PFC Board of Directors Meeting
Minutes for April 21, 2005 - Draft Version

Attendance
Board Members: Duane Thomas, President; Howard Shapiro, Vice President; Pete Schermerhorn, Treasurer; John Austin, Secretary; Arun Mathur; Laurie White; Carol Collins, PFC General Manager.
Ed Vielmetti, PFC Member-Owner, presenting On-line Mechanisms segment
Andrea Dunathan and Katie Wimsatt, Directors elect
Chad Hershock, PFC Member-Owner and candidate in the recent Board election
Julie Sverid, PFC Human Resources Manager - facilitating meeting
Cynthia Edwards, PFC Director of Outreach & Education, presenting Member List segment
Kathryn Sanderson, PFC Member-Owner volunteer, recording minutes

Call to order - 7:00PM by Julie

Agenda review – Annual meeting minutes removed from the Consent Agenda and postponed until next meeting; Appoint Vacancy moved to before Certify Elections; time was allotted for the Member list use request before the Instant Runoff Voting discussion.

Consent Agenda – minutes and web minutes of the 3/17/05 meeting; Board self-monitoring G.3 Director’s Code of Conduct and M.3 Delegation to the General Manager (Pete). All Directors having reviewed and understood these materials, the consent agenda was approved.

Turn in conflict of Interest Forms – Signed Conflict of Interest Statement and Disclosure forms were received by the Secretary from John Austin, Andrea Dunathan, Chad Hershock, Arun Mathur, Howard Shapiro, Duane Thomas, and Katie Wimsatt and will be placed in the Board file.

Debrief Annual Meeting (Howard)
Observations included:
· This was a new approach - weeknight rather than Saturday afternoon, no entertainment (music, dancing, etc.)
· Many felt that the day-of-week change was a plus and approved of the simpler format
· Simplicity of preparation was much easier on Staff and total cost of $237 was quite moderate
· Attendance was similar to previous Membership meetings, even those held on a weekend outside the center of town
· There was little to encourage social interaction, mixing; people sat at tables with friends or remained isolated - more encouragement for mingling would be good
· Perhaps the room was too big, unlike Gladwin Farm last year, dwarfing the group
· What information can be presented at the meeting that would encourage more people to attend – beyond what is already available through the PFC web site and newsletter?

Appoint Vacancy (Duane) – The Board appointed Chad Hershock, runner-up in the elections, to fill the vacant board term ending in 2007, to take effect immediately.

Certify Elections/Seat New Board – Howard, chair of the Election Committee, affirmed that Andrea Dunathan and Katie Wimsatt were the top vote recipients and that Board-defined procedures were followed in vote counting. The Board certified these results and installed Andrea and Katie to serve for three-year terms ending in 2008. With this action the new Board immediately assumed governance responsibilities.

Elect Officers (Duane) – After discussion, the Board elected Arun as President, Howard as Vice President, Duane as Treasurer, and John as Secretary.

What are new Board members interested in?
Katie: Expansion, staff issues, creating community around PFC
Andrea: Board development (possibly finance training) – her work experience includes summarizing complex data and making it useful
Chad: Member linkage, outreach, expansion – likes to work in unfamiliar areas in order to learn

Revise weekday of Board meetings (Arun) – The new meeting day will normally be the second Tuesday of the month, starting at 6:15PM. There will be no May Board meeting.
Andrea left at this point in the meeting to fulfill a previously scheduled commitment.

Online Member Linkage & Board Collaboration Mechanisms (Duane, Ed Vielmetti) – Ed is a PFC Member-Owner and computer professional working in the area of on-line information sharing and workspaces for groups.
Member-linkage web site (TypePad)
· Would feature a PFC blog with comment field attached to each post
· Could be linked to PFC web site
· Less process-intensive way of getting out news
· Inexpensive – about $200 to set up and run for first year
Board communication (SocialText)
· Would allow board members to collaboratively write and edit texts on line - a “shared piece of paper” they could work on together
· Each committee could have a home page and discussion group, for example
· E-mails can be sent from the workspace
· Cost: $5/participant/month
Arun proposed committee follow-up of these ideas, perhaps a Member Linkage committee or Board Development.

PFC Member list use (Cynthia) - Cynthia requested permission for a one-time use of the Membership list to invite Member-Owners to a celebration with the Co-housing community on July 2. This would enable the two communities to socialize and get to know one another. The Co-housing group would pay all postage.
The Board voted to authorize this use of the Membership list subject to the restrictions on PFC Management that 1) this be a one-time use only, and 2) that there be absolutely no subsequent solicitations or information mailings, using Member list information, from the Co-housing group.

Instant Runoff Voting endorsement (John) – The Board responded to a request from IRV Ann Arbor that PFC formally endorse placing this option on the November ballot in Ann Arbor. After extended discussion the Board agreed that while this may be a desirable procedure, PFC should not lend its name to the endorsement list.

Next Meeting – Tuesday, June 14, 2005, 6:15PM at Menlo Innovations (212 N. 4th Ave). There will be no meeting in May.

Adjournment – By acclamation at 9:15.

Respectfully submitted by John Austin, Board Secretary