IMA Lincoln Trail Regional Council - Meeting Minutes

March 2, 2002

President Bill Holland called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m.

Treasurer’s Report: Brenda Engel
Revised 2001-2002 Budget & October 31, 2001 Budget/Actual statements were submitted and reviewed.  Adjustments had been made, per our November 10^th meeting, to the following: Hospitality Chapters - $880, Hospitality Fees - $900, Hospitality Suite Disbursement - $2703.  Treasurer’s Report dated February 28, 2002 submitted.  

Motion made and passed to accept the Revised Budget for 2001-2002, the Revised October 31, 2001 Budget/Actual Statement, and the February 28, 2002 statements as submitted.

Bills submitted for payment: reimbursement to Bill Holland for Supplies/Postage/Copy expenses of $25.68.  Motion made and approved to pay bills submitted.

Regional Executive:  Kinsey Jenkins
The Council was happy to have Kinsey Jenkins join us today for our meeting!  Kinsey encouraged us to contact him with any questions, comments, complaints that we may have.  He tries to respond within 24 hours, but is traveling quite a bit and may take a little longer on occasion.

Staffing at Montvale: Betty Alfonso (x1551) and Linda Turner (x1553) covering Chapter activities/Member Services.  Susan Binder (x1543) working primarily with Students.  Lynette Tansey working with SCMS.

Monthly reports are being revised with the help of a consulting firm.  Montvale has reviewed draft reports, and Kinsey feels that the new reports will be easier to work with and understand.  Reports should be received within a couple of weeks.  Reports will be available on the website by March 22/23 – in time for committee meetings.  Montvale is looking at trying to e-mail the reports in the future, better reports, faster.

President Elect of IMA is our own Brian McGuire!  Carl Smith is Professor in Residence.

REAP’s are still available in Montvale.  Contact the Education Dept.  They have a list of courses & instructors.  The Montvale staff will do brochures/registration/send money, etc.  Chapters/Councils would have to contact instructor & get the location.  

Chapters & Councils are still important to Montvale.  Bob Bell’s comments in last month’s Strategic Finance show this.  Kinsey asked us to e-mail him ideas on how Montvale can better stress Chapters & Councils.

Secretary’s Report: Teresa Hattabaugh
Minutes from the July 21, 2001 and the November 10, 2001 LTRC meetings were submitted.  Motion made & passed to accept minutes as submitted.  Minutes will be placed on the website.

 National VP’s Reports – Julie Kern
Julie gave a report from the Board Meeting in Phoenix in February.  Financials will be broken down into 4 Operating Units: Membership & Business Development, Certifications & Exams, Professional Development, and Magazines. 

IMA National Financial Results/Projections:

The majority of the loss of the last two years is due to magazine advertising revenues below plan.  Next year’s approved budget contains a 5% salary increase for next year, 1600 new regular members, an assumption that the magazine ads will be successful, and a lower income from the National Conference in Nashville.  

New Mission & Vision Statements were approved in Phoenix.  The Mission Statement: “Provide to members personal and professional development opportunities in management accounting, financial management and information management through education and association with business professionals and certification in management accounting and financial management.”

The Vision Statement: “Global leadership in education, certification and practice of accounting, finance and information management.”

The Strategic Plan remained basically the same as presented at our November Council meeting.  Key goals: 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.

 To help in selling Strategic Finance ads, an announcement was made that if Chapters sell an ad, the 20% commission normally paid to the brokers would be paid to Chapters.  The normal price for a full-page ad is $6k, so 20% ($1200) would go to the Chapter.  Also, if a Chapter sells Exhibit space ($5k) at the Annual Conference, the 20% commission ($1000) for that would go to the Chapter. 

Member Services Report: 3 Action items, and all three passed.  First, the Gold, Silver, Bronze Chapter Recognition program will be discontinued in June.  Second, the new Chapter Performance Model that Rudy presented to us in November was adopted.  Third, Chapters who want to opt out of the competition can do so by July 1 and their name will no longer appear on the listing. 

A clarification on the self-study – you must take & pass the test at the end in order to get the MPH credit. 

Dates for next year’s National Board Meetings:

Saturday, June 22^nd in San Diego

Saturday, October 19^th in Palm Springs (with SCMS mid-year meeting)

Saturday, February 22^nd – no location yet

Julie’s final note was to inform us that she won’t be at the next Council meeting, as she and her husband are moving to Anchorage Alaska in early April for 18 months!  We all hate to see her go, and wish her well!

Regional Directors’ Reports
Indiana East: (Sherry Hampton) They are experiencing really good attendance.  Have had a couple of social outings.  They’ve adopted a resident at a convalescent center.  They have a full board in place for next year.

Indianapolis: (Julie Kern) Indy has already had a planning meeting for next year, with the majority of the board in place.  They’re trying to pull in other members to the meetings, by trying luncheon meetings. 

Fort Wayne: (Matt Faley) They have responded to low meeting turnouts by having joint meetings with other professional organizations.  This has resulted in better audiences for the speakers.  Matt is encouraging new board memberships.  He has one new Board member who does seem interested in taking on some new responsibilities.    

Michiana: (Christine Mast) Probably in 18^th to 20^th position in the Warner Division at present.  Three board members have resigned during the year.  John Engel will be President again next year.  They have also had some joint meetings with other organizations.  The local IIA Chapter has disbanded and some of their members have been joining Michiana’s meetings.  On the 3^rd Thursday in July, they will host a golf outing with the local Kiwanis Chapter to raise money for Kiwanis Charities.

Northern Kentucky: (Paul Berrier) Debby Morrow is President, Rick Sammons is President Elect.  Membership has grown from 105 to 132, a net 27 increase!  They are hosting a CMA review course, with 47 people enrolled, 10 of whom are Chapter members.  The Chapter nets $55 profit from each student.  On March 21, the meeting will be on the Argosy Riverboat Casino in Lawrenceburg.  The meeting on February 21^st was Student night.  14 students attended and the Chapter paid their meal.

South Central Indiana: (David Allen) The Board for 2002-2003 is well underway.  The President is Cindy Wei from Irwin Union Bank in Columbus.  The Chapter raised $900 for “Bowl-for-Kids-Sake” in February.  VITA is again being strongly supported by the Chapter.  Monthly meeting attendance is averaging 48-52 range – a tough year.  Membership is down.  The Chapter will host a CFM review course starting in March. 

Blue Grass: (Larry Mehler, Nancy Fulks) American Red Cross is the Community Service Project for this year.  Lois Vogel is President Elect.  The February meeting was Student Night.  They had 31 in attendance.  The Chapter awarded 2 student memberships, which has resulted in 1 student to-date turning in an application.  Blue Grass is also helping with tax preparation this year. Next year’s board is well underway.

Evansville: (Carole Whitlock) Evansville had 64 in attendance at the January meeting.  They are planning to e-mail future newsletters to save time and costs associated with mailing hard copies.  They will be hosting an all day CPE in April.  They have a full board in place for next year.

Louisville: (Linda Wyatt) Rick French is President Elect and most Board positions for next year have been filled.  Louisville has been having attendance issues as well, and has also started holding joint meetings with other organizations.  Louisville collected canned goods for ‘Kentucky Harvest,’ is currently participating in VITA and actually led the VITA training, and will do ‘Relay for Life’ in May to raise money for cancer research. Part 3 of the CMA review is currently in progress.  This is likely to be the last instructor led course for a while.  UPS is not going to underwrite the class in the future.  However, UPS is still encouraging their employees to take the exam, so the Chapter may have some self-study sessions in the future.  Member Appreciation Board Member is active in trying to bring in students & to keep new members interested in renewing memberships.  Trying to get a ½ day Ethics seminar for late April, early May.

Bloomington:  No report.

North Central Indiana: (Bob Benjamin)  “Division of Ft. Wayne!”  No. Central has 2 or 3 potential new members after they are re-instated as a Chapter.  Averaging about 10-11 in attendance at monthly meetings (5 members, 2-3 guests and 3 students).  Officers for next year are pretty well in place.

Wabash Valley: No contact.  Having meetings but not involved with Council.

National Committee Reports

Member Services. Rudy McCue gave an update from the February meeting in Phoenix.    The proposal presented to us in November to separate the Chapter competition from the Chapter reimbursement was passed with some changes.  Rudy is going to get a copy of the final document and place it on the listserve (currently, the November presentation is still there.)  He will send an e-mail as soon as it is available on the listserve.  The major change from November in the reimbursement calculation is that the CPE portion of the reimbursement is now based on a National average instead of the Council average. 

Ethics.  Paul Berrier & Chuck Hartle indicated that the e-mails of Ethics Committee members have seen a flurry of activity since the Enron case hit the press.  Much of it revolved around whether IMA should make a statement or not, and who (committee or individuals) should make it.  Bob Bell did make some statements in his President’s message in the most recent “Strategic Finance” issue to hopefully appease the members. Chuck indicated the Committee had reviewed the Ethics Statement a few years back, pretty intense process.  Will probably be looking at that again in the near future. 

Governance.  Brian McGuire gave an update first on the Annual Meeting scheduled for June.  LTRC members make up about ¼ of the planning committee! The conference will run from Saturday through Tuesday, with the opportunity for an additional 8 hours on Weds – a total of 38 hours of CPE available.  Everyone should have received the flyer in last month’s “Strategic Finance.” 

The Board listened to the input from our Council and others in regards to the proposal on the reorganization of the National Board.  The National VP’s from the Councils will be elected for a 2-year term.  For the first year of this change, the Councils will have to decide how to reduce the number from 24 to 12.  12 of the Councils will have a 2-year VP, and the other 12 will continue with the 1-year VP until the following year.  Brian will be sending out info to the Councils soon, and will try and split the 1-year and 2-year Councils evenly on a voluntary basis, but may have to go to a lottery system if it does not end up even. 

The National Board will then be 50 versus 99 members.  The Past National Presidents will only have 1 vote in total on the Board.  There will be 3 National Board meetings per year – February, June and October.  But, the National VP’s can send an alternate, due to the increase in number of meetings. 

The Executive Committee of the National Board will now be made up of the Committee Chairs from all committees plus 3 current continuing committee members.  The immediate past chair of the committee will no longer remain a member of the Executive Committee.  Therefore, the Executive Committee will be 16 members if the current number of committees remains at 13. 

The next step then will be to discuss the Committee structure, which Brian feels may be pretty controversial.  The initial proposal, to be discussed at the Committee meetings in March, is to reduce the current number from 13 (12 standing committees & the Strategic Planning) to 8, through merging of committees.  The mergers considered are: Academic Relations (Academic Relations and Students), Member Relations (Member Services, MIGS and IT), Ethics, Professional Relations (MAC, FAR, FRC), Professional Development (Education), Board of Regents, Finance, Strategic Planning.     

Give Brian any input to this proposal.

The 2004 Annual Conference will be in Chicago.  LTRC to help plan it.  Potential location – Hyatt Regency.  The 2005 conference will be in Boston.

Students.  Ron Luther gave an update.  The Scholarship judging will take place in Dallas Texas from March 21^st to the 24^th (Thursday, Friday, Sunday).   Let Susan Binder know if you are interested in helping with the judging. 

Mentoring – IMA sends a communication to the University, if the University has a student Chapter, stating that IMA has a mentoring program.  The University must contact IMA with a mentor’s name if they have one.  IMA wouldn’t know who to send the mentoring information to otherwise.  The mentor should be an IMA member.

Finance.  Julie had previously covered.  Last year was a profit if we include investment income.  Future years operating losses may be turned to profit if our investments do well.

IT.  Liv Watson is still working on XBRL.  Working on a book with Brian McGuire.

SCMS. SCMS Dues form, has a box for an extra contribution to the SCMS Scholarship.  Issue with the accounting for the scholarship contribution.

Hospitality:  John Engel is trying to get the cost of the suite at San Diego underwritten.  If anyone knows of any company who would like to be recognized as a sponsor for an evening, let him know. $1000 to $1500 will cover the cost of the suite.  Entrance fee will be $20 per adult for the entire conference.  Children with parents are free.  North Central will contribute $800.  Each of our Chapters is expected to contribute $50.  Linda Wyatt & Ginger White will be staying in the suite during the conference.  John will have a sign-up sheet for volunteers to man the suite during evening hours.  Treasure Chest gifts are needed – if each of us could bring 1 or 2 items, we would have a good amount to give away. 

CMS – Bob Smith reported that there will be 2 CMS sessions this year.  One in Louisville on May 11th, one in Muncie on May 4^th.  Bob will attend both.  The new  Chapter reimbursement process will be covered at the sessions. 

Communications:  David Allen indicated the newsletter will be coming out hopefully March 14th.  We need the President’s message and any input from Chapters before then.

Website – Council and 3 Chapters are actively on the website, and 5 other Chapters are linked in.  3 are inactive (Michiana, North Central & Wabash).  Indianapolis is gone – used to be linked in at Capstone.  Chuck will follow-up on where it got moved/renamed.  Michiana is ready to add their site.  

Students:  Carole Whitlock gave report.  Reminder that we are paying for Ginger to go to San Diego.  She will get with the Treasurer on the airfare & the student conference fee.  (No room fee – sharing hospitality suite.)  Applications for the next student rep are due to Martha Orth by March 31^st.  (Email her as she is in Texas.)  Basic responsibility of the Student Member is to serve as the Student Representative to LTRC’s Student Committee.  Chapters should contact students in their Chapter who are interested for next year.  Ginger will remain as a rep for next year as well – we will have 2 from here out.  Martha also sent an email about the Student Chapters in our Council area that do not have a mentor listed.  She would like each regular Chapter to be associated with a Student Chapter.  She would also like to define a Mentor – to coordinate efforts between the university & IMA to promote IMA on campus.

Education Seminar: Chuck Hartle, Rick Sammons gave an update on the LTRC Seminar on April 22^nd at the Ritz Charles.  Morning – Accounting Update & Issues, and Equity Financing.  Lunch – leadership.  Afternoon – Ethics, 2002 Tax Law Changes effective for 2002-2003, State of the Economy, Business Recovery Planning.  8 hours CPE.  Base price $120, early bird $100.  Break-even headcount is 75.  Chapter Presidents will be contacted to help promote.  Flyers will be finalized by the last week of March, first week in April.

Rudy reported that the Finance Executive of the Year from our Council has been selected.  We will present the award at the Conference in April. 

Nominating Committee Report: Paul reported on our list of Officers for the 2002-2003 year as follows:

A motion to change our By-Laws was discussed.  See Attachment B.  This will serve as the exposure period, and we will have a final motion and vote at the April LTRC meeting.

The next meeting will be April 20, 2002 in Indianapolis at Anthem (same room as last year’s April meeting.) 

Meeting adjourned at 1:50 p.m.

 Attachment A

Members in Attendance

Attachment B

LINCOLN TRAIL REGIONAL COUNCIL MEETING.       Saturday, March 2, 2002.     Columbus, IN.

We  present A MOTION to the Council Board.  A change in our bylaws to eliminate the position of  National Vice-President  and replace it with Vice President - Elect.  The person who would be nominated for VP - Elect would automatically fill the next 2 yr period of National Vice-President. 
     Any reference to Senior National Vice President will have the word 'Senior' omitted.
     Any reference to National Vice President shall have the word 'elect' added.

"The Nominating Committee recommends for approval by the LTRC Board the following changes in our By-laws:
     ARTICLE VI - Permanent Committees
     Section 5:      In the event the National Vice President-Elect is unable to ascend to the role of
                           National Vice President the council nominating committee will select a  nominee
                           for National Vice President.

     Article VII     - Elective Officers
     Section 1:      (a) The elected officers of his Council shall be a President, President Elect, National
                                 Vice President, National Vice President-Elect, a Secretary and a Treasurer, all of
                                  whom shall be duly certified voting delegates.

                            (b) The President, President Elect, National Vice President, and National Vice
                                  President-Elect shall comprise the Council Office of CEO.         

     Section 3:  (a) The officers, excluding the National Vice President and National Vice President
                             elect, set forth in this article shall be elected by a majority of votes of the
                             delegates present at any regular or special meeting of this Council provided notice
                             of such election is included in the notice of such meeting.  Officers shall take office
                             on July 1 following their election and shall serve for one (1) year until their
                             successors have been duly elected and qualified.  An officer may serve for no more
                             than two (2) consecutive terms in the same office. The slate of officers shall be
                             presented at the Third council meeting and elected at the fourth Council meeting.

(b)     The officers of National Vice President and National Vice President – Elect shall be elected by a majority of votes of the delegates present at any regular or special meeting of the council provided notice is included in the notice of such meeting.  Officers shall take office on July 1 following the election and shall serve for two (2) years until their successors have been duly elected and qualified.  These officers may serve for no more than one (1) term in either office.

(c)     An exception can be made for currently elected National Vice President to be elected for an additional year, 2003/2004, due to the reduction in the number of national Vice Presidents by the National Board of Directors, and to effect an alternate year rotation for the office of National Vice President.              

      Section 4:       In the case of a vacancy for any cause in the Officer of the President, the President-
                             Elect will serve in that capacity until the Nominating Committee has selected a
                             replacement for the unexpired term of the President and that person has been duly
                             elected by the Council.  Likewise, should a vacancy for any cause occur in the office
                             of  President Elect, National VP , National VP-Elect, the Secretary or Treasurer, the
                             Nominating Committee shall select a replacement for the unexpired term of that
                             position and that person shall be elected by the Council.

Article VIII - Duties of Elected Officers

 Section 4:       The National Vice President shall serve on the National Board of Directors and
                       shall oversee the Regional Directors and coordinate the Chapter development and
                       Corporate and Academic Development activities and assist with National banner
                        presentations.

       Section 5:        The National Vice President-Elect shall serve as an alternate on the National Board
                              of Directors and shall Chair the Nominating Committee and coordinate the Council

                              involvement with special Chapter activities and assist with Chapter banner
                              presentations.

Respectfully submitted by the Nominating Committee:
Paul L Berrier, Chair             March 2, 2002