NESTTD Board Meeting Highlights

Zoom Meeting

September 11, 2021, 10:00 AM-12:30 PM.

Voting Members Present: Rina Dubin, Jessica Reed, Carolinda Sterczala, Debbie Hughes

Non-Voting Members Present: Sandy Dixon, Roberta Fortgang, Meredith Branagan, Amy Wells, Risheen Brown (guest)

• After the Board approved the minutes from the Board Meeting on June 19, 2021, Debbie opened the meeting with a poem in remembrance of the 20^th anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks on our nation.  She then led continued discussion on our difficulties recruiting volunteers, which began at the NESTTD retreat in August. Some ideas reviewed:
• Is reaching out to graduate programs to professors seeking tenure?   Debbie mentioned we just recruited a new volunteer to the Program Committee via this route.   Some, including Roberta, expressed the opinion that personal contacts are the best way – Debbie asked everyone to reach to their contacts, especially if they know anyone in graduate school programs
• Could we ask former presenters, especially those with websites, to help us in our efforts to find new volunteers and members?  Sandy and Rina agreed to reach out to a couple of presenters.   Debbie Korn is already helping us by reaching to her contacts amongst our members.
• Some Board members inquired as to whether our membership is aware of the extreme difficulty we are having filling vacancies and Nominations Chair Carolinda reviewed the extensive efforts she has put forth to reach our members.   Rina and Jessica reminded everyone how much easier it is to recruit people at in-person events, when participants can see what we do.
• Plans for 2022/2023:   While the Board discussed Program Committee volunteer needs, Sandy said it would be helpful to know what the 2022/2023 program year will look like as right now nothing is scheduled as there are many unanswered questions.  After discussion of the pros and cons of many options, the Board decided:
• There will be three in-person programs in 2022/2023, provided this option is safe (i.e., virus under control) and venue is secured
• Six programs will be presented:   Three traditional, two FAS, and Fundamentals (FAS  may only have one program if still virtual).
• Programs will be livestreamed and recorded for purchase.
• There are several issues still to be worked out around next year’s program:
• Sandy believes we should aggressively seek a CEU provider who will offer CEUs for recorded events.  Options discussed included William James College and Mark Nickerson.  We will continue to work this.
• Program indicated our speaker fees are low and may be partially driving difficulty in setting up next year’s schedule.  We will continue to review this in consideration of lower revenue associated with this year’s scaled back schedule.
• Concern exists around NESTTD’s ability to offer a 2022/2023 schedule without a President-Elect.  This is the reason for continuing to offer fewer than the usual number of events next year.
• There was substantial discussion about whether registrants will be comfortable with videos being made available for purchase after the events.
• All participants will sign a statement upon registration letting them know videos will be available for sale. 
• Debbie will reiterate the fact that programs are being recorded during her remarks at the beginning of each program.   For virtual programs, she will advise that anyone who does not want to appear in a video sold after the event should place their questions in the chat.  
• There was discussion as to how much we should charge for videos, and a compensation for presenters was determined:  60% of video revenue will go to NESTTD while 40% goes to presenters.   This will be revisited as necessary.
• Brandon Jones’ PHD’s video from April will be added to the website for purchase this week.

 

NEW BUSINESS

• RJEC Proposal:   Risheen Brown joined the meeting midway to present an idea on behalf of the RJEC.   The thought was that some of attendees would like more time with our presenters, perhaps in the form of case consultation.   The Committee proposes that we trial this idea with Boston Liberation Health, whose programs are scheduled for Saturday 9/25 (AM and Intensive).   If this is successful, a similar opportunity is possible with Heather Hall, who currently does not have an Intensive scheduled so Consultation might be a nice extension of her AM program.
• After significant discussion about pricing, logistics, and bandwidth to handle this project, the Board voted to allocate $600 for this opportunity.   The first event, with Boston Liberation Health, will be considered a “trial run” and thus will be free of charge to attend.
• Membership Committee:  Venue Search   Amy indicated that she had checked out a couple of additional venues over the summer.  In the interest of time she agreed that we could table the discussion until October since places are not filling up quickly and we won’t need a venue until the fall of 2022.   Amy will send out fact sheets to the Board on several places she has considered thus far.  She indicated that if none of these places are acceptable we may have to consider spending substantially more money.

ADJOURNMENT:  Debbie adjourned the meeting at 12:30 p.m.

Next Board Meeting:  October 30^th 10-12:30 via Zoom.

Respectfully submitted,

Meredith Branagan – Member Services Director              

 for Carol Lambert, Secretary