Friday, October 3, 2014

MAK-AIRS 2014 Annual Meeting Minutes

The MAK-AIRS Annual Meeting was held in a conference call on Sept 18th, 2014. Members were notified through their AIRS main contact. Following are the meeting minutes. If you have any questions or comments, please contact one of the board members.

MAK – AIRS
MISSOURI, ARKANSAS, KANSAS AIRS
Minutes - Annual Meeting
September 18, 2014

CALL TO ORDER: Robin Pokojski, MAK-AIRS President called the meeting to order at 1:01a.m. and welcomed those participating in the call. 

2014 ANNUAL CONFERENCE “I&R: FALLING INTO PLACE”: Invite and hotel information has been sent out to the I&R field. Conference will be Oct 23rd and 24th in St. Louis. There will be training, opportunities to network, and AIRS certification testing offered.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Jennifer shared we still have two bank accounts at this time. In the US Bank Account there is currently $5,585.02 and in the United Way holding account there is $2,419.00. Total of $ 8,004.02. Major expenses tend to be around the conference so will have some upcoming debits. The second major expense is the scholarship to the national conference. We received a note from the IRS that our 501c3 notice has been revoked due to not filing the 990 on time. However, we did file on time so Jennifer has followed up with the IRis and we are waiting on a determination.

MEMBERSHIP/AFFILIATE COUNCIL REPORT: Marilyn explained that the Affiliate Council is made up of representatives from each of the AIRS regional affiliates. The Affiliate Council recently sponsored the Big Count and had the best response so far. The total number of calls from all members will be released soon. There are 1,075 total AIRS members at this time. Renewal notices will be going out in a blue envelop in October. There are several areas that do not have an active affiliate and this has led to excess funds and the affiliate council is proposing a scholarship program for affiliates to: create a new affiliate, expand geographically, or efforts to increase the stability of the affiliate. As of June there were 33 active MAK-AIRS members.

NEWSLETTER: Penny Adams was not on the call so Jennifer offered a brief report. The board has been discussing the possibility of eliminating the newsletter and using the blog for that purpose. We are working on finding a way to push the information out from the blog instead of users having to visit the webpage to view the articles. Patt is working on a few articles right now that could be used on the blog. Donna asked about the cost involved in the newsletter and Jennifer responded that the cost was in the time spent but since we don’t mail it out there is no physical cost. Robin re-iterated that if we are not able to push the information out from the blog then we will continue with the newsletter.

PUBLIC POLICY REPORT:  Robin reported that the last bit of public policy she has was from 2013. AIRS has been focused on the Affordable Care Act. They have provided several webinars that were advertised through the I&R Networker. Robin encouraged everyone to create an account for the I&R Networker and offered her help to get started to anyone that emails her. AIRS has also been following Senate Bill 1562 from the Older Americans Act.  AIRS was looking for co-sponsors for the National I&R Day. No one has heard anything further.

MAK-AIRS BOARD SOLICITATION: Robin shared we currently have five people sitting on the board and would really like 8-10 people on the board representing all areas of I&R. There is currently representatives from Aging and 211 but we would like representation from other areas. Robin sent out nomination forms with the agenda and urged participants to nominate persons they feel would represent I&R well. Mary with the St. Louis AAA asked if we have a listing of all I&R providers in our three state area. Robin said that everyone who has paid dues did receive the nomination forms as well as the information for this call. Last year Robin did research to find information for all the Centers for Independent living, Area Agency on Aging, and other small I&Rs to reach out to them about membership. Robin shared the current costs for membership.

GOAL SETTING 2015:   Robin shared that each year we want to have a conversation with the general membership about what they need from us so that can help us set our goals for the next year. Our focus so far has been on the annual conference which has moved around to different locations (mostly in Missouri) to try and reach the membership. Robin’s first question was to whether or not we should continue to have the conference each year. Michelle asked what the average attendance has been. On average we have 20-30 in attendance. The question was raised if we could piggy-back onto another conference like the MA4 Conference. Donna asked about looking at other locations. Marilyn offered the idea of applying for the new AIRS scholarship to try and increase membership in Kansas and Arkansas. Heather said she thought the AIRS scholarship could be used to bring in a speaker for an affiliate conference. Robin said we should make it one of our goals to look into applying for the AIRS scholarship once the forms are available. Robin asked the question if the conference still had value and if it should be every-other-year. Heather and Donna shared they both felt there was enormous value to the conference but maybe we could look at the every-other-year model. Robin shared she would like to see online training being developed. Mary asked if there were any classes available to help study for the AIRS test. Robin echoed that is a good idea and we could look into a possible online study session. Marilyn raised the questions as to whether or not we should do a physical mailing as opposed to email to recruit members.

AIRS NATIONAL CONFERENCE AND SCHOLARSHIPS:  MAK-AIRS plans to once again offer a scholarship to the annual conference. The 37th AIRS Annual Conference will be in Dallas, TX May 24-27th.  Last year we were able to offer a scholarship to someone from the Voluntary Action Center in Columbia, MO. The scholarship is given away through a raffle. Each member agency gets one automatic entry and if someone from your organization attends our regional conference then your agency gets one additional entry into the raffle. The scholarship is done by a random drawing. AIRS offers additional scholarships for the national conference and when those forms become available Robin will send those out to the member agencies. Donna asked how many people from MAK-AIRS usually attend and if we should consider sponsoring a MAK-AIRS after hours event during the national conference. Robin shared we have purchased MAK-AIRS ribbons to add to your name tag to help identify people from our affiliate at the conference. Heather suggested possibly using the Welcoming Reception as a time to gather for introductions and connections.

CLOSURE: Robin closed the meeting at 2:00pm.
Respectfully submitted by Heather Pierce, Secretary

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