Greetings to the DAMA Community from Peter Aiken, President, DAMA International!
As we wind down this Board’s short (2-month) tenure, I wanted to offer a report on the happenings and more importantly the hard work that has been accomplished by the three volunteers who have been assisting. Members of a Board of Directors typically do not get involved in day-to-day operations, although the need exists here due to the current operational design. Hopefully the next Board will find remedies for this situation.
Susan Earley (VP Finance) verified that the current financial accounts as maintained by the Treasurer (Nelson Goucher) are being kept properly. There is no current approved budget, so transactions are approved by the Board monthly at meetings. The IRS 990 due date has been extended to November due to work needed to correct almost all 2017 transactions. QuickBooks Online shows that DAMA-I has a sound financial footing. Susan has also worked tirelessly to understand, gain access to, and document various aspects of the complex DAMA-I infrastructure, online accounts, and operational processes. I can say without a doubt that she knows them better than anyone on the planet.
Stacey Haurin (Presidents’ Council Chair) has rekindled the sense of community around the Presidents’ Council (PC) and general community involvement. The PC meetings are now attended by dozens of chapters – up from just a handful earlier this year. An undeniable “can do” spirit now pervades the various chapter boards. Stacey has done more to reinvigorate the productive dialog between DAMA-I and our chapters than we could have asked any volunteer to do.
Loretta Smith (VP Operations) has been working closely with members of the previous board and administrative staff to facilitate a smooth transition. Loretta has excellent analytic skills, permitting everyone involved in discussions with her to clearly understand the issues that need deciding. Her focused efforts and steady leadership prevented what might have been an emotional process, and instead focused on outcomes that benefit the entire community.
Karen Lopez (Advisor) has continually analyzed and suggested DAMA-I areas where our organization can improve, whether these were people, process, or technology focused. Her constant admonitions to do our best for DAMA have kept this team moving in a direct that has substantially benefitted our community.
We (the DAMA Community) have been fortunate the have had such passionate volunteers to assist with the transition and I personally want to let you (the community) know of the huge commitments of time and effort contributed by each of them to getting DAMA International back on track.
Thank you, Susan, Stacey, Loretta, and Karen!
Included below is a summary of this Board’s actions during the last two months.
Peter Aiken
President, DAMA International
Accomplished:
DAMA-I kept operating (a little slower maybe, but still going)
- 2 separate elections (DAMA-I general and PC Chair). DAMA I election has all but one position with a nominee, and 19 out of 50 eligible chapters have voted. Voting ends Aug 1 2018 11:59 pm UTC.
- 4 Board meetings – meeting minutes are available at https://dama.org/content/board-meeting-minutes
- 2 PC meetings and 1 additional meeting for forming chapters which included prospective chapters who are too early in the process to attend PC meeting.
- HelpScout ticket queues managed for office email boxes, including catching up on months-old requests where possible.
Transitioned all accounts to current Board member control
- Created list of all platforms and accounts as a start for a Board on-boarding document
- Made several social media postings and dama.org web page notices regarding progress and the elections
- Nomination and election surveys
- Monitored voicemails to central DAMA I phone number
- Monitored postal mail
- Posted 2 email updates to Central Membership
- Updated dama.org to current Drupal patch level
Presidents’ Council:
- Verified chapter contact information with an 81% response rate
- Updated dama.org chapter page to reflect current state
- Requested feedback from PC on whether DAMA-I election external oversight needed (PC said no)
- Requested feedback from PC on whether DAMA-I external financial audit need (PC said no)
Changes Made:
Improved transparency:
- Approved meeting minutes are now to be posted on dama.org (formal motion)
- Solicited volunteers for 3 new committees to evaluate how our main activities are being perceived/used. Lists of volunteers will be delivered to appropriate Board members for implementation.
- Voided all chapter affiliation fee invoices for 2017 and 2018. No chapters owe any affiliation fees; the invoices weren’t sent out for either year.
Risk reduction:
- Added O365 archiving to account to recover data deleted in May
- Platinum membership sales (Central memberships that include Chapter membership benefit) were suspended as of July 18 2018, pending response to a request for legal advice. New Board will review and act.
- Changed billing to use Bank Debit card instead of a Diner’s club card.
Process optimization:
- Added the general finance email address now goes to a Helpscout mailbox for improved tracking
- Accounts on other websites changed to use generic office ids (if not already) instead of individual named accounts to keep changes infrequent
Not changed:
Operations
- CDMP anything
- DMBOK2/Dictionary anything
- Mike2.0 anything
- Financial anything (other than changing who has access to accounts)
- Budget (none in place at start)
- Membership sales/processing (other than suspending Platinum-type membership sales)
- dama.org (other than posts and chapter information updates)
- CiviCRM (other than disabling the platinum membership option)
- SharePoint organization
Governance
- Bylaws and/or officers handbook
- COE/COI
- Affiliation Agreements
- Prior Board motions (for example, the fiscal year and operational calendar reset earlier this year).
Contracts
- Paid staff positions
- Support agreements with vendors (extended but not changed)
Outstanding Items / To-Do list for after election:
Operations
- Reinstate pay-if-you-pass for all chapter-hosted boot camps/training events
- Transition documentation/onboarding checklist for new Board members
- Budget for rest of 2018 and 2019
- Fall Election for offices with terms starting in 2019 (President, VP Finance, VP Member Services, VP Online Services)
- Appointment of VP Operations for term ending 2019
- Appointment of Governance officer for term ending 2018
- Role of CDMP Fellows in Board operations
- Create a contract with TechnicsPub on DAMA-I selling DMBOK2 as part of central membership separate from publication/royalty contract
- Update contract with Dataversity for EDW
- Formally institute the three committees with Board members as chair (bylaws requirement)
Chapters
- Reinstate formal acknowledgment of Affiliation Agreements in DAMA I Board meetings
- Affiliation Fee review
Governance
- Review prior year Board meeting minutes/summaries and make any required adjustments to account for motions passed that have not been implemented or circumstances have changed preventing implementation or making it now undesirable. For example: Reset fiscal year and operational calendar back to calendar year (will need meeting motion)
- Data retention policies for former board members on O365/platform usage policies for users (official stuff is retained after stepping down, etc.)
- Decide what to do with accounts / data recovered from May audit
- Bylaws/governing documents/COE/COI/Affiliation Agreement rewrites
