HLAA Board Meeting

Anne Pope began the second half of the HLAA Board Meeting at 8:30 Thursday morning. She was very excited to report that Brenda Battat, the new Executive Director, has already begun to turn the organization around, and that she and her team are doing positive and exciting things. Brenda gave a status report at the first half of the Board Meeting Wednesday night, and things are looking really good.

Anne then brought up two recommendations from the Executive Committee. The first is that the president of the organization be an official member of all committees, and in particular, that he be allowed to participate in the nominating committee. The second recommendation is that the treasurer be allowed to serve three one-year terms, rather than the current limit of two. Both recommendations passed unanimously.

The next order of business was the election of officers for the next year. The recommended slate was Michael Stone, President, Jeanette Kanter, Vice President, Pete Fackler, Treasurer, and Deb Baker, Secretary. The slate of officers was approved unanimously. They will assume their roles after the convention.
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Tommie Wells then discussed the work that has been done on the new Policy Manual. She read the preamble, which stated that the purpose of the Policy Manual is to define the organization and its goals and the duties of the various officers. The Manual had previously been sent to the board members, and all had reviewed it. The Board voted to accept the new Policy Manual.

The next subject was a recommendation by the Chapter National Partnership Committee that the state organizations and local chapters be allowed to call the people who comprise their organizations "members" and to call the monies they collect "dues". These usages had been blocked by the Bylaws, and the appropriate change to the bylaws was read. This motion was passed with one dissention.

The Chapter National Partnership Committee continued its report by noting that last year, the committee made five recommendations to the Board, but that some of the recommendations were not acted upon, because of the change in administration and the organization's financial problems. The Board also advised the Committee that it must, in the future, more carefully consider the cost of its recommendations.

Then Committee member Steve Frazier presented this year's recommendations, none of which has an associated cost. Steve noted that this committee consists of a group of people who represent a good cross-section of the organization. This year's recommendations are:

1. The members and dues question that the Board just passed.

2. A recommendation that "Hearing Loss" magazine have a regular page or section devoted to the activities of the state organizations and local chapters. Everyone thinks the magazine is a great resource that assists many members, but they believe that more focus on the state and local organizations would make it even better. The committee acknowledges that this change also requires that the state and local organizations get timely information to Barbara Kelley, the magazine editor. Barbara noted that this recommendation has already been implemented.

3. A recommendation that "Hearing Loss" magazine be made more available to public libraries, which currently pay an annual membership of $50 to enable them to receive the magazine. The committee's recommendation is that libraries be allowed to purchase the magazine for the cost of producing and distributing it.

The Board decided that this recommendation would require some discussion, and that it should be postponed until the next board meeting. Anne noted that Barbara also wants to get the magazine to audiologists, and that should probably be discussed at the same time.

Next, the Board presented Anne Pope with a lovely clock with a plaque commending her service to HLAA. Kathy Borzell commented how much the board appreciated Anne's efforts to keep the members focused and on track.

Anne said that HLAA means the world to her, because it gave her back her life when she despaired of ever again having one. She commented that she has seen this happen many times with other people. And she thanked the Board for their support during her tenure as President.

Brenda Battat then took a moment to thank Anne from the staff. Brenda noted that Anne has been wonderful at motivating the staff and keeping their morale high. She said that Anne was the inspiration behind the Walk4Hearing Program and the one who really made that happen. She thinks that we'll look back in five years, when HLAA will be an organization of national significance, and we'll have Anne to thank for making that happen.

The floor was then opened for questions.

Q. For those of us who were not here for the first part of the meeting last night, could you please give us a recap?
A. The main topics last night were the Executive Director's report and the Treasurer's report, and both of those will be reviewed in the Business Meeting later this morning, so let's not do that now.