Feb

02/04/25 APA Utah Board Meeting Draft Minutes

Intro from Jason Boal – Why did I run for President?

Question for the group – why have you taken on the role that you have? Why are you

doing what you are doing?

Roll Call:

Jason – Pres

Meagan – V.P.

Tayler Jensen: Salt Lake/Tooele Rep

Jamie Baron – Wasatch Back Area Rep

Mackenzie – Emerging Planners Group

Scott – Citizen Planner Liaison

Wilf – Legislative Committee Chair

Bruce – Professional Development Officer

Mike – Treasurer

Cody – Southwest Area Rep

David – Secretary

Nikki – Executive Director

Motion to approve minutes – Mike G, Meaghan B. Motion passed unanimously

Want to be thinking about grants and sponsorships. Need to have a broad perspective

and understand of where our funding comes from and be aware of where our funding is

coming from.

 Scott – important to make sure our funding is coming from diverse areas and not

just one place. We are a domestic corporation non-profit rather than a 501c3,

because over a third of our funding comes from events and no more than 33%

can come from interest or investments. Important to keep in mind as we discuss

how to make sure our funding is shored up.

U of U wants to rename the Gene Carr Endowed scholarship fund to the Gene Carr

Endowed scholarship fund provided by APA Utah. See the board becoming more

involved in the scholarship. The U has been going through all their scholarships and

making sure they are named appropriately based on how they were created. Bruce will

look for Gene’s contact information to see if he has thoughts about the name change.

Women in Planning:

Meaghan has been doing more communication work and has reached out to

everyone involved in Women in Planning Division members who are also

involved in APA Utah. Will be planning events at the conferences and will work

with Chris Hupp to get programming going. Will have the women in planning

group elect their own chair. Will follow up with more information next month.

Area Reps report:

Discussion about splitting the Northern area into two smaller areas.

Current northern area is Davis/Weber and everything north. There is a contrast

between the more rural areas and the cities within the area and the rep is finding

it challenging to appeal to both groups. The intention to split would allow the

urban and rural areas to have more focus in their events. Cody (SW area rep)

suggested changes to the counties located in different areas and those changes

have been implemented. Important to look at geography and see what makes

sense for training and event locations. Proposal to split Davis and Weber into

their own area called the Central North area. Group agreed that it makes sense

to separate those into two separate areas. There are ideas for who the area rep

would be.

Action items:

Budget: Looking to get feedback and approval for the budget. The expense submittal

form. Important to track and understand which expenses are coming from which

account/line item in the budget. Want to start using this form to more easily track how

funds are used. Board will review it and determine where the funds are coming from and

if they are sufficient. Mike will be providing updated reports so that we can see and

understand which funds have been expended throughout the year. 2 pieces: actual

budget, and expense submittal form.

Mike: Big thank you to Jason for heading this up. Mike discussed accessing the

budget and spoke in favor of the expense submittal form. This will allow for more

transparency and allows the board to better stay on top of expenses that are

issued. If an item is outlined in the budget and given funding allocated, it won’t

need a full vote to be expended. Bi laws allow president to review and approve

funding requests as needed. Question about the process: if budget is provided

via a grant and already line itemed, do we need to fill out the form? Answer:

Anytime we expend funds we should fill out the form. Will help us track costs,

including a reimbursement. If area reps are getting items for conference events

still fill out the form. Please attach the receipt to the form! Interest is a new line

item under other income. Make a motion to include an extra $8000 this year as

other revenue. Executive committee meals has been properly sorted and will be

used for the retreat.

 Mike G. makes a motion to approve the 2025 budget as proposed, with the

amendment to include another revenue item of $8000. Scott Hill seconds it.

Motion passes unanimously. Mike will send out a summary of the budget every

month so we can follow along as funds are expended and included.

Bylaws:

Want to modify/update the bylaws to make them more streamlined that reference

a policy guide that covers the specifics. This will give more flexibility in how the

organization is organized and how we implement policies. Bylaws reference the

board, structure, and the membership as outlined in the handbook. One of the

biggest changes that we have been exploring is the board organization and how

it should be organized. Rather than having specific positions, the general body

would elect a board of directors, and the board would then select the positions

such as president and treasurer. This is something other non-profits do, though it

is less common in APA. The handbook specifies what the board of directors does

and talks about the various roles that they can then fill. Bylaws need to be

approved by APA National and then the general membership of APA Utah.

Discussion on whether the board wants to move in this direction. This approach

allows for succession planning and can emphasize efficiency. Suggestion to

make terms 2 years rather than just one year. Only one other APA Utah chapter

does this. Would the board member also have committee roles? Answer: Yes,

the board members would oversee the various areas of APA Utah. The board

meeting would be the business meeting for the organization. The bylaws can be

adopted while we work through the handbook and discuss the more minute

details such as number of board members. Big change for the general

membership. How do we ensure long term viability of our programs and

knowledge? Providing consistently to the membership so that they can know that

there is a good succession plan in place to ensure the chapter is able to be well

run through institutional knowledge. Is there room for a hybrid approach? Keep

electing the president and vice president directly and elect the other board

members who are then appointed to key roles.

Already struggling to get people to run for current positions, trying to get 9 people

to run for office could be challenging.

If there are 9 board members, there could potentially be 3 members elected to a

three-year term every year. The role that people are in would be determined

yearly. Allow people to have the experience of being on the board without being

pigeonholed into a position. There would be term limits for both an officer position

and being a board member. Its already been hard to get people willing to fill

certain positions.

The president shapes the direction of the chapter and the conference themes.

There was a vote on the discount rate for committee members 20% from early bird for

those who are active contributors to the conference committee.

We will provide a CM to UBAG

There was not final approval on the Fall conference dates of Sept 18-19. 

Meeting adjourned at 1:31 p.m.