Lawsuit expenses have been paid. Of the $600K the AMC asked for from the Life Dues fund, we only used $251,399. We've paid that back, including the ~$705 interest.
Testing income continues to be down.
I didn't catch the other numbers- Cyndi talked fast. Basically, we're on track just like we expected to be.
We'll talk about the budget after a break.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Dashboard measurements
Next topic: Dashboard categories review and recommendations
(Note-- these are not minutes I'm taking; these my personal notes and reactions and thoughts. I'm just one of 21. And I have my own predjudices about some of this planning stuff.)
Last fall, the AMC generated lists for things to measure to tell us how we're doing on meeting our strategic goals. John Recht handed out a pretty spreadsheet that has measurements, targets, etc. Very nice. Will it improve Mensa? I dunno. Some of the measurements are kinda fluffy: "Measuring if we're decreasing barriers to effective work and decisions systems--increase in elist use prior to meetings." I'm concerned that if we focus on identifying how we're doing... we'll lose focus on thinking of what we can be doing. I mean, so what if we know that we have or have not increased how many first time attendees there are at national events?
On the other hand, if we really are trying new things, it would be nice to know, empirically, if we're succeeding.
Greg talked about the Foundation's recent process of setting strategic goals and asked: "Do we have, on our governing body, the skills to achieve the goals?" Dang, that is a key thing to ask! He goes on to say: "Our goals drive the governance structure and plans." Yes!
Back to talking about the dashboard-- this will be on the AML Web site in the planning section soon.
(Note-- these are not minutes I'm taking; these my personal notes and reactions and thoughts. I'm just one of 21. And I have my own predjudices about some of this planning stuff.)
Last fall, the AMC generated lists for things to measure to tell us how we're doing on meeting our strategic goals. John Recht handed out a pretty spreadsheet that has measurements, targets, etc. Very nice. Will it improve Mensa? I dunno. Some of the measurements are kinda fluffy: "Measuring if we're decreasing barriers to effective work and decisions systems--increase in elist use prior to meetings." I'm concerned that if we focus on identifying how we're doing... we'll lose focus on thinking of what we can be doing. I mean, so what if we know that we have or have not increased how many first time attendees there are at national events?
On the other hand, if we really are trying new things, it would be nice to know, empirically, if we're succeeding.
Greg talked about the Foundation's recent process of setting strategic goals and asked: "Do we have, on our governing body, the skills to achieve the goals?" Dang, that is a key thing to ask! He goes on to say: "Our goals drive the governance structure and plans." Yes!
Back to talking about the dashboard-- this will be on the AML Web site in the planning section soon.
Governance topic
If anyone is interested, here's what I wrote on this topic a while ago.
We just voted to postpone this motion so we can work on it a bit.
We just voted to postpone this motion so we can work on it a bit.
AMC Meeting Day One
and so it begins....
First topic: Governance Task Force. Once again, we acknowledge that the structure of the AMC needs improvement. There will be a motion later establishing a task force for this.
John Recht is leading a discussion about this now (the topic, not the motion): we tried many times, but nothing really succeeded ( my opinion is that it's because all we ever tried before was figuring out who to kick off the AMC-- never did we start with identifying what Mensa needs and then organize a structure to meet those needs.)
John says now we have tools, thanks to Tecker, to do this. He's talking about the fact that we now have a Strategic Plan to guide us as well as the mega issue approach--- background papers, things like that.
Still talking.. something about basis for change should not be political and task force members should be chosen for skills. I think. Kinda hard to follow him sometimes.
Ah, I think we're getting to the motion. I'm commenting that the motion needs to be fixed to destress review and restructure and emphasize starting with needs and building new.. almost from scratch.
Now we're coming to the conclusion that the proposed time frame (get it done in time to do bylaws amendments with the next election cycle) is too short. I agree. Now everyone is taking turns agreeing. Sigh. Berg talking about when he did this before and how much work it is. Bakke concerned about going too long and leaving the next AMC to finish the work. Recht is talking again. Still basically agreeing that we may need to take more time with this. Pam talking about take the time we need and if we have to have a special bylaws referendum, so be it. Silver says we have to sell it to the membership. Others saying "...I just want to reiterate..."
37 minutes on this topic.... I'm not really rearing any new input. Can we move on, please?
Friday, March 5, 2010
And I'm off...
Mainlining coffee, shoving kids out the door to school, dropping dog off at the boarders, then home for the last bit of packing before the limo gets here,
Off to sunny California for the AMC meeting. Committee meetings start right about when I land Ugh. And I'm still nursing a very sore throat-- can barely talk. Oh well. Gotta do what I gotta do.
No promises about how much I'll blog and tweet during the meeting, but I'll do my best, if for no other reason than because I like to have my own notes to refer back to later.
Off to sunny California for the AMC meeting. Committee meetings start right about when I land Ugh. And I'm still nursing a very sore throat-- can barely talk. Oh well. Gotta do what I gotta do.
No promises about how much I'll blog and tweet during the meeting, but I'll do my best, if for no other reason than because I like to have my own notes to refer back to later.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Two interesting bits of data
How many lapsed members were taking e-publications?
As of 4/1/2009 of those lapsed at that time, there were 2211 people out of 13694 or 16%. Recouping those folks over the year, the number is now closer to 1256 out of 7946 ... still 16%.
Is there validity to the fabled assumption "Only 10% are active?"
The raw responses from the massive LGS&F survey which asked "Do you attend at least one Local Group activity a year?" show that 43.6% do go to at least one event a year.
As of 4/1/2009 of those lapsed at that time, there were 2211 people out of 13694 or 16%. Recouping those folks over the year, the number is now closer to 1256 out of 7946 ... still 16%.
Is there validity to the fabled assumption "Only 10% are active?"
The raw responses from the massive LGS&F survey which asked "Do you attend at least one Local Group activity a year?" show that 43.6% do go to at least one event a year.
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