IAFFE Membership Meeting – To Be Approved in January 2005
August 5, 2004
Oxford, England

President Bina Agarwal called the meeting to order.

1. Minutes from the January 2004 Membership Meeting were approved.

2. Elections. Secretary Jean Shackelford asked if there were additional ballots for the IAFFE Board. Being none, she announced the election results: Edith Kuiper, President: Alicia Giron, Vice-President,; Maria Floro, Board Member; Semsa Ozar, Board Member;
Marilyn Power, Board Member; Agneta Stark, Board Member.

3. Strategic Planning Report. Lourdes Beneria began the report by explaining that in the last year a grant by the Ford Foundation provided for a Strategic Assessment of IAFFE. A consultant was hired by IAFFE and that person met with the IAFFE board’s Strategic Assessment Committee and provided recommendation.
The whole board approved recommendations at its business meeting. Lourdes said that there will be a shift from IAFFE being controlled by an individual to institutionalized board control. Committees will be restructured into five standing committees.
There will also be only one Vice-President. The job of Secretary/Treasurer will be separated into a Secretary General and a Treasurer. IAFFE will contract out for an Association Manager, which Lourdes said will perform the duties currently done by the present Association Coordinator. This person will provide support to the President, Treasurer, and Secretary General. A search committee has been formed that will find an Association Manager. Another Search Committee, comprised of Lourdes Beneria, Jennifer Olmsted and Cecila Conrad will find candidates for the Treasurer and Secretary General positions. Any IAFFE member interested in one of those positions should contact Lourdes, Jennifer or Cecila. They particularly encourage applications from people with experience, knowledge, vision, international interests and support from their institution to apply.
Janet Seiz asked about the terms for the positions. She was told the first term would be 2 years, the second 3 years. The new structure will begin on January of 2005.
A question rose as to the duties of the new positions. The answer was that the Treasurer would oversee finance, the budget and functioning committees. The Secretary General would oversee the International Committee, the newsletter, the web site and conferences.
IAFFE’s permanent address as of January 1, 2005 will be the Association Manager’s address.
Drue Barker raised a question regarding the role of the IAFFE membership in approving the plan just outlined. Lourdes responded that the Board is the governing body of IAFFE and has already approved the plan, so the membership did not need to approve it. Bina stressed that it is important to the success of this plan that the membership be involved, however.
Another questions: How is this new plan being financed? Lourdes replied that hiring an Association Manager will be more expensive for IAFFE and that IAFFE “may be a little short” but the Board will have to fundraise.
The five standing committees will be: Publication, Membership, Program, Finance, and Nominating. There will also be several sub-committees.
Barbara Bergmann commented, “Essentially the Secretary General replaces Jean Shackelford. “ (interjected that the Secretary General and Treasurer would replace Jean) “Jean should be involved in recruiting and training these people and should be a Co-Secretary General for a year or so.”
Randy Albelda responded that IAFFE has been built on Jean’s back. No one wants to disregard her knowledge. Jean is sitting on the Association Manager hiring Committee. The point of the new structure is to share the work.
Elisabetta Addis said that it is very dangerous to leave the organization without a Secretary General. Not agreeing on the procedure and handover will be a very costly mistake.
Robin Bartlett said that Jean was offered the three year VP spot. She asked the group to stand and applaud and show their support for Jean. Sustained applause followed.
Bina said that Jean has agreed to stay on through the audit of 2004, so essentially she would be leaving her position in the spring of 2005.
Jane Humphries asked about the relationship between the journal and IAFFE as an association. Diana offered that the relationship will remain the same.
The Search Committee for the Association Manager will be Robin Bartlett, Jean Shackelford, Diane Elson and Ulla Grapard.
Jane Humphries said she was not clear as to which position(s) was being paid. Bina answered that the Association Manager was paid, but as a contracted service.
Diana spoke about the by-laws changes that would be required. She clarified that the committee structure is not really very different. The by-laws changes would involve changing the name of Secretary to Secretary General and changing the number of Vie-Presidents from three to one. She went on to explain the general procedure for changing by-laws.
Prue Hyman said that her worry is that IAFFE should communicate better with its members. Information on these changes should be put in the newsletter and on the IAFFE web site. As newsletter editor, she felt embarrassed that no information had yet been included on all this - as she had been unaware of it. For members unable to attend the two annual conferences/members meetings, there was little information, let alone consultation. She suggested that members meetings minutes (and perhaps board meeting minutes - or non confidential parts of them - should be put on the members part of the website.
Drue Barker said that change was needed but agrees that more communication, regarding the changes is necessary.

4. Future conferences. The 2005 conference is June 17-19 at George Washington University in Washington, DC. The 2006 will be in July in Sydney, Australia.
The meeting was adjourned.

Submitted by,
Barbara Krohn