The MassAccess board of directors met via Uberconference for their April meeting.
We began with the Finance report, presented by Treasurer, Nancy Albertson. She informed us that the forecast for the year looks good, and membership renewals are still rolling in. We also have a new sponsor for the Spring Conference, Municipal Captioning.
The Governance Committee shared their hard work in amending both the Policies & Procedures, as well as the Bylaws. Changes to the Policies and Procedures include changing the word listserv to forum, outlining policies for vendors, providing an onboarding process for board members and committees, outlining an official partner organization policy, and transitioning to gender-neutral pronouns. The changes to the Policies and Procedures were passed unanimously. The committee also outlined the changes to the Bylaws. In order to make any change to that document, legal council will need to review the changes. This requires some research and was tabled to our next meeting.
The Legislative committee gave an update on HD 1440 (An Act relative to a streaming entertainment operator’s use of public rights of way), which currently has 51 sponsors. The committee has met with local legislators, including Rep. Joan Meschino and they have an upcoming meeting with the Vice Chair of the Telecommunications, Utilities, & Energy committee. The Legislative Committee is cautiously optimistic that the bill will pass. More information about the bill can be found at www.massaccess.org/get-involved/activelegislation/.
The Communications committee reported that they have a robust plan for 2021. This includes sharing 50 posts relating to member and other PEG center content, creating a MassAccess press kit, which will live on the website, and having 4 main recurring monthly topics for posts. The emphasis will be on highlighting PEG work and connecting our organizations with helpful resources.
The Events committee shared the results of their recent survey to members. The results were a mixed bag in terms of topics of interest for conferences. One constant was that respondents favored in-person Fall Meet & Greets but cautioned to see how things go with vaccine rollout and suggested outdoor seating.
The Membership Committee reported that all renewal orders are complete, except for one. There are currently 146 Organizational, 3 Businesses, 6 Individual, and 3 Supporter memberships. The committee would like to see 170 Organizational memberships and urge their fellow members to share the benefits of membership with their peers. The committee also emphasized the change in policy for Business membership renewals. Moving forward, business members will renew annually on the date that they join. All other memberships will renew on December 31st.
During Old Business, David reported that he is continuing to build a partnership with the Board of Library Commissioners. We all look forward to continuing to build our network of like-minded organizations.
The MassAccess board will meet next via Uberconference in early May. The next First Friday call will be on May 7th at 11am. Those interested in learning more can log on to Uberconference to join the call. We look forward to seeing you then!
Katie Duval, Clerk
MassAccess Board of Directors
