Coordinating Committee The Coordinating Committee is responsible for the conduct of the operations of the Learning Group, promoting the organizational mission, vision and values, maintaining quality standards, and setting policy. As defined in the report of our April 2002 Convention, the Coordinating Committee is also responsible for the following: developing strategies for achieving the mission and vision of the organization; assessing the effectiveness of Learning Group activities as measured against the vision and mission; overseeing the functions of the Group; designing, implementing, and evaluation organizational assessments; approving organizational proposals; budgetary oversight; organizational announcements; and mediation and conflict resolution.          The Coordinating Committee presently consists of these members: Stephen Cummings (SL: Insightful Flow) Linda Kelley (SL: Delia Lake) Jim Murphy (SL: Jem Morales) Coordinating Committee meetings are held weekly in the ODLG Second Life Clubhouse and are open to all who are interested in the operation of the Learning Group. Those not in the ODLG Second Life Group can still participate via phone conference.  Next meeting: September 8, 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM. To RSVP, write to cc@learninggroup.org. Members who cannot attend are urged to get the agenda and make their view known via e-mail. Past meetings: Coordinating Committee meeting notes are archived on the web site and provide useful material for those who want to know more about the Learning Group. We will notes on the earlier 2008 meetings posted soon. Meetings of 2007 Meetings of December Meeting policy Beginning this month, the Committee began meeting in Second Life, using phone conference so that those not members of the ODLG SL Group can participate. The meeting time was fixed for each Monday, 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM. Strategic plan We continued to discuss implementation and revision of the strategic plan adopted earlier in 2007. Finances remained a crucial concern, and the two key factors of member renewals and nonmember attendance at program meetings were still well below benchmark standards. Throughout the year, we've been making phone calls to members whose dues are up for renewal asking them to renew, to RSVP's asking them to bring a guest to the meeting, and to members not RSVP-ing asking them to attend the upcoming meeting. While there have some successes, notably in regard to guests at meetings, the results have been too meager to reverse the financial decline. Accordingly, we considered whether the problem was that we are reaching people only when they already made a negative decision. We thus thought about having a plan whereby each Coordinating Committee member would have responsibility for regular contacts (beginning at point of joining and continuing through time for renewal) with a fixed set of members. This would permit better relationships between leadership and membership and perhaps allow CC members to be specialists in a particular ODLG constituency, such as consultants or coaches. Volunteers An obvious problem with the plan just cited is that there are so few CC members that the workload from evenly dividing the membership among them would be unrealistic. Getting more member volunteers would be highly desirable but throughout its history ODLG has never been successful in that. We did put out a call for a membership drive, but that got only a few volunteers, each of whom dropped out. Our efforts to get those oriented into Second Life to help us with that endeavor likewise have borne little to no fruit. Second Life The Second Life effort has been very important in terms of ODLG promotion, comparable to the Deeper Inquiry Group and the Worcester Local Area Group. But progress has been much slower than hoped for, due to lack of capacity and the "too busy" factor that all organizations seem to be experiencing these days. Because most of the members receiving them declined or failed to respond to the orientation invitation, we had to introduce another step of confirmation. Even so, there have still been many last minute cancellations. Accordingly, we have only been able to orient a small number each week and have more names on the waiting list than have been oriented. We thus had to put off doing our first virtual meeting, "Presencing and Theory U". A target date of February or even March now seems indicated. Once we have enough members oriented, we will take a break in the orientations to conduct the program. We can then replicate it later for those who could not make the selected date or be oriented in time. Too, technical factors have held up our opening a "clubhouse" in Second Life. This will provide ODLG SL members with a safe entry/exit point and a place to network, share skills development and eventually conduct their own ODLG meetings. Clearly, once we start such activity more members will join this endeavor.  The plan is that once the clubhouse is open each CC member will hold an open house. These open house sessions can also serve for SL skills building. We will then do some special interest group SL meetings (Dialogue Group, Deeper Inquiry Group, Jobs Group). We can then offer the clubhouse for members to set up their own SL sessions; some guidelines will be needed for that. Ultimately, too, we wish to have a calendar of virtual meetings corresponding to that for the regular program meetings. That will probably take some time because we will need to find a larger space than the clubhouse and because the number of ODLG members with SL presentation and facilitation skills is at this point very small. Meetings of November During November the Committee met weekly, following a decision to do weekly "strategy sessions". Committee membership and meetings Linda Kelley and Amelia Levy joined the Coordinating Committee. It was decided that Coordinating Committee meetings would be held in Second Life, with phone conferencing. The latter will enable those not enrolled in the ODLG SL group to participate, at least vocally. In addition, we will open the weekly "strategy sessions" to all members. A corollary seems to be that the concept of the "regular open" monthly meeting is no longer applicable. Strategic plan We are continuing the phone call campaign to promote member attendance at upcoming meetings, to urge members to bring guests to meetings, and to encourage membership renewal. One purpose of the weekly meetings is to review what seems to work well in these interactions with members. We decided that we should reframe these calls as a "chance to talk about the Learning Group". While each set of calls may still have a primary function such as dues or meeting attendance, we need more contact between leadership and members and in particular more member awareness of their benefits and of organizational needs. Finances and budget November was a very bad month financially. We did below par on the program meeting, not quite reaching the target for new members. Membership renewals, moreover, were less than half the target. This pattern has prevailed in most months of 2007 and our bank reserves have been severely reduced. The key issue remains how we can get more member support via dues renewal, recruiting new members, and bringing new people to meetings. Second Life The Second Orientations are continuing but progress has been slow because so many members have not been able to attend their scheduled session. Given that our capacity only permits one orientation per month, reaching the goal of seventy members for the first virtual meeting, "Presencing and Theory U," could take a long time.  We thus decided that at some point (perhaps late January) we should stop the orientations and scheduled and conduct that meeting. We will then resume the orientations and replicate the meeting, allowing both those oriented but not able to make the selected date and newly oriented members to attend. In addition, once we have our "clubhouse" open we will, besides the Coordinating Committee meetings, do some "open house" meetings, with each Coordinating Committee member hosting an hourly session. We will also do some special interest group meetings in Second Life. So far no one has submitted a program proposal for Second Life meetings but once other meetings are held we can expect these. Eventually, members will be able to set up their own ODLG meetings on topics of their own choosing. The clubhouse will provide a "safe place" for members to share SL and other learning and skills development. It was recognized that we need to develop some rules for its operation, e.g., how time is booked.  But when not being used for meetings, members will be able to use it for informal gatherings or socializing. Meeting of October 30 Promoting program meetings Our 2007 strategic plan has two elements, promoting program meetings and promoting membership. In regard to the former, we have been making special e-mail appeals to members and phone call to members, urging them to attend and to bring guests.  For November 20 meeting, we decided a new focus that would recognize the special nature of the “six small groups” format. Members would be called who could be expected to be particular interested in one of the sessions (e.g., coaches for “OD and Coaching”, consultants for “OD Consulting”). This system would have the advantage that the CC members would not have to be all that expert on all six sections and might even lead to various CC members becoming “point persons” on one part of the ODLG constituency.  The external e-mail campaign, based on invitations to the upcoming program meetings, is continuing. For all the effort on it, very few RSVP’s have been received but the long-term value in making people aware of the organization seems to justify it. Member maintenance As to the membership drive element of the strategic plan, we are continuing to make phone calls to members whose dues are due. This has led to some improvement in the renewal rate, but that improvement remains critical. By contrast, the external membership has been just about exclusively confined to meeting promotion efforts, despite ideas regarding flyers and the like. In particular, the idea of promoting membership, including outside New England, via virtual programs has not been pursued. In this connection, that fact the requests for volunteers have been unavailing does limit our ability. Second Life We are continuing to work on doing our first program in Second Life. Our own “pre-orientations showed the need for more preparatory materials and we also decide that one CC members should be present. Ultimately, we need to develop more capacity, as we can’t expect one person to orient all ODLG members for all time. Once all members of the strategic team have been oriented, we will do our weekly strategy meetings in Second Life. Ultimately, we will also do the monthly open meetings that way, but that is dependent on members having had the chance to be oriented. Budget We’ve lost considerable money this year and there seems no inherent to expect 2008 to be less of a struggle. Indeed, the budget has to be raised to reflect the costs of the new Worcester local area group. Basically, that would mean raising the targets for renewals and nonmembers meeting attendance, both of which we have not been able to attain this year. Meeting of August 30 Membership We welcomed Grant Keith as a new member of the Coordinating Committee. Promoting program meetings We reviewed our new strategic plan, among the components of which are a “three meeting strategy” for promoting program meetings and a membership drive. In regard to the former we’ve developed a “three meetings document” but there seems to be no evidence of its use other than its being cited in the newsletter and in other e-mails to members.  We have been contacting prospective members about the Learning Group via phone and e-mail. These messages have been pitched around the upcoming meeting and he has been targeting persons likely to be interested in that program’s topic. So far not one RSVP or new member has been obtained, although the long-term impact of these contacts could be important and we are developing a database for future contacts. More volunteers to research such contacts would be useful.  Inaddition, we continuing, as we have been for some years, to send press releases to academics and consultants, as well as web sites; despite very little results seeming to come from these efforts, they seem useful for getting our name out and the academic ones have led to three new meeting locations.  The September 19 meeting is doing very well as regards RSVP’s but almost all of these are from members, raising the specter of a very large meeting with very low revenue. [This fear actually came to pass.] It was thus proposed that we again make calls to RSVP’s asking them to bring a guest.  Member maintenance and recruitment The other aspect of the strategic plan is membership drive, and this in turn has two components, retaining members and recruiting new ones. As to retention, we have been making phone calls to members whose dues are overdue calling members up for renewal. For a while the former effort had seen a high success rate, but a problem has recently been seen in that members who have promised to pay their dues have done do so. It was agreed that such members should be called again. As to the other calls, there has been some indication (and common sense would suggest) that these make members more likely to renew, but the data is too slight as yet to be clear. In any case, we will continue with this effort. Another part of this effort is the development of a new general purpose flyer. Several members have been working on that. [The new document was subsequently approved and put into use.] Library We need  someone to serve as acting librarian for a few months. It was agreed that whichever CC member lives closest to the Librarian should take on this task. Meeting of July 9 Finances Conducting our usual biannual financial review, we found ODLG to be in dire straits. After achieving a surplus of over $1000 in 2006, we are nearly $1500 in the red for 2007. We are also almost $1000 below the reserve figure set at the beginning of this year.  The consensus was that this situation is too grave for complacency, though not quite bad enough to be considered an emergency. Rather, we felt it to be in between, requiring an action plan – but the details of such a plan continued to elude us.  There are “two 12’s” that are the basis of our finances: We need twelve members to renew each month and we need at least twelve nonmembers at each meeting. We were generally able to do that last year, but this year have done less than half of those targets. Program meetings We again reviewed the methods that we have been using or have considered using for raising meeting attendance, which has been somewhat below the benchmark figure of 50 this year, and for increasing the number of nonmembers at meetings. For the last few months, we have been making phone calls to members, urging those who have not RSVP’d to do and those who have RSVP’d to bring a guest. But as yet we have not had one person attend or one bring a guest as a result of these efforts. We discussed whether to continue the phone call campaign [and did make some calls later in the month, focusing on attending the meeting, but again did not get anyone to come], as well as other suggested promotional means. Sending press releases to local papers has been advocated, but experiments with that method have not been successful in terms of meeting attendance (though presumably have value in getting word out about ODLG’s existence). Finding more web sites that could post our meetings had also been suggested; though this does not seem a method that those have been attending have used, it again could be useful in general awareness of the organization. Recruitment at local campuses was also cited, though again past efforts in that direction have not borne fruit except in one case in which an active member who taught OD used her course to promote the Learning Group. Member maintenance The drop in renewals seems to be worsening. Again, we have been using phone calls to supplement the e-mail dues notices; in a few cases, these have led to renewals, though most of those called have report being “too busy” to attend meetings and thus not renewing. On this front, it has been suggested that we need to begin calling people earlier. It has also been advocated that we change the message so that people see the decision to renew as one of “Do I want the Learning Group to continue?” Member recruitment Of course attracting new members could make up for losing old ones. We thus agreed to try an experiment in contacting nonmembers via “cold calls”.  There would be a multi-part strategy: Do you want to join? Would you attend the next meeting? Can we put you on our mailing list? [It was subsequently suggested that we add “Do you know of anyone else who would be interested in the Learning Group?”]  The plan would also be to try a long-advocated goal: recruiting senior level practitioners and organizational leaders. In part, this would be because such people would have the ability to bring in more members. Meeting of June 12 Local area groups The June 19 (second) Worcester local area group meeting was discussed. It was agreed that there needs to be better coordination over handling RSVP’s, food arrangements, publicity and so on. Whether we could expand the concept of local areas groups was again considered. LAG’s for the North Shore and the South Shore (regions, which, like the Worcester area, have some members but potentially many more) have been suggested, as has the idea of a downtown Boston group. The feeling at last meeting that we need to learning from the Worcester experience was reiterated. In addition, there were doubts as to whether we have the capacity (financially and in staff) to create more such groups, at least at this point. Whether leaders  willing to put the time and labor to create such groups is another question. A particular issue is that if food is provided there would be a large cost increase that might not be offset by increased membership. Already there is some question whether we might lose financially from the Worcester LAG on account of food costs. There have been suggestions that, just as special interest groups don’t serve food, food at LAG meetings could be eliminated or restricted to snacks. It was also noted that our former Book Club had people bring refreshments. Nevertheless, and given the fact that the Worcester group has already set a precedent for serving food, the consensus was that people need “real food” if they are to be expected to attend evening meetings. Of course our food policy is predicated on economy, our budget allowing for no more than $8 per person. Promoting program meetings The drop in attendance that set in last year seems to be continuing, with RSVP’s for the June 28 program below par. At this point, a financial loss on the meeting seems imminent, with only 2 nonmember RSVPs. We had decided last meeting to do another phone call campaign, with CC members contacting members who have not RSVP’d asking them to attend and members who have RSVP’d asking them to bring a guest. Despite some doubts as to whether this is really the best use of our time, we reaffirmed that decision. It was also suggested that we need to begin these calls earlier than we have been so that people are less likely to already have conflicts. In any case, a review of why these efforts have not succeeded (so far we have not got one guest or one members RSVP that way) at our next meeting was advocated if this month’s campaign does not improve on the previous ones. It was suggested that one way to attract people to ODLG would be for members to do presentations for other groups that demonstrate the value of experiential learning and organizational development. This idea will be explored by Worcester LAG. Member maintenance Member maintenance remains a critical issue. With program meetings drawing fewer nonmembers than last year, a lower renewal rate has meant greater financial loss than we can tolerate for much longer. Here, too, we have been using phone calls to supplement the e-mail renewal notices. But results have been meager. It was suggested that maybe we should  make these calls not to people who dues are already overdue but in advance. In any case, the effort will be continued. One clear problem is that since members are not attending meetings as often (invariably reporting being “too busy”) they are tending to drop out, meeting attendance being a strong predictor of renewal or non-renewal. We have tried to break this mental link, pointing out there are many benefits available even if one never attends a meeting (the Member Directory being the most notable of these) and that the issue really should be whether members support what we are doing and want to see it continue; but this “reframing” has evidently not succeeded. There was some general discussion as to why people join and why they leave. Virginia noted the organizational life cycle model and suggested that we may need some kind of renewal, something beyond the program meetings. It was noted that increased special interest activity (the Jobs Group and the Deeper Inquiry Group have been very successful in regard to membership recruitment and retention) has been advocated in that context. But finding leaders or alternative models has very difficult. One factor that has frequently been cited is “competition from the Internet”: The learning and networking needs that program meetings provide can now be met on-line. Accordingly such ideas as webinars, virtual program, and a presence on Second Life have been proposed, but our knowledge of such things is inadequate and budget is very limited. The question was raised as to whether we have data on these matters. The answer is that there is, but not much. It was agreed to take a look at what we have. Program issues The suggestion that we use the August 8 “OD Meets the Arts” program to showcase member artistic talents was approved. However, time restrictions will be severe, even if we give up the usual business meeting agenda.  A team meeting is planned for the January 2008 “Tenth Anniversary Program”. We agreed to title this as “OD Past, Present and Future,” putting the emphasis on OD issues rather than ODLG institutional history, which, while it will be covered, is not likely to have a broad enough appeal to attract sufficient attendance. Likewise, we decided the proposed “party’ aspects should be handled via After Thoughts. Meeting of May 30 Promoting program meetings As with April, the May 23 phone call failed to produce the intended result or, arguably, any result at all: No one attended or brought a guest to the meeting as a result of the Coordinating Committee calls. It was suggested that even so the calls may have made members more aware of the Learning Group and thus prove beneficial in the long run. On the other, it was noted that we have been making this effort for specific reasons (meeting attendance of 50 and at least 10 nonmembers attending) and thus, if those are not being met, we should analyze why the result was not as planned and consider alternatives. In any case, we agreed to continue the effort for the June 28 meeting. CC members will again divide up calls to members who RSVP asking them to bring a guest and calls to other members asking them to attend (or get someone else to). Member maintenance At the same time, we are continuing the phone calls to members whose dues are overdue. So far results have been not successful (one only member responding affirmatively), and the major problem seems to be getting through to people. But we could think of no alternative except to be persistent. Volunteers Throughout the history of the Learning Group, how to get volunteers has been a subject of debate. Various methods, including a “Volunteer Bulletin” and special presentations at program meetings, have mostly failed to produce committed volunteer. In discussing a couple recent offers to help, our consensus was that what is needed is a plan of action for a specific goal that includes prescribed volunteer roles such that members would not fear getting into an open-ended commitment. In addition, official launches of such efforts perhaps should not be made until at least some members are on board, again to allay concerns of people being asked to do too much. In addition, it was felt that such endeavors should be action-oriented. Local area groups The Worcester area local group appears to have been successfully launched, with a second meeting expected in June. It was suggested that this gives us a model for similar “LAG’s”, perhaps on the North Shore, the South Shore, and even downtown. However, the consensus was that we need to see how the Worcester group works out before trying to replicate its model. In addition, the idea of purely social or informal discussion meetings still has advocates. This might make sense for the downtown group (and could be advertised as an option for those unable to make the regular program meeting) and could avoid food costs. It does remain to be seen whether the Worcester food and supply costs actually do not exceed the fee and membership revenue. Meeting of April 23 Promoting program meetings We reviewed the phone call campaign for the April 19 meeting, designed to encourage members to bring guests. In terms of the immediate intention, the campaign failed: not one of those called did bring a guest. (We did meet the benchmark figure of 50 persons attending. But there were only four nonmembers at the meeting – just one of these being a member guest – and a result we again lost money badly.) However, there was some feeling that we may be making members more aware of the need to promote nonmember attendance so that there will be a long term gain. Since we don’t have the resources to do advertising, getting members to promote meetings would appear to be only the way to reverse the trend of lower nonmember attendance and (thus) declining revenue. Still, the “everyone is too busy” situation may be adversely affecting this form of member behavior, which, as the organization grew in past years, became much less common than in earlier years, in which bringing new people to meetings was part of the ODLG tradition. The phone call campaign also never reached the second stage of reaching members who had not RSVP’d urging them to attend. But we recognized that we have to continue this form of activity as well in order to attain goals of meeting attendance and member renewal (members who don’t regularly attend meetings tending to drop out). Member maintenance Membership has slightly declined since the high of 242 in February, being now 234. With fewer people joining (a consequence of fewer nonmembers at meetings) and renewal rates down, further decreases seem likely. Accordingly, we agreed that we need to also make phone calls to members whose dues are due urging them to renew. A three-fold division of labor for the Committee for May was thus approved, with each member having a choice of calls to (1) members RSVP-ing regarding guests, (2) other members regarding attending, and (3) those members overdue in renewing regarding the need for their support. It was again noted that we need to record and track the results of these calls. In addition to the specific result on the intended action, any information useful for organizational assessment purpose should be preserved. Moreover, we need to make sure that we don’t call too often (one in six months having been proposed as a standard). Finances After losing money in January, February and March we are within six renewals or new members of breaking even for this month. Hence the phone calls to members regarding renewal was noted as a high priority. [However, we not only did not make that target but did not any renewals through the phone calls at all; thus we took another loss in April.] We are currently just slightly below the reserve level set. Although finances thus remain an urgent concern, we could survive for about a year even at the present loss rate. (Of course an acceleration of negative trends could greatly reduce that time period.) Hence there still does not seem to be sufficient justification for declaring some kind of emergency state or for making cutbacks (that, we recognized, actually might aggravate the situation). Special Worcester meeting We all hope to attend the May 9 special meeting in Worcester. It would be possible to completely reverse the membership decline and the revenue gap if we could sign up even a dozen new members. We still have not chosen a name for the resultant “[not really a] special interest group”. Suggestions have included “local area group” and “cluster”. [We eventually decided on "local area group" - LAG.] Meeting of March 27 General situation of the Learning Group After a steady increase in meeting attendance and membership from 2004 to 2005, there was a decrease from 60 to 50 in the former in 2006 and the latter essentially was level after reaching a peak of 240. Member renewal rates also decreased in 2006. However, 2006 was our best year in revenue; so much so that we decided to expend a surplus while still increasing the reserves. At the beginning of this year, a small decline in these figures was apparent. We had, recognizing that growth seemed to be over (seemingly on account of everyone being “too busy”) set as benchmarks 50 for meeting attendance, no fewer than 200 members, and no more than a loss of $1000 for 2007. These now appear in jeopardy. We have dropped slightly to 235 members; but, since nonrenewals are not being offset by new members, further decreases can be projected. Meeting attendance was above 50 for January and February, but fell to 35, one of the lowest results in years, in March, making the 2006 average only 48. Revenue performance is even worse. We’ve lost money each month; such a streak is not unprecedented but the shortfall for March looks to be one of the largest ever. [At $769, it did turn out be the monthly loss largest since 2003.] On a monthly average basis, we would become bankrupt some time in early 2008; if every subsequent month were as unfavorable as March, that would happen by this fall. One statistic about the March meeting is especially alarming: we had only 3 nonmembers present, whereas we know that we need at least a dozen to have a chance of making the revenue target. Increasing meeting attendance, especially nonmember attendance, thus remains a prime organizational goal. Promoting program meetings As to the reason for the drop in nonmembers attending meetings, two possible causes have been suggested. One is the demise of the Globe Boston Works calendar; although that source never brought in more than a couple attendees to any meeting, still it probably made many people aware of the Learning Group. Another is that our mailing list is also shrinking and has perhaps become stale; almost all those attending meetings come from that list.  We’ve long recognized the need for better marketing, internal and external, and for the former we’ve been relying on phone calls. Noting, too, that the vast majority of those who have joined the Learning Group report having found out about us from another member, we felt that getting members to bring guests to the meeting should be a goal for the calls regarding the April 19 meeting. For that purpose, we decided to emphasize the Frequent Member card as an incentive to bring guests. Perhaps just an importantly, we need to listen to clues we may receive from those called as to the reasons for the decline in attendance and renewals. Since last year we have heard consistently that people are too busy to attend meetings and similar reports have been heard regarding other organizations. Corroborative or different data would be important. Moreover, we’ve long wondered why so few members bring guests (the number has hardly ever been more than two and usually is zero). So it would be important to find out whether people have just not thought of it or realized its importance to the organization or whether our assumption that this would be something that members could reasonably be expected to do is somehow incorrect. Keeping track of such information is thus important. Moreover, we need to track calls made to make sure that we are not calling people too often. At our next meeting, we can review what we found. Perhaps the information will suggest that we need to take different approaches. Member maintenance Despite the paramount importance of meeting attendance, we again noted the importance of member renewals. We’ve failed to meet the target on this key indicator (12 renewals per month, a 60 percent retention rate) each month this year. We thus agreed to again make phone calls to members whose dues are overdue (we would have a surplus instead of a deficit for the year if all of these paid up) and who are up for renewal. The goals would, similar to the meeting phone campaign, be both to maintain membership (and thus revenue) and to get information on whether the “too busy” theory is correct or there are other reasons for the decline in renewals. Committee membership We welcomed Jade Watson as a new member of the Coordinating Committee. Jade has been serving as coordinator of the Jobs Group. Meeting of February 20 Program meeting issues A member who attended the February 15 program meeting reported that many members seemed to sit together with people whom they already know, leaving newcomers isolated. Given that we pride ourselves on being a welcoming organization and have membership growth as a goal, it was thought that something should be done to prevent “cliques”.  We compared observations, not coming to a firm conclusion about the degree to which people may be so isolated. Large tables may result in less mixing, and there may be a natural tendency for people to talk with those whom they already know. Too, some people do come to meetings hoping to meet specific individuals and, even more commonly, to find people with a particular knowledge or background. Some members may be more gregarious that others, and some could prefer observing to being involved. However, it does seem logical that newcomers might appreciate help in getting connected.  It was noted that in the past there has been talk about including a structured networking exercise in the 5:30 to 6:00 PM segment. We devoted the follow-up segment at our September 2003 meeting to a discussion on the issue and invited comments in follow up notice. The general consensus at that time seemed to be that most people would prefer informality and the networking needs beyond what are already provided by the networking segment and After Thoughts might better be left to such means as local social meetings and requiring formats that use small group discussion. Of course that was some time ago, and networking is not the same as welcoming. We thus considered some possibilities for being more welcoming at meetings, including giving newcomers a distinctive nametag, letting new members introduce themselves during the business section, and having a team (or the Coordinating Committee) seek out new members and connect them.  Of course there are technical issues with such measures, as well as cultural ones. Because most members don’t attend most meetings, people generally don’t know each other well enough to do introductions. That also makes recruiting a regular team of greeters problematic. (This was tried at a meeting in 2002 but the experiment was not repeated.) Moreover, people arrive at all different times. In terms of culture, ODLG shows a strong preference for informal methods and for treating everyone equally. Who is a newcomer may be not clear, either, as some people have been members for a long time without attending even a meeting and other may have just joined but have been attending meetings for a long time. We thus came to no definite conclusion. However, a written proposal concerning "radical hospitality" will be submitted, which can be considered either at the next Coordinating Committee meeting or perhaps at the planning meeting for the March 13 program meeting. In addition, we can raise the issue at the next program and include something on “mixing” in the program information e-mail. Library An incident from the February 15 meeting was reported: A member took an item from the Library table without signing for it. When challenged. he returned it but it appears that he also had another item. (The possibility could not be completely ruled out that the additional item was taken by another person, although it appeared that it was this person’s stuff.) The member has not been identified but could be. We all found this behavior to rather bizarre if not shocking. While it could be that the person simply did not understand the Library rules, the details of the incident seem to make that explanation implausible. The consensus was that we should report what happened to the membership. One possibility would be an announcement at the next meeting, with a reiteration of the Library rules. If the person returned the missing item or is identified at another meeting, someone from the Coordinating Committee should talk to him. We also felt that we need higher security for the Library table. And there should be sign “do not take anything without seeing the Librarian” or the like. Special dividend We asked members to vote on how to allocated $500 of the 2006 revenue surplus. We decided that the amount will be prorated it according to the votes cast on the only two items that got a significant vote, viz. $266 for additional reserves and $234 for staff compensation bonus. Member maintenance A drop in renewals remains a concern. We accordingly discussed, and tried to brainstorm on, measure that would promote a greater sense of connectedness to the organization among members, without finding any “magic bullet”. One idea that has been under consideration for years, namely local “social” (but presumably with a chosen discussion topic) meetings. The paradox was noted that everyone seems in favor of this idea but no one has been willing and able to convene such a meeting. Meeting of January 8 Budget and Finances We approved a new budget for 2007. As with 2006, the budget is revenue neutral;  both the cost and revenue targets are the same as last year. Because membership and meeting attendance have been stagnant, if not declining, the revenue projections may in fact be optimistic; but given current reserves even a loss would be acceptable for 2007. (A minimal goal of not losing more than $1000 has been suggested.)  We also made “off-budget” 2007 allocations of $1000 for web site and computer maintenance and repair and $500 for the Library. (The possibility of getting a laptop computer was raised.) It was understand that this decision would be reconsidered if revenue drops appreciably.  Even so, the fact that we had a large surplus for 2007 did suggest that some “dividend” be issued. We decided to poll members on how to allocate an additional $500, giving them four options: (1) leave it in the bank, (2) give the staff a bonus, (3) buy more items for the Library, and (4) return it to members. Write-in options would be permitted, and we might decide to pro-rate the allocation according to how the vote breaks down. (On the “member dividend,” it has been suggested that we could issue gift certificates to members attending meetings, perhaps restricting these to members who renewed on time.) Webinars We have been in touch with the company that conducts webinars for the OD Network. We purchased the archive of the 2006 OD Network Conference as the January 17 program giveaway and in the course of discussion asked how much it would cost us if we wanted to do a webinar. It turns out that it would be only $100. While we recognized the need to check out comparative rates and to consider possible hidden costs, this seemed like an excellent thing to do. As a member benefit, it would be especially attractive to those who find it difficult to attend program meetings. Moreover, it could provide a way to “audition” those who want to present at meetings.  Given the ODLG culture of “no charge beyond dues,” we decided that the webinars would be for member only at no charge. To recapture the cost, we will tell would-be webinar presenters that they have to recruit one new member. (Possibly, too, some people would join just to able to do a webinar.) We will find out more about the various parameters and contact some members who have experience in this area for guidance, advise and (we hope) assistance. The goal would be to line up a series of webinars just as we have done with the program meetings. Member maintenance The problem of declining renewals and slow payments continues. Given that we expect 2007 to be tough year financially, we decided that we have to be more aggressive about making phone calls to members whose due are overdue.  RSVP’s for January 17 are doing well, and it would appear that attendance will be around 50. Given the special promotional efforts last month, we decided to forgo such campaigns this time. However, we did agree that we would all think of and report any last minute “gimmicks,” perhaps along the lines of past years’ “New Year” themes. We also recognized that a monthly meeting attendance of 50 should be regarded as a goal/benchmark. Good meeting attendance is perhaps the “leverage point” for maintaining membership and revenue. For previous Coordinating Committee reports, click here.