As I reported to you back in May it has been my goal to use the AUTM Board of Trustees meetings as a vehicle for discussing important strategic issues facing both the profession and the association. As we come to a close on the year I find this Board has been extremely engaged and passionate about the issues that concern you and the association. Here is the summary of yet another robust AUTM Board of Trustees meeting which took place last week in New Orleans. As always if you have any questions you can enter them into the blog or contact any member of the Board of Trustees or Executive Director.
The Board spent more of their time at this meeting on operation-focused topics than in the past. Yet, these discussions were not “in the weeds” per se, but rather critical to the ongoing growth of the association. Probably the most exciting topic was the unveiling of the updated AUTM website to the Board of Trustees. For the past four months a group of volunteers and staff have worked tirelessly to bring you a Web site which is contemporary, user friendly and ties us together as a community. Even in tough financial times, like we are facing now, you will still be able to remain connected to your colleagues and stay up to date on everything that is taking place which affects you in your day-to-day work. There will be a bevy of social networking tools, a document repository, 24/7 news feeds and a new look and feel. I especially encourage you to complete your membership profile the first time you login to the new site. This up to date Member Connect section is much like what you see with sites such as LinkedIn.
While much of the work is complete we do need your help with one more item. We have decided to create a tag line which communicates what we do and why we do it. We have narrowed the selection down to two and would like your feedback. Remember, whichever we choose it will appear not only on the website, but every publication, template, letterhead, etc. Please comment on this blog with your opinion of which you prefer by December 16.
Possible Tag Lines:
Advancing Discoveries for a Better World
Transferring Innovation. Building a Better World.
The new Web site will be available starting December 17. This is considered a soft launch and we will make this new site a major focus at the Annual Meeting in February.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees I want to thank Kirsten Leute, Kristin Rencher, the website committee, Jodi Talley and the entire AUTM staff Web site team for the effort they put into the new Web site. Many, many hours went into making this success and you are all to be commended on your hard work.
Our next challenge was to adopt a budget for the 2009 fiscal year. To give you a sense of how this process evolved I’ll summarize the work the Board and staff have engaged in over the last three months. We have spent the year trying to keep our discussion and activities focused on the three pillars, Advocacy, Professional Development and Service to Members. With this in mind Trustees were asked to submit a plan of work with their budget request this year. The plan of work had to demonstrate how the activities requiring funding supported at least one of the three pillars and make a compelling case for support. Plans were written by Trustees and budgets were crafted by staff. Trustees and staff liaisons worked together to present both as a comprehensive document to the Budget Task Force. The Budget Task Force, comprised of Michael Dilling, Vicki Loise, Arundeep Pradhan and Fred Reinhart, used the plans of work as they made their recommendations of which items should be funded in 2009. These recommendations were presented to the Board of Trustees who used this as a base of discussion and ultimately to adopt a budget. It is important to note the Task Force and Board are sensitive to the tough economic times and understand the difficulties you are facing. As such, we budgeted conservatively and adjusted some of the typical offerings to be more responsive to your needs. For example, there will be fewer in-person professional development courses in 2009 but more online courses available. And, these courses are being designed to reach a broader audience. This may be more information about the budget process than you thought you wanted to read. The Board of Trustees wants the members of AUTM to know they take their fiduciary responsibility seriously and, like everything else, are very involved in the process of securing and expending the association’s funds.
We also welcomed Mark Crowell, AUTM Foundation president, to the meeting for a discussion about how the activities of AUTM and the AUTM Foundation intersect. Some of you may remember that when AUTM formed the Foundation they did so in a way which would strike the balance between control by AUTM and enough independence on the side of the Foundation to allow them to engage in activities. The Foundation Board of Directors is made up of three members of the AUTM Board of Trustees and two at-large members who are elected by the AUTM Board of Trustees. The AUTM Foundation’s purpose is to encourage and administer gifts in support of three critical areas relevant to the continued success of technology transfer around the world: Scholarship, Awareness and Education. To that end the Foundation has spent the last year establishing its 501 (c) 3 status, creating policies, drafting a case for support and plan of work. The plan of work has been submitted to the AUTM Board of Trustees for their information. The Foundation is to seek out and secure support for AUTM activities as indentified by the AUTM Board of Trustees, and engages in or leads activities which AUTM does not have the capacity to take on. The two organizations, while legally separate, work in tandem to expand the support for the profession.
A letter from the Foundation was sent out last month asking you to consider it in your year-end donations. I encourage everyone to take a moment and integrate the Foundation in your giving plans. Last year both the AUTM and Foundation Boards demonstrated their support and leadership with 100% participation in the Annual Fund campaign.
There was more activity at the Board meeting last week, certainly too much to report all here. We discussed and assigned action to members of the Board on the following topics: leadership development, volunteer engagement, outreach to international members and accepted a change to the Bylaws (look for the notice to vote on these electronically in the coming days).
As always, I hope you find this summary useful. I welcome your comments and encourage you to speak with any member of the Board about these or previously reported activities. Remember, this blog is meant to foster better communication between the Board and you. Use this tool, and use it often.