Minutes – May 12-13, 2011 – Online News Association

In person meeting, Boston

In attendance:

Financial

2010 Audit – Jim Brady and Jody Brannon, Past and Current Treasurers; Carolyn Skinner, Dixon Hughes Goodman, and Scott Goldberg, ERE, via phone

It was recommended that we have our minutes approved by the board and then posted. Reviewed draft set of financial statements with the Board and the trail balance.
Jim Brady remarked this is the third audit he has been through and this has been the cleanest and best. ONA took the accountants advice, went to an accrual basis and went off check cards to credit cards which has helped.
Caroyln Skinner — The 990 was given to Board members for review.
There was a Board conversation on investing the money we have in the bank and reducing credit card processing fees. Jody Brannon will look into to this. The question came up as to whether there is a better account for our money to be in.

2010 Audit

A motion was made to approve a draft of the audit by Katharine Fong. It was a unanimous vote.

Administrative Update and Business Strategy

Jane McDonnell, Executive Director; Christine Montgomery, President Liz Lufkin, Chair
Intersection of journalism and technology has been our model. Do we need to focus more on technology as we have the technology in hand.
We looked at an ONA competitive analysis from journalism and tech and within organizations — the Board has a robust discussion about these slides.
ONA revenue goals 2012 – 14, outlined by Jane.

Website redevelopment

Website Development – Sean Connolly, Web Editor; Justin Toupin, CEO, and Joel Steidl, Senior Designer, Aten Design Group;
Meredith Artley, Chair; Jeanne Brooks, Community Engagement Manager
ONA will take an open source approach to redesign and the group looked at many comps presented by Aten. The project is progressing and is on track. There was a robust discussion of the ONA discription on the site and the board talked through three options and had ideas about how to build on them.

Membership

Jeanne Brooks, Community Engagement manager
Total membership by month and is on an upward trend. It continues to climb and kept doing this post conference. This is the first time this has ever happened.
There was a conversation around members and the cost of membership. The board also talked about looking at the monthly membership report and doing some analysis on why membership has risen or fallen. Also, the board discussed potential for membership in new places.
There was an update on all events, including the next ONACamp that will be in Colorado in June. The idea of an international ONA event was discussed, as either an ONACamp or a smaller conference. This would be good if were with a partner. Katie King will send a list to Jeanne on this. The Board also discussed considering the idea about getting funding for a person to do global events.
Jeanne brought up using Meetup and capturing the content that is created from our events creating member profiles. The board discussed how to produce this, what we would want.

ONA issues

Cory Haik, chair. Jeanne Brooks, Community Engagement manager.
Cory laid out the ONAissues strategic plan for issues and issues productions. We discussed the threshold question on when we take things up. Jeanne updated the group on Tumblr. The board then discussed the issue of Net Neutrality and the wrap of latest issues production around that.

ONA11

Jane — budget and hotel update, we are on track. The opening night reception is sponsored and there are many cool ideas for opening reception. There was a presentation to the board from the programming folks. There was a conversation. about the student newsroom and a robust board conversation on the keynote speaker options.

Awards

Some changes were made to award names. All digital entries are eligable for submission. The size categories are now all based on uniques. The submissions are now all google docs. There is a solid marketing plan.

In attendance:

By phone:

Not in attendance:

2012 Nominations & Elections Discussion.

Katharine Fong and Teresa Hanafin, Chairs
Teresa lead a discussion around criteria for board nomination and around an evaluation spreadsheet. There was a discussion of how we communicate the process for nominations on the site. There was also a conversation around the need for various diversity to be on the board, technology being one of those criteria and how involvement in ONA may not be as big of a criteria in this case.
Board Composition: For 2012-13, eight seats will be up for election, out of a total of 15, with eight incumbents eligible for re-election. (The 15th seat, filled by appointment in 2011, is not up for election.)
Katie King lead a discussion around whether we should consider having a position on the board that is for an international member.
Vote: Josh Hatch: I move to hold back a seat for appointment to ensure international representation on the board. Katie King seconds. All in favor. Unanimous vote. We have 7 seats open for election and one held.
2011-12 Nominations calendar was dicussed.

Diversity Committee Report

Katharine Fong, Chair
Two initatiives were dicussed. For ONA to take a high-profile role in advocating for diversity in the digital media, including staffing, coverage and training. We would do this through leadership training. We start w/ information interviews with influential managers.

Students and Educators Committee

Jody Brannon, Chair; Jeanne Brooks
Jeanne — moving student groups and international groups under ONA local. 204 student members for ONA. which is 10 percent of membership. 14 percent of educators make up ONA.
Meredith asked if we should we ever consider a separate ONA educators conference and there was a conversation around this.

International Committee and Trademarks

Katie King, Chair; Jane McDonnell
Global editors network update. Gate foundations is potentially interested in funding an international award for digital journalism covering health issues in the developing world. Msn is going to fund the bags at the conference.