IFDA New England Chapter Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting February 5, 2015 The meeting was called to order at 12:10pm. Attendance: All present except Al Lagueux and Gloria Robertson who were excused. Jennifer Driscoll made a motion to accept the meeting agenda. The motion was seconded by Bob Grossman. A vote was taken and the agenda was approved. Jennifer Driscoll made a motion to approve the minutes of the January Board Meeting. The motion was seconded by Bob Grossman. A vote was taken and the minutes were approved. Gary Rousseau delivered the Treasurer’s Report. Please contact Karen Dzendolet at karen@kdzdesigns.com if you have any questions about IFDA NE finances. Rob Henry delivered the Membership Report. We have 6 new members this year and 144 members in all. 88 are paid members; 56 have not paid, as of Feb. 5th. Vivian Robbins delivered the Membership Retention report. Vivian has data on which members attended our events. This data will be included in the minutes. Rob will evaluate the data to determine if there is a correlation between the members who attended events and renewed their membership and those who did not attend events and did not renew. Vivian did not include in the report those people who attended the Louis Postel writing workshops. It was requested that Dianne Ramponi keep track of people who signed up for events and failed to attend. Rob suggested that we follow up with people who join the chapter but never participate. Vivian followed up with a member who never attends events. This person remarked that he/she doesn't like that we have to pay dues and pay to attend events. Vivian called people who have not renewed their membership. Rob will also follow up with people he knows or has brought into the chapter. Vivian reported on the results from the holiday party survey pertaining to the newsletter. People preferred a local over a national newsletter and quarterly over monthly frequency. Only 15 people responded, however. People wanted to know what the Board is working on, what's new with members, and receive earlier notice of events. Jennifer Driscoll delivered the Event Programming Report.
IFDA New England Chapter Board Meeting Minutes February 6, 2015 Page 2 The event planned for January is now being held in February. This change is desirable as Thread postponed presenting; that was originally planned for February. Thread was going to talk about fabrics and upholstery and what to expect from your workroom. They wanted to host the event at the Kravet Showroom in the Boston Design Center but Kravet thought that this was an event that should be held in the 5th floor seminar room. Jen would still like to hold this event and suggested that Thread’s presentation be moved to the summer retreat. People who paid for the January event had to re-‐up for February or request a refund. Two people asked for refunds. Jen said that it’s easier to give refunds than give credit for future events. Jen reported that making calls to generate attendance promotes attendance. There is a 20% increase in attendance when calls are made. The March event (March 24th from 5:30 to 8:30pm) will involve two NY designers. Taniya Nayack from HGTV is moderating. Jen is looking for a third panelist. Dennis Duffy has been confirmed . Jen needs help with questions for Taniya to pose to panelists. She requested that we provide her with 3 questions that we would want to ask the panelists. The March event will be held at Woodmeister. Woodmeister will publicize the event through their contacts as well. Jen wants to publicize the event as soon as possible. Jen is expecting at least 50 in attendance. Woodmeister has room for 75. Attendance will depend on publicity. There may be a lot of conflicts because the event is being held during Design Week. Jen will publicize this as a branding/membership/networking event. Admission will be $30 for members and $20 for students. We will include consumers in this event at $40 admission. There will be a cost to us because we are housing the NY designers, providing them with dinner, and paying Taniya. Woodmeister will pay for catering and the bar. There is no cost for the venue. The event for April will be a NE Home Magazine editorial review or a fabric workshop. Jen reported that Cowtan & Tout is opening a new showroom and she would love for them to be a sponsor for Take A Seat. Eddie Lane (one of the NY designers for the March event) has a connection with the head of Cowtan & Tout National. Cowtan & Tout had said they were interested in the March event, but we had already arranged with Woodmeister to host. Karen suggested reaching out to Karen Gilman to contact Cowtan & Tout. Jen reported that she is trying to arrange to kick off Take A Seat on May 13th at the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum, as well as looking at other venues. We will kick off Take A Seat in partnership with other IFDA chapters (NY, Philly and Washington, DC).
IFDA New England Chapter Board Meeting Minutes February 6, 2015 Page 3 After the kickoff on May 13th, the chairs are moved around and displayed as a group (in a store or showroom). The chair displays will be publicized. The event finale will be an auction and gala at the end of May/June. Jen would like each designer participating in Take A Seat to connect with an architect and builder for sponsorship. The architect/builder’s logo will be attached to the designer’s chair. Jen is looking at a space at 100 Federal Street with a courtyard for the gala. Jen is looking to partner with the BSA and BRAGB for the event. Rose Ann has a vendor who makes cookies imprinted with a logo. She is getting samples. Jen will consider this for Take A Seat. We will still have the boat cruise at the end of June. Rob has started discussions for the boat cruise, which will be an IFDA NE and BRAGB event. WIHED, our new charity, will be announced in our newsletter and at our February event. Jen reported that people want to include speed networking at our events: 3 sessions of 60 seconds in which each person shares 3 things about his/her business. Jen is planning to do speed networking at the beginning of the February, April, May, June, September, and November events. The designers will be separate from everyone else. It will be suggested that each participant pick a person with whom he/she had a connection and call that person to meet at another time. Jen will send out a “save the date” for the March event. Karen asked that we announce by March the dates of all events between now and the summer because people are asking for “save the dates.” Dianne Ramponi delivered the Hospitality Report. Dianne will call 7 people who signed up for the January event and have not reconfirmed for the February event. Jen requested that a membership information sheet be at the registration/hospitality table at all events. Chris Saad delivered the Communications Report. Chris is expanding our reach with LinkedIn, Facebook and Constant Contact. He is working on our branding inside and outside the industry. He is looking at ways to get our brand out. Constant Contact is a good way to get our communications out. We have 130 likes on our Facebook page. Chris has started a Twitter account. Chris looked up all of our members’ Facebook pages and liked them in the hope that people will like us back. He will do the same with Twitter accounts. Chris will post save the dates to Facebook. He will use the photos taken by Elaine Frederick at events and post those.
IFDA New England Chapter Board Meeting Minutes February 6, 2015 Page 4 Advertising on Facebook is something Chris thinks we should consider for the future. Chris is looking at a common hashtag to use. Chris is looking at hosting/giving a workshop for teaching Social Media to our members. Leslie Fine did this type of workshop before. Jen also suggested reaching out to Adam Japko to give a talk at the NE Home Magazine editorial review event. Chris wants to encourage members to provide content. Jen suggested reaching out to suppliers. Karen said at the national conference there were a lot of requests for trends reports in local areas. Chris is trying to post content every 2 days. Chris addressed whether there is value doing the newsletter. We received only 15 survey responses out of 130 persons eligible to respond. But the results showed that people who care about the newsletter really care about it. Chris is wondering whether it makes sense to post content on a more timely basis than in a quarterly newsletter. Chris thinks we don't have enough content to do a more frequent newsletter but we may want to consider more frequent issues in the future. We have a LinkedIn group page but we don't know how to put content on it. Laurie Gorelick suggested that we ask people for their social media contact information when they register. Gloria Robertson reported in absentia on Education and Educational Foundation. Gloria has contacted the BAC to resurrect the student chapter there. Karen asked her to apply for all the grant money we can access from National, and she is working complete all the paperwork. As of 2015, we have funded an IFDA student scholarship in the amount of $1500 for green and sustainable design; we have renamed it the Tricia LeVangie Green/Sustainable Design Scholarship. We have agreed to support it for 3 years. Rose Ann Humphrey reported on Sponsorship. Rose Ann reached out to Thread and Allstate Glass but has not gotten responses. Rose Ann will use the membership list to reach out to corporate members. Karen requested that Rose Ann circulate a list of potential sponsors among the board and that board members approach contacts they have; non-‐IFDA members should be approached. Chris thinks NARI could be a good fit for us. Jacqui Becker reported on Community Relations. Jacqui met with WIHED and is waiting to hear back from the executive director. The executive director will do a 5 minute presentation at the February event. Jacqui requested that the director bring something visual to represent the organization and what it stands for that will be inspirational to our membership. Jacqui requested that the director identify projects that she thinks will benefit best from our organization’s contribution. Jacqui is waiting to hear back on the projects that will connect best with our membership.
IFDA New England Chapter Board Meeting Minutes February 6, 2015 Page 5 Bob Grossman reported on Industry Events. There is not much to report. He spoke to Michelle from NARI, and she said she checks out our calendar all the time. Sean Reynolds reported on Future Directions. Sean is trying to determine what the difference is between his role and the Educational role. Sean is thinking he should approach recent graduates. He is looking for input from membership as to whether we want to host internship, mentoring or shadowing programs. He wants to use our efforts to help prospective students figure out what school is best for them. Karen suggested that she sit down with Sean, Chris and Gloria to see where there is crossover. Gloria reaches out to schools. Sean is reaching out to what comes out of schools. Karen Dzendolet delivered President’s remarks. In the interest of time, Karen tabled discussion on the membership ambassador program until a future meeting. Karen wants to identify a person to do it. She will circulate job specifications to get feedback. Karen summarized Louis’s mission statement workshop. Louis asked us to spend 10 minutes writing what would make us proud to be a member of IFDA in 2015. He then asked us to write how we'd accomplish each item. We will circulate our remarks in a Google doc. Rose Ann made a motion to end the meeting. The motion was seconded by Dianne. A vote was taken and the motion passed. The meeting was adjourned at 2:20 pm.