What about using skype during the meetings then anyone can watch, and if they have a question you could designate someone to relay it...

Agree w/what others said - location is always going to hold back attendance no matter where it is. Rotating a few locations seems fair but if the numbers of attendees are going to increase, it's probably going to be via online and by putting out more info about the agendas & how to participate.

That's there already of course - maybe could be improved a bit with a different service, if that's an issue (I'm using GoToMeeting on a project, it's pretty cheap & lets you share a screen view, text, audio at once). I'd assume the numbers won't ever get too big though. As long as the channel is open and people know about it, that may be fine - after all the point of elected directors & officers is to run the org so racers can be out on their bikes!

One thing that might need a look is some of the NCNCA paperwork. One company I worked with switched to online board meetings and email-driven approvals of routine expenditures & board resolutions, but we had to document a bunch of that as the new way they did things. Big yawn - but get any needed changes done, then put some plain-english docs about it on the site so everyone knows how they can participate if they want to.

Most of these are typically Secretary tasks but I'll be happy to help out if needed.

-Tad

Candidate for Treasurer

Agreed, meeting minutes need to be posted within a few days after the meeting.

Another thing that might entice more participation is to publish a meeting agenda a week out from the scheduled meeting.
This way potential attendees can review and see if there are any topics to be covered that they want to be involved with.

While not intentional, the current NCNCA meetings by way of lack of distributed or accessible information appear to be some what closed door. Key word here is "appear".
Taking a quote from another thread, the members "don't know what they don't know", and we are not doing enough currently to address this.

Cheers,
Ron
Candidate for President

I'm not sure that rotating the location would help much. Yes, a person who lives near the current meeting site might attend one meeting, but probably none after that.

I suggest that you look at the various methods that enable attendance/participation via the internet.

I'm not aware of what the NCNCA constitution and legalities are for your meetings, but the NCVA board always has email discussions between meetings. In this way the board members are more informed before we begin the formal meetings to complete our discussions, and smaller items are discussed and "voted" on (dispensed with via email.

As an example, meeting minutes are always reviewed and approved via email between meetings, and the minutes will normally be posted online before the next meeting. This is vital for keeping our members informed about what the board is doing, and if someone not on the board has a concern about something in the minutes they can present it to us soon enough that we may be able to better address their concern.

The NCNCA has yet to post the minutes from their meetings in October, September, and August. Keeping NCNCA members informed about the board's activity should be a higher priority.

Since our region is so geographically diverse, I think location is key. The current meeting location was selected to be a bit more manageable for folks from the eastern part of the district (ie Sac, Folsom, Soulesbyville). But, with the exception of Robert Leibold, we rarely see folks from the east.

I've suggested that we rotate meeting locations. Perhaps having four key locations each year and then rotating on a monthly basis would be a good solution. As Chris points out, then we might see some new faces at least a few times a year.

I also think meeting content is key. At this point, most of the meeting attendees are BOD members. We spend most of the meeting with old business + status reports from the BOD members. I think much of the reporting could be done on-line, utilizing our email group. Then we would have more time at the meeting for new business: presentations and decision-making.

I guess the bigger question is "would NCNCA members be interested in participating in monthly meetings if they are geographically more convenient and if there is meaningful content to the meeting?"

Lorri

Are food and/or drinks served at these meetings? :D

Just a suggestion here, but the running equivalent of the NCNCA (PAUSATF) would always hold their meetings after a well attended race. I realize though that racing days are already long enough and that we have groups finishing at all different times of the day, so this might not be practical.

Another option is to have some of the meetings scheduled for the night before a race at a place close to the race since there would likely be a lot of people from different areas staying near the same place. Also, it would be good to mix up the region where the meeting are held so people in outlying areas would be much more likely to be able to attend a meeting or 2.

Chris