THE NATIONAL ORDER OF OMEGA

SUMMER BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

July 14-15, 2000 

Present were:  Ed Whipple, Kent L. Gardner, Michael D. Shonrock, David Grady, Mardie Sorensen, Robert A Biggs, Jose Diaz, Howard M. Farrell, Anne Trask Forcier, Jennifer Holsman, Larry Lunsford, Barbara J. Tootle, Daisy M. Wood, Ron Binder, David Hotz 

The National Order of Omega Summer Board Meeting 2000 was called to order by Dr. Ed Whipple at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, July 14, 2000, at the Westin Mission Hills Hotel in Palm Springs, California.

I.                 Dr. Whipple introduced the new Student Board Member, Jose Diaz, from the University of  Miami, and asked Jose to give the Board a little more about his background, experiences at the University and long-range plans.  Jose was given his Board of Director’s pin and Order of Omega T-shirt by the Executive Director, Dr. Kent Gardner. 

II.                 Province Coordinator, Mardie Sorensen, introduced two Province Advisors, guests, Dr. Ron Binder from the University of North Carolina and Mr. David Hotz from New Mexico State University, for the Summer Board Meeting.  Both discussed a little about their positions at their respective universities and some of the main points they saw as Province Advisors. 

III.               Special Items from Current Board Members 

A.     Dr. Whipple asked Bob Biggs to give a short report of the just-concluded FEA Meeting the prior to the Board Meeting in Palm Springs.  In addition to the general business of the FEA Meeting, Bob Biggs mentioned that he was the recipient of a new award to recognize the Outstanding Executive Director of a national fraternity for his/her leadership.  He felt that this Award was in part because of the leadership exhibited by Bob and the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity in the alcohol-free housing issue. 

B.     Daisy Wood elaborated somewhat on her new position with Delta Airlines and her move to Atlanta, Georgia. 

C.     Jennifer gave the Board an update about her current plans in terms of her acceptance to law school and that she had also followed up on an idea from the last Board Meeting to track down all the past student board members, which she did, and found all of their whereabouts and received from most of them a short informational biography, an update of their personal and career activities. 

IV.              Review Minutes from the Winter Board Meeting 1999 and the Summer Board Meeting 1999 

The only correction was the Winter Board Meeting had the wrong date for the Summer Board Meeting 2001.  The minutes said the meeting would be July 14 – 17, 2001, and it will be July 12 – 15, 2001.  At that point, the Board Meeting minutes were moved to be approved with the correction and it was favorably passed. 

V.                 New Letterhead – Phone Numbers, Addresses,  and E-mails 

The Board Members were asked to provide the updated information on name, title, office address, work phone, fax, e-mail, and home phone, home address. This information will be given to Margaret Smith who will re-do the phone cards for each Board Member to have in their wallets. 

VI.              New Chapter Listing 

The Board of Directors were given a list of seven new chapters for 1999-2000.

The new chapters are

Coastal Carolina University
Rose Hulman Institute of Technology
Rowan University
Saint Francis College
St. John’s University – Staten Island
Wake Forest University
Washington & Jefferson College

This number is somewhat less than has been installed in the past, but, as was discussed in the previous Board Meeting, there was special emphasis this past year on reactivating some of the inactive chapters.  The Board members were given a reactivated chapter list which included 27 chapters that have now been moved from the inactive status to active status during 1999-2000.  They are        

University of Arkansas, Monticello        
Arkansas State University
University of Connecticut
Eastern Michigan University
Ferris State University
University of Florida
Georgia Institute of Technology
Jacksonville University
Louisiana Tech University
Loyola University
University of Michigan
University of Missouri – Kansas City
University of Nebraska at Kearney
University of Northern Iowa
Northwestern University
University of Oklahoma
Oklahoma State University
University of Pittsburgh
Quinnipiac University
Saint Francis College
San Jose State University
University of Southern Mississippi
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
University of Texas at San Antonio
University of West Florida
Western Kentucky University 

VII.            David Grady discussed the Omega Trends newsletter. 

Much of the discussion focused on the shift from the actual production of the newsletter from David’s office at the University of Iowa to Emily Hoad at the national headquarters.  This was especially helpful to David in the time that Emily used to design and have the newsletter printed in Arlington and then distributed from the national headquarters.  Also, we are shifting to some of the electronic postage that will help with mass mailing such as the newsletter and mail outs to all of the active chapters.  David mentioned that he is always looking for good articles from Board members and/or active chapter members so if you have any interest in submitting an article for publication you can send those to Dr. Grady for the newsletter.  It was also discussed that Jose would try to write something as the new Student Board Member for Omega Trends and Jose also mentioned that we are on the verge of the first permanent marker at the University of Miami to indicate the founding of The National Order of Omega on his campus. 

VIII.         Letter Shared to All the Board Members and Executives From Carol Thompson 

Carol, regrettably, informed us of her resignation from the Executive Committee after many years of very positive contributions to The National Order of Omega.  There was a great deal of discussion as to what would be an appropriate way to recognize Carol for her contributions, as well as some discussion as to what to do about her replacement.  The replacement question was deferred to the following day for discussion so that members could think about possible options.  Also, at this time, it was suggested that the Executive Director take Carol Thompson’s name off the signature list for the National Order of Omega’s various bank accounts and add Dr. Michael Shonrock and Ms. Mardie Sorensen to those accounts as additional signatures.  A motion was made and approved by the Board of Directors. 

IX.              The AFA/NIC Meeting in December 2000 with The Order of Omega Winter Board

Meeting 

Several items were discussed concerning the Executives Committee’s role in the AFA/NIC meeting, primarily, the Case Study Competition, that is now co-sponsored by The National Order of Omega.  It was approved to continue that relationship and award a $350.00 first prize, $250.00 second prize and $150.00 third prize which would be split among the two case study competitors.  This competition would take place on the Thursday of the AFA/NIC Meeting.  David Grady will coordinate this activity since Michael will not be able to be at the meeting until later in the week.  Michael will still work with the AFA/NIC staff concerning The National Order of Omega reception on Saturday evening, where we will announce the Fellowship recipients.  There was some discussion about the Student Board Member’s attendance at the Winter Board Meeting and it was restated that if the Student Board Member can attend, they are invited to be there to be a part of the reception on Saturday, usually flying in on Friday evening after classes and flying back on Sunday.  We’ve had a problem the past few years in that several of our Student Board Members have been taking the LSAT, law school admission test, which has been given on that same Saturday in December. 

X.                 Short Discussion About a List of Recent Inactive Chapters, Schools that we Have Not

Heard From Since Approximately 1997 to the Current Year and Then  a Second List of Inactive Chapters That Would Go Back to 1983 in Terms of Last Date of Contact 

There was discussion as to possible assistance from, the Province Advisors, in picking out several of these schools in their area for special contact to try to reactivate them as chapters. 

XI.              Financial Statement 

The end-of-the-year fiscal statement is not known until after the close of business at the end of August 2000, so the actual end-of-year fiscal report will be made at the Winter Board Meeting in Phoenix.  Also, as last year, each Board member will be given a copy of the IRS 990 form for a complete financial picture, once that it completed by our accountant.  The Board did have some discussion to be informed that the income was up significantly from this same time last year by  approximately $50,000.00.  This was more in line with the projection of income when the dues were raised two years ago. 

XII.            Discussion About the Graduation Cords 

It was discussed that the graduation cords are a very popular product with almost 3,000 cords sold last year for graduates to wear at their commencement.  We continue to sell those at $6.00 each, which was the original price four or five years ago when they were first sold.  There was some discussion about continuing to charge the $25.00 overnight mail fee when a chapter ordered these graduation cords without enough time for regular mail service.  At this point there was some discussion about the actual cost of the cords and shipping and handling.  The motion was made to increase the charge for the honor cords to $10.00.  The motion was discussed and passed by the Board.

At this point, the Board took a short break and moved into the second phase of the Board Meeting which was our new structure to allow the three sub-groups to spend the time from 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. to discuss their particular topics.  The three topics for each group were 

            Group I – Review of Governing Documents 

Group II – Marketing and Image 

            Group III – Individual and Chapter Development 

The groups met from 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. in their small group sessions, returning to the full Board Meeting at 11:30 a.m. and had a short status report of where each group was headed and heard from the other Board members concerning some questions or suggestions about direction.  The Board Meeting was adjourned at 12:00 noon to be re-convened at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 15.

The National Order of Omega Board Meeting was re-convened at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 15, by Dr. Ed Whipple. 

I.                    Review of the Regional Conferences – Year 2000 

The five regional conferences are held each year with undergraduate students, advisors and alumni.  The National Order of Omega has a presence at each conference, either doing an honorary initiation, program component or both.  This year 51 new honorary initiates were initiated at the five regional conferences. 

II.                 Discussion Concerning the Regional Conferences for the Year 2001 

The National Order of Omega will continue to have a presence at the five regional conferences.  There is, again, an overlap of the times of several of these conferences.  Any and all Board members who are going to be attending those are asked to let Executive Director Gardner know if they will be in attendance and to work with him concerning the role that may be played by each at the regional conferences. 

III.               Scholarship and Fellowship Report 

Dr. Michael Shonrock reported on the last year’s scholarship and fellowship activity.  One of the main items of business was to let everyone know about the applications for the fellowship and scholarship are now online and accessible through our web page.  We will continue to send out material to AFA members, Omega chapters concerning the fellowship and scholarship with the objective to increase the number of chapters that send in a nomination for the undergraduate scholarship program.  The ultimate goal is to have as many as 300 chapters sending in a nominee.  We will also do several postcards this year as ways of identifying the specifics of the fellowship and scholarship program as well as reminders of deadlines.  The fellowship winners will be announced at the Winter Board Meeting reception and the scholarship recipients will be approved by the Executive Committee at the Winter Board Meeting with the recipients’ checks and recognition being sent the first part of January.  Dr. Shonrock will work with Emily Hoad to try to transfer as much of the responsibility for this activity to the national office to relieve Dr. Shonrock’s time as the Interim Vice President for Student Affairs at Texas Tech University.  We will ask the Scholarship Committee to continue to select the top ten recipients, the next 40 recipients and then the remainder as approved by the Exec Committee.  The top ten will receive the $750.00 award, the next 40 receive the $500.00 award, and then whatever number is appropriate will receive the $100.00 award.  It was mentioned that even though this program has a fairly recent history, we have given almost $300,000.00 in fellowships and scholarships.  The scholarships started in 1985 and the fellowships in 1988. 

IV.              Province Coordinator’s Report 

Mardie Sorensen reported that it was a very good year from the Province Advisors point of view--only three new Province Advisors in 1999-2000.  Most of the Advisors have been doing a good job with their correspondence to the active chapters and to the National Office.  Several are doing a great deal over e-mail.  Ms. Sorensen did, however, recommend we replace three Province Advisors in the Lambda, Mu and Psi provinces.  The Board approved those three replacements and some additional discussion was held concerning another recent resignation in the Wisconsin area.  Mardie did mention that for the first time there were three or four names of people that had contacted the national office to, in fact, volunteer to be a Province Advisor if the opportunity arose.  There was also some discussion concerning the awarding of the first two Outstanding Province Advisors Awards.  There was also some additional discussion about potential ways to increase contact with the Province Advisors, primarily at the regional conferences, which will have some additional ramifications when the sub-groups make their report. 

V.                 Selection of the New Student Board Member for the 2001-2002 Academic Year 

The student will come from the Midwest region of the country and Barb Tootle will be the Board member coordinating this activity.  Larry Lunsford will pass all the material on to Barb.  There was some discussion about the Student Board Member selection.  Again, the most important single factor is picking out 8 to 10 strong advisors from the region and soliciting a nomination directly from them. 

VI.              Board of Directors Appointments 

The Board discussed and recommended the reappointment to the Board for another three-year term Dr. Larry Lunsford and Ms. Barbara Tootle.  Motion was made and seconded to approve their reappointment.  Motion carried. 

VII.            Summer Board Meeting – July 2001 

Just a notation for all to mark their calendars ahead of time for next summer’s Board Meeting on July 12-15, 2001.  And also the Board was asked for suggestions of potential locations for the Board Meeting.  We have tried to geographically move the meeting around but it has been predominantly in the western part of the United States because of the significant savings in summer rates.  The Executive Committee has discussion at the AFA/NIC Meeting with several large hotel corporate vendors such as Hyatt, Marriott, Sheraton, etc. for potential resort area locations. 

VIII.         Federal Jobs 

There was a short discussion concerning a student that had contacted the National Office to let us know that if we had some material he could use to show he was a member of a national honor society and he was in his capacity as working with the federal government he would get an extra “X” number of dollars per month in his base salary.  He was forwarded a copy of our section of the Baird’s Manual, which he said would work for this information.  We probably need to do a little more follow up on this to see if this was a special case situation or whether it’s across the board in federal jobs.  If so, we could inform our members about this. 

IX.              The Omega’s Speakers Guide 

Some discussion was held to make sure that anyone who wanted to be in the Speakers Guide would send us information to be included in the Guide the next time it is printed.  We usually aim at a spring mail out.  There was some discussion that the leadership of campus speak had approached Kent Gardner about listing their members in the Omega Speakers Guide.  After some discussion on this, the Board voted not to include the speakers from Campus Speak in the Omega Speakers Guide.  It was mentioned that probably one of the most important parts of the Speakers Guide is not necessarily the listing of speakers and their topics but the “how to” that Barb put together when we created this document to assist chapters in making sure things don’t “fall through the cracks” as they plan and present programs.  We will also make sure that the speakers’ bureau is part of the Omega web site. 

X.                 Interagency Task Force 

Dr. Ed Whipple gave everyone a summary of information that he had been involved in as the primary contact person for the Interagency Task Force.  The National Order of Omega is now a permanent part of the Interagency group and Ed reported that this is a very positive connection for us.  We will have a representative at each of their meetings, if possible. 

XI.              NPC Meeting in July 2000 

Dr. Kent Gardner shared information with the Board that The National Order of Omega has been invited to come to the NPC training session for the new field consultants for 2000-2001. 

A short discussion was held at the end of this portion of the meeting to coordinate all of the transportation needs back to the airport for our Sunday departure.