Executive Committee December Report to the Members
By Pam Kolacy, Past President

Your WMCA Executive Committee (EC) met for a day long retreat prior to the quarterly business meeting in October.    The primary purpose of the retreat was to spend some in-depth time discussing strategic long-range planning for the Association.   One of the action steps that came from that meeting was the idea that Executive Committee members would take turns providing a monthly report to our members regarding the work of the Committee.  

I want to share with you the other “immediate action” items we agreed on at the end of the day.

Annual Conference:  we are working on a standard bid form which will allow the EC to make a comprehensive comparison of various venues for our annual conference so that we can get the best bargain for our membership; because of the three-year planning window, this process will start with the 2010 conference. 

Job and Committee Descriptions: all job and committee descriptions and policies have been updated.   They were discussed and adopted at the EC meeting and have been posted on the WMCA website.   A couple of major changes include combining the Education and Conference Program Committees and a proposal to combine the Newsletter and Website Committees into a single Communications Committee. 

Support for Committees: a joint meeting of incoming and outgoing committee chairs will be scheduled next year at the annual conference so that information can be shared; a calendar will be developed for each committee with major deadlines marked out for the year so the Committees will have much better information about their tasks. The President will appoint Chairs or Co-Chairs, in some cases, for coverage and overlap.  If you haven’t yet signed up for a Committee, please do so as we need your help.   Please e-mail Alice Bush, President-Elect, at abush@cityoflakewood.us of your interest. Committee descriptions are on the WMCA website.

Survey of the Membership: the Education Coordinator and Education Committee will be developing a comprehensive membership survey early in 2007 so that the EC will understand what WMCA members need and expect from the Association.

There are many more ideas and plans in the works and many of those will be shared as part of this monthly update.

NCI Institute: The contract with Washington State University has been renewed for another three year term and Dema Harris will continue to act as Institute Director for that time.    The budget submitted as part of the contract includes an increase in fees starting with the 2007 sessions:   PD I, PD II and PD III registration is $495.00 ($45 increase) ; room and board $410 ($10 increase); and commuter package $125 ($10 increase).   These increases cover the costs of the program and enable us to offer one of the best institutes in the country.   IIMC has accredited our Institute once again with very positive reviews.

Clerk of the Year nominations and Declarations of Candidacy for the EC are due December 31, 2006.  Scholarship applications for the 2007 conference are due December 20, 2006.    See the website for more details.

Please don’t hesitate to contact any EC Committee member if you have questions or input for us – check the website for EC members and contact information.   We love ( and need)  to hear from you.

Watch for another update in January.   In the meantime, happy holidays and happy new year to all!

Updated: 04/24/2008