OPA Board Meeting, Oct. 9, 2022

1. Meeting convened at 2:07pm

Present: Sue Fagalde Lick (president), Nancy Christopherson (vice-president), Rana Tahir (treasurer), Dan Liberthson (secretary), Lorna Rose-Hahn, David Mehler, Efrain Diaz-Horna

New Board Members:

Jade Rosina McCutcheon

Melissa Broderick Eaton

Debra Wöhrmann

Absent: Lauren Mallett,Priscilla Hunter, who has resigned. (Moved to Texas)

Lauren Mallett

II. Minutes for the Sept. 13 meeting were approved.

III. Sue welcomed everyone and thanked the outgoing board members, who each shared their thoughts and some advice for their replacements.

Dave suggested sending out a post-conference survey to ALL OPA members—using Wild Apricot and adapting the conference survey from last year, adding the questions “Did you attend?” and “If not, why not?”

There was discussion of whether the conference could be hybrid next year. Several people offered views in support of an online or in-person conference. For a hybrid conference, an outside group could be hired to manage streaming.

74 (of 300+members) attended OPA online conference this year (about like last year)

Sue suggested that this topic is a big one that will need more time to discuss. The survey will be a tool for gathering info.

IV. Outgoing Board Members Dan, Dave, and Rana departed, and the new board held elections for officers and assigned the various tasks of the organization. Results are as follows:

Officers:

  • President: Sue Fagalde Lick
  • Vice-President: Nancy Christopherson
  • Secretary: Debra Wöhrmann
  • Treasurer, Melissa Broderick Eaton

In the absence of current historian Priscilla Hunter, who has tendered her resignation, we held that board position open for now.

Committee chairs:

  • Adult contests: Nancy Christopherson
  • Youth contests: Lauren Mallett
  • Social Media: Lorna Rose-Hahn
  • Membership: Efrain Diaz-Horna
  • Events coordinator: Jade Rosina McCutcheon
    • Jade will also help with the website.

Dave and Rana suggested that the work of Treasurer and Membership chair should be done by one person. They often experienced overlap, and it caused some confusion. During the board’s discussion, Jade suggested that it might be too much work for a new board member. For now, the positions will remain separate.

Also, the role of HISTORIAN has been a board officer, but it was suggested that the Historian job not be an elected position. Sue said this change would need to be approved by OPA membership as a change in by-laws at the next conference.

Dale Champlin is editor for Verseweavers—which publishes the winners of the contests.

She also does the newsletter with interviews, poetry, book announcements. She will continue doing these tasks this year.

FUTURE BOARD MEETINGS & CONTACT LIST

Sue will send out a contact list to all members of the board.

The next board meeting will take place on Monday, Nov. 7 at 6:30 p.m.

V. OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Nancy is waiting on results from one of the judges before she can announce winners of the recent OPA Adult Contest. Winners are usually announced by mid-October.

Sue encouraged Board Members to imagine what they’d like to see OPA do over the next year and bring them to the board.

VI. MEETING ADJOURNED: 3.26pm

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