Family Event). Monday (SCMS Dinner) Tuesday (Annual Dinner). Wednesday (Golf Outing and AA 8-hour interactive conference).

LTRC will be looking for Ginger’s Student Representative successor.

CMS – Give Bob Smith input on who/where CMS’s will be held this year. Plan ready by February.

LTRC Seminar: Set for May 31^st at the Ritz Charles. (However, some discussion took place at the meeting regarding the dates, and Julie to check into the possibility of changing it to April 22nd.) It will be an 8-hour seminar. General morning session, potentially on financial reporting & regulatory update. Potential afternoon breakout sessions on Tax, E-Commerce, XBRL. Get speaker suggestions to Chuck Hartle, Julie Kern.

Brian asked that we provide input and become vocal on a National level. Currently, nominations are being accepted for National Officers for 2002-2003. It is our chance to impact the future of IMA. Today’s discussions from the various national committees is indicative of the work going on at the National level.

Meeting adjourned at 2:15 p.m.

Members in Attendance

Page 8 Martha Orth’s e-mail should read antmartha@aol.com
         Martha Orth’s phone number should read 812-425-4880 ext 245

Page 11 Paul Berrier’s e-mail should read berrier826@aol.com

Page 12 Brenda Engel’s e-mail should read Brenda.engel@viasystems.com

Page 12 John Engel’s e-mail should read John.H.Engel.3@nd.edu

Page 14 Add Ginger White to South Central Ind ginger.r.white@cummins.com

Page 14 Alan Weber’s e-mail should read Dweberii@parallax.