01.24.14 Board Minutes DRAFT

Board Meeting Minutes

Date: January 24th, 2014 Time: 7:55a PST 10:15am PST Location: Conference Call Present: David Nepove, President Frank Martucci, Vice President Nicola Riske, Secretary Brittany Chardin, Southern RVP Kyle McHugh, Midwestern RVP Reza Esmaili, Northwestern RVP Aaron G Smith, Executive Director Sheila Rosario, Director of Operations Jodi Jordan, Director of Finance and Administration Tiffany Soles, Membership Coordinator Absent: Jason Asher, Southwestern RVP Jonathan Pogash, Northeastern RVP Meeting convened at 8:02am PST Call to Order and Establishment of a Quorum

Minutes Approval December David asked for clarification of minutes regarding action item on page 2 re: Sheila will gather info for Dropbox. Sheila said she has most Dropbox email info for everyone and will start using it shortly to share documents. Board will be given access to Dropbox. Next question regarding action item on page 4 re: Board members will be given access to Dropbox Membership Access List Policy and are to leave comments. Aaron said there is a Board Folder, inside that folder there is a folder called Board Policies and in that folder the Membership Access Policy is available there and it has been shared with David. David asked if any other board members have been given access. Aaron is unsure.

A motion to approve the October and November minutes passed by a vote of 6-0 Motion made by: David Nepove Seconded by: Frank Martucci Votes: Yes: David Nepove, Brittany Chardin, Reza Esmaili, Nicola Riske, Kyle McHugh, Frank Martucci

Information Topics

President Update David wished everyone a Happy New Year. David is reaching out to IBA for brands for the World Cocktail Competition in South Africa. He also encouraged all Board members to reach out to him directly anytime with any issues or concerns as his door is always open. He thanked the Board for their

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dedication and commitment to the USBG and reminded everyone to follow through with their commitments and not to over commit. Also mentioned was the importance of attendance for meetings and completing tasks. He reminded everyone of the National Council of Chapters call coming up on February 4th and asked that everyone please be prepared.

Executive Director Update This week Aaron was in Cleveland on Tuesday and Chicago on Wednesday and Thursday

In Cleveland he met with Jeffrey McGuire, Kim DeBarge and Madelyn Kim from Pulse and Barmetrix. They made a 90 day plan to increase engagement.

In Chicago he met with our legal team and gained new information on chapter incorporation. They also made progress on The USBG Foundation application. He will be meeting with Jodi next week in person to work out some of the administrative tasks and responsibilities that we need to get done.

Sheila will be coming to San Francisco in a couple of weeks to work with Aaron on standardizing program protocol from the sponsor side, national staff side and chapter side. The Roles and Responsibilities document that we have been talking about will turn into a program deck which will turn explain who is doing what on for every program in a standard format.

Member points starting task force for this. Tiffany is leading this. So far there are 2 current members on board. Pulse will be creating a way for chapter admins to add local member activity.

Membership list access policy will be easiest on Pulse. Where you need to log in to access detail. Increases confidentiality. Also looking at creating USBG templates to use through MailChimp. We will not be sending out any members only emails. We can send teaser emails that will contain a link to Pulse where the member can log-in and get the full story. Pulse is working on templates such as for job postings and events.

Our 2014 National Partnership Deck refers to dedicated email blasts which is causing a lot of unsubscribe requests and members are reporting us as spam. We need to use MailChimp or some such product so that our members can unsubscribe. We cannot send bulk emails without an unsubscribe option. There are so many reports as spam that our email service has notified us that if we do not stop sending these bulk emails without an unsubscribe option there will terminate our service. Aaron was advised that it is against FTC regulations not to have this option. He is planning to change the National Partnership offering to:

o Limit to one national email per week which will be included in the Weekly Roundup. For partner: Instead of a dedicated email blast they can get a full blog post on Pulse and a banner ad for a full week plus inclusion in the Weekly Roundup. We will continue for Legacy and World Class with our previous way of doing business but moving forward we need to cut back on the volume of communications coming from National and the way those communications look.

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Aaron is working with Pulse on redesigning the chapter pages to include job postings so each chapter will have its own job board. The events calendar of each chapter will populate a regional calendar so members will be aware of all events in their region to increase regional dialogue.

Social media guidelines: need to standardize. Facebook Groups (private) need to shut down to transition to Pages (public). These pages should only share public information. Members only info should be a link to Pulse where the member can log in to get the information.

Member Satisfaction Survey. Chapter Operations Manual Task Force drafted a Member Satisfaction Survey, Tiffany put it into a google form and Aaron reviewed with the Pulse Team. There will be a few changes and it will be ready next week. Board will have a 24-48 hour review period and then it will go out by end of month.

Regional Conference Task Force 24-48 hour review period for Board of Directors. Aaron gave props to Jason Asher whose regional conference is budgeted and planned. He offered to move his conference one month forward from the original date as they are ready to go.

Aaron asked if there were any questions.

David acknowledged that Aaron has a lot going on and made reference to conversations they have had regarding bringing on another employee to help with programs. He asked if Aaron is feeling bogged down or is able to stay in communication with potential sponsors or issues that might be coming up.

Aaron responded that he has been able to keep up on the sponsor side and appreciated the question. Aaron suggested we need another employee for partnerships. Aaron reported that he needs to get three more $120,000 sponsors. Sheila is getting up to speed on the $30-$50K program range and is doing a great job of providing service to those partners. Aaron is up to date on World Class. Aaron noted that following up on emails that may lead to $4,500 sponsorships may not be the best use of his time. Smaller partnerships are difficult to develop.

David asked about the $4,500 sponsorships and who, other than Aaron, can answer questions when a $4,500 sponsorship can potentially turn in to a larger program. Nicola pointed out that we do need to look at these sponsors in the same way as members and we need to recruit and retain.

Aaron reminded the board that when he came on as Executive Director, his role in programs was intended to be temporary. Aaron recommended another employee is needed to assist with lower-level sponsorship opportunities. He does not have the time to handle inquiries for $4,500k partnership opportunities. The 2014 budget included an additional coordinator. If everyone is comfortable with us moving forward on that, the cost is covered by 10 new partnerships. Kyle suggested creating a part time job description and advertising. Aaron reported he has a candidate from our Membership Coordinator interviews. He would like to start the position out part time and move it to full time if it works out. He wants to hire a local person so they can work face-to-face on programs specifically. The person he has in mind lives in San Francisco.

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Brittany asked if we currently have a job description. Aaron said we do have a Program Director job description that needs to be edited down. Brittany asked if the board has just approved hiring a part-time coordinator. Aaron responded that the board approved the budget and his responsibility to recruit and hire and that new hires do not require board approval. Kyle concurred with Aaron. Aaron noted that the board did not approve hiring and a vote is not necessary. Brittany asked if Aaron needed assistance from the board to clean up the job description to free his time up for hiring. Aaron explained that the job is the same as the Program Director position but without directing their own schedule. This is a Coordinator position and not a Director position. They will be responsible for managing the $4,500 partnerships, an extra set of hands for Sheila when needed for large national programs and be a coordinator at an event if needed. Reza proposed that when we take on an employee that the board has the option to approve that employee. Kyle noted that per Rezas comment, that by having an Executive Director it is on that person to do the job description and hiring. Discussion ensued regarding the need for a San Francisco based person versus opening the position up. Brittany expressed concern that we have never had a requirement to hire locally and expressed concern that we were setting a precedent. A motion to take this discussion offline and have the discussion at another time passed by a vote of 6-0 Motion made by: Kyle McHugh Seconded by: David Nepove Votes: Yes: David Nepove, Brittany Chardin, Reza Esmaili, Nicola Riske, Kyle McHugh, Frank Martucci

Logo Item Inventory David reported that due to try to keep the meeting within the allotted time frame this item will be removed from the agenda and discussed offline.

Foundation Board Report Aaron reported that the 501(c) (3) application is going to the IRS today for Foundation. The Foundation will be working on a program that will incorporate volunteers for the Sober Citizens Program at Tales and will be trying to move that forward into a couple of other public events over the years. The cooperation agreement between The Foundation and the USBG has been signed. The Guild will have some responsibilities for administrating the Foundation and the foundation will reimburse those costs. There is a Foundation board meeting set for Feb 12th.

Committee Reports Report from Competition Guidelines Task Force

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Aaron reported that this Task Force has been AWOL and Aaron will be trying to get them back up to speed. Zachary Wells from Indiana has been incredible. Troy Clark and Pamela Wiznitzer have been MIA.

Report from Flair Committee David had conference call with Rob Huosted and Rob Turek. They are working to bring something innovative and educational. The plan is to introduce 3 regional 3-day seminars (west, central, east) and a national competition. To make this work they want to raise $120 - $125K to fund and it is open to all brands. Participants would pay for travel to participate. Brands would cover hotel and meals. Brands would pay for the cost of Rob and Rob to travel to the competitions. They are looking at a 3-day training (S/M/Tu) $8-10k per seminar and about 15 participants. The winner of the finals would go to the World Cocktail Contest in South Africa. Would like to have professional flair bartenders to come to these seminars and participate.

Report from MA Committee Frank reported that they are looking to increase visibility and then increase revenue. He is working on getting volunteers for the committee. Livio submitted a 2014 budget that includes a reasonable growth. Need to use Pulse and social media to advertise. Frank believes we can strengthen the bottom line with the live testing. He attended the Tampa Bay Prohibition Party. There was a connection with Florida and they would like to host some of the Spirit Professional live testing in Florida. Budget needs to be approved. Frank will have a good confirmation of committee members by the end of the coming week.

Board Policy Committee Jodi reported that drafts have been made but there has been no meeting since the last one.

Other committees Kyle asked if there were reports from the Education committee or Social Media committee. Aaron requested that these committees be prepared to report on the National Council of Chapters call on the 4th.

Action Items: David will reach out to the Education Committees to get reports on the national council of chapters call.

Aaron will send David a template for a sample committee report. Nicola will reach out the Chad of the Social Media committee. Sheila/Aaron and Tiffany will share information as to who is on what committee via an excel document in Dropbox. Each tab will be for a different committee.

Discussion Topics

Review Board Action Items David went through the list of Action Items from the last meeting:

David and Sheila have been working on announcement to invite members to the Capetown Cocktail Contest. Sheila has an email that will go to all councils that they can then forward on to their members. It is almost complete.

Items everyone had:

Make time to engage on Pulse

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Send Aaron any additional questions on Roles and Responsibilities for our National Partners by January 1st

Download the National Partnership Deck to keep on your computer to send to potential natl ptnrs

Send chapter incorporation questions to Jodi by 12/31

Membership list access on dropbox,

As was noted earlier only David has been given access so far. Aaron said all board members will have access to the boardmember dropbox.

David has to add phone numbers to job descriptions and it is taken care of

Frank did not have any specific Action Items

Nicola had Jonathan and Brittany had items related to the Board Policy Committee and it did not happen, so nothing to report

Kyle did not have any specific Action items

Jason did not have any specific action items

Reza and Aaron were to create a survey for chapters to review quality of market needs for sponsors. Aaron reported that it was done

David asked for comments from all Board Members regarding their engagement on pulse. No one had any comments. David again encouraged the board to engage on Pulse by commenting on conversations or initiating conversations. Please show a presence.

Aaron let everyone know that he will be changing the Partnership Deck based on the earlier conversation regarding email correspondence.

Dues What does it mean to be ready? David reported that at the December meeting it was voted not to raise the dues because we are not ready yet. Discussion ensued as to what does it mean to be ready?

Aaron indicated he is looking for guidance for staff as we move forward with progress within the organization, what can be done to get us ready? What needs to happen before we can raise dues?

Kyle shared that there are many chapters that are looking to build attendance as well as membership and a lot of chapters that are struggling to maintain communication with their members. We need to address non-members participating in members only events because that is decreasing the value of our membership.

Aaron asked what are the ways that we can increase the value of the membership?

Frank suggested that we can increase value by increasing number of local events. Creating standards for local events.

Discussion ensued regarding social media and how to connect with other members. Brittany suggested giving away more information that is not at a cost to us such as promoting people at their bars Who is at What Bar? Aaron suggested that Pulse and Tiffany find the top 3 engagement people on Pulse and share where they work by chapter or region and post weekly.

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Aaron asked for clarification on sharing membership rosters.

Brittany explained that it is useful to have ways to find out how you can locate fellow USBG members. That it be voluntarily driven so members can find each other. She said that this type of information brings value to membership.

Nicola shared that at the last NY Chapter meeting they had a town hall of what members want to see. Pulse was mentioned. Interactive maps were discussed. She noted that Hal has a full list of feedback from members

Sheila reminded everyone that part of the current benefit that members have is not having to pay any registration fees for events. That in itself has value. If we are not raising dues, do we want to consider charging additional fees for certain events.

Aaron proposed creating a video using board members and notable members a short rock the vote style video. Invite members to give a quick description of where they work, when they joined the USBG, what they have done for the USBG over the years and at the end say I Pay Dues or Im Proud to Pay Dues or something along those lines. Paying dues is not a penalty: it is an honor, a privilege and a responsibility. Try to change the relationship with paying dues.

Action Item: Aaron will get a cost estimate from LushLife and Pulse regarding doing a video on I Pay Dues. He will have that for the boards review before moving forward and would like to see it happen within the next 5 to 8 months.

National Council of Chapters Agenda Aaron asked for topics that the board would like to discus on the National Council of Chapters Agenda.

What does it mean to be a chapter and how to qualify? Discussion to set goal to raise 40 members by October 2014 in order to maintain active chapter status and participate in National Competitions and events. If they do not meet these requirements, a new election is required. RVPs acknowledged that they are comfortable with this.

Announce upcoming programs and partnerships for their chapter.

David would like to ask each chapter to give a 30 second success story that can be reported out on this call. Aaron suggested sending an email in advance asking to share a story and we can share at the call. Kyle suggested sharing them all on Pulse.

Pulse plans: Move away from emails etc. Mail Chimp email template

Changes to Facebook groups to pages

Social media guidelines

Chapter Operations Manual

Regional conferences

Decision Topics

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Employee Benefits Policy A motion to approve the Employee Benefits Policy as presented passed by a vote of 6-0 Motion made by: Kyle McHugh Seconded by: Brittany Chardin Votes: Yes: David Nepove, Brittany Chardin, Reza Esmaili, Nicola Riske, Kyle McHugh, Frank Martucci

Membership Types Aaron proposed identifying memberships as follows:

Active Bartender currently bartends professionally

Tenured Bartender USBG believes once a professional bartender, always a bartender

Professional Associate Never bartended but has a professional interest in the guild

Associate Member or Enthusiast never a professional bartender but has a personal interest

David asked for an alternative to tenured. Veteran was suggested. Discussion ensued regarding tenured having an educational association with it and veteran having an age association with the term.

Discussion ensued regarding the term Associate vs Enthusiast

Sheila noted that currently industry professional is use for the proposed term professional associate Consensus was that the preferred term is Professional Associate

Discussion ensued regarding Enthusiast Member vs Associate Member Aaron spoke on behalf of Associate and David spoke on behalf of Enthusiast

David noted that IBA calls sponsors Associate Members.

A motion to approve the terms Active Bartender, Tenured Bartender, Professional Associate, Enthusiast to identify our members passed by a vote of 6-0 Motion made by: David Nepove Seconded by: Frank Martucci Votes: Yes: David Nepove, Brittany Chardin, Reza Esmaili, Nicola Riske, Kyle McHugh, Frank Martucci

Adjourn

Action Item: Sheila will send out a Doodle regarding the February board meeting (21st or 28th ) and the

March board meeting.

Action Item: Sheila will send out an invitation to the National Council of Chapters Call that is scheduled

for Tuesday, February 4th and create an RSVP form.

Meeting Adjourned 9:57

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Documents

01.24.14 Board Minutes DRAFT