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Karen Klein CPP opened the meeting at 8am, noting that she was presiding over her first meeting as President of the chapter. She stated that she wanted to continue Past President Sharlene Smith’s tradition of beginning with a quote or two, as this has become so popular with the membership. Give the fact that today she’d be discussing chapter bylaw changes, and our main meeting topic was Savings Bonds, she recited the following quotes to the attendees:

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered - Aristotle

If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting - Benjamin Franklin

Karen then turned the mike over to Communications Director Patrick White CPP, who conducted the NPW festivities. First, attendees played a quick game of NPW bingo, matching payroll terms drawn from a hat to those on their play cards. Two lucky winners each took home $25 Mall of America gift cards. Then Kim Black CPP helped him with a drawing in which each attendee put their name on a chit which was placed in a bowl at each table. Two winners per table were drawn, with the first choosing between an official NPW travel coffee mug or water bottle, and the second receiving the centerpiece.

Patrick mentioned that the chapter had received disappointing news regarding our NPW community outreach project. Our plan was to answer the phones for a Labor Day morning shift during the locally broadcast portion of the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon. He noted that after telethon officials had expressed definite interest in receiving our help several months back, they belatedly informed us that they had changed their plans for staffing the phone banks. They instead decided to contact local corporations seeking substantial donations and use their employees to answer the phones. Patrick stated that chapter volunteers who had committed to the effort would be contacted with an alternative outreach option (four board members did serve dinner to families at the Ronald McDonald house the evening of Labor Day - click for more details).

Karen stepped back to the podium to reiterate that the chapter board had proposed several bylaw changes originally announced at the July business meeting. She discussed the changes (described in the ballot posted on the web site) and noted that members would vote on them at this meeting (or by proxy using the web site ballot). She noted that only members can vote, and the ballots must be signed for audit and verification purposes. Voting results would be announced at the next meeting in September. <click to view results>

Karen also announced that the board had passed a motion to change the member meeting fee structure. While chapter members would continue to be charged $20 to attend the regular monthly meetings, member colleagues would be charged $25, and all non-members and walk-ins would be charged $30. This policy parallels efforts by other regional chapters to encourage advance registration.

Our newly elected chapter Conference/Education Chair Dominique Palks CPP then gave attendees an update on the Fall Conference preparations. She mentioned that preparations by volunteers were continuing, and that most of the many details involved were falling into place. She also noted that registration was now live on our web site, and that conference brochures would be mailed out to members within the next few days.

Past President Sharlene Smith then gave members an update of recent business covered by the National APA chapter relations board, including a few initiatives proposed by our chapter. She noted that going forward National would make public section grading on the Chapter of the Year contest submissions. She said they would also try to put together a chapter email Listserv, for sharing ideas and information amongst the numerous local chapters. One initiative proposed by our chapter was also accepted—National would put together chapter “fact sheets” with information regarding membership counts, meeting frequency, etc. for chapter sharing.

Member Shirley Nevala stood up, and indicated that she had placed Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Awareness (MOCA) run/walk brochures on all the tables, and gave a heartfelt speech about how the disease has touched her life. She mentioned that while entering the walk or donating to it would be great, the important thing is for women to have awareness of the disease, and get regular exams in an effort at early detection.

New Program Co-Chair Lorelei Peters CPP was introduced, and she informed everyone that she happened to have several boxes full of the ADP standard red 3-ring binders available to anyone who would like some.

Then Program Chair Barb Muellerleile CPP introduced the day’s speaker Mr. Carl Lee, Communications Specialist for the Savings Bond Unit of the Federal Reserve Bank in Washington DC. Mr. Lee traveled to Minneapolis specifically to speak at our meeting about the Reserve Bank’s new savings bond payroll deduction/remittance initiative. Click here to view the Powerpoint presentation that accompanied his talk. The new ACH remittance method was greeted with great enthusiasm by audience members. At the end of Mr. Lee’s talk, the NPW cake was served to the attendees before the meeting adjourned at 9:30am.