Minutes for meeting of the Iowa County Information Technology (ICIT) group (proposed new ISAC Affiliate Group) on Thursday, October 18th, at ISAC office in Des Moines.
In attendance:
Robert Canney, MIS Director (Black Hawk)
Wayne Chizek, GIS Director (Marshall)
Micah Cutler, GIS Administrator (Harrison)
Dean Neal, Deputy Auditor/Recorder (Woodbury)
Jim Rice, MIS Director (Cerro Gordo)
Jason Siebrecht, GIS Coordinator (Linn)
Scott Williams, IS Director (Marshall)
Ray Willis, Mapping Specialist (Polk)
Dave Vestahl, legal council for ISAC, started the discussion with some comments about the issue of incorporating. He pointed out that, of the 13 current ISAC affiliates, only 3 are incorporate. Neither the Supervisor nor the Auditor affiliates are incorporated. He said that the main reason that groups decide to incorporate is to limit liability to the corporation and protect the board and any members from personal liability. He pointed out that typically organizations that could distribute their assets by passing a box of financial documents from one secretary/treasurer to the next, would not have enough assets to be worth suing. Dave mentioned that we might find some financial advantages to incorporating in 504A of the Iowa Code.
Dave said that because our organization is in essence a governmental organization, filling out the application for a Federal Tax ID would grant us the non-profit, tax-exempt status. Jim asked if Dave had any comments on whether the secretary/treasurer should be one position or two and Dave thought that the only issue would be one of workload.
Dave passed around a list of “General comments” about the proposed bylaws. Most of them dealt with clarifying the sections. He suggested that we need to include sections on the powers of the organization, dues, and dissolution. He also suggested that we register the group’s name with the Secretary of State but didn’t see any conflict if our acronym is used by another group. He also confirmed that if we do receive affiliate status with ISAC, our representative on the ISAC board can serve multiple terms.
Wayne distributed maps of Iowa showing the six Engineer Association Districts and the six ISAC Districts. All the other ISAC affiliates that have districts follow the ISAC district boundaries and the group agreed that, since we expect to hold our meetings at the ISAC conferences, it would be logical to follow the ISAC districts.
For the fall school presentations, we will agreed that we should have two projectors and two easels. Jim thought that we should have a suggestion box in the rooms for anyone who might be too timid to share their ideas and comments in a group setting. Scott and Micah will work on a “membership interest” form that can be distributed at the sessions. Micah suggested that, rather than trying to set up a booth, we should have a table in the rooms with information, copies of the proposed bylaws and a list of current members.
The issue of dues bought out several ideas. Scott noted that we wouldn’t have enough time before the fall school to get a Federal Tax ID, so we won’t be able to collect any dues or registration fees to cover any expenses. Most of the discussion about dues centered on the issue of group membership dues versus individual membership dues. Wayne suggested $100 per county or $40 per individual. Bob thought a $75 / $25 split might be better. The consensus was that this is another issue should be discussed at the round table session.
Scott brought a list of proposed names and acronyms for the group. The two that he liked best were COGITA County Government Information Technology Alliance and CITRIC Coalition of Information Technology Representatives of Iowa Counties. There was general agreement that we liked the connotation of the word alliance better than association. Ray noted that any doubts about the issue of Iowa County Information Technology referring to one county could be eliminated by substituting Counties.
Since the name for the group is still up in the air, we agreed to put the logo on hold and not try to purchase special shirts to identify the current board members at fall school. We agreed that name tags with a unique color or ribbons would work better.
Finished meeting with additional revisions to the bylaws. Micah will distribute her most recent version.