M I N U T E S

Meeting of the Board of Directors

Mountain Plains Management Association (MPMA)

October 6, 2011

The 2011 meeting of the Mountain Plains Management Association’s Board of Directors was call to order by Board President David Summers at 3:30 p.m. in the ACB 312 Gallegos Board Room Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction Colorado.

Board Members in attendance: Alan Hamlin (Southern Utah University), Larry Carstenson (University of Nebraska at Kearney), James Frost (Idaho State University), Geoff Gurka (Colorado Mesa University), Ed Harris (Weber State University), Kay Hodge (University of Nebraska at Kearney), Suzanne Lay (Colorado Mesa University), and David Summers (University of Houston-Victoria). Absent: Casimir (Casey) Barczyk (Purdue University Calumet)

Invited guests in attendance: Don Carpenter (Colorado Mesa University) and Janet Trewin (University of Nebraska at Kearney, co-chair of the 2012 MPMC)

Item:

David Summers welcomed all to the MPMA Board of Directors Meeting and thanked Colorado Mesa University for their hospitality and a great 2011 conference.

The minutes of the October 7, 2010 Board of Directors meeting were revised to reflect an error in the expiration of Larry Carstenson’s board term from 2012 to 2011. The minutes were approved as amended.

Based on proposals from the 2010 Board of Directors meeting, several revisions were proposed to the Mountain Plains Management Association bylaws. The primary concern was the confusion in expiration terms for directors and officers and the provisions for replacing directors or officers who could not complete their term of office. As per the bylaws, the proposed revisions to the MPMA bylaws were sent by e-mail to the membership list on the MPMA’s website one month in advance of the MPMA October, 7 2011 membership meeting. The Board of Directors made several non-substantial editorial changes and approved forwarding the proposed bylaw changes to the membership for formal approval.

The original intention of the MPMA bylaws was to stagger terms so two board members are elected each year. Over the years with people serving as both officers and board members, the terms had become confused so more than two members would sometimes need to be replaced. The proposed bylaw changes were designed to correct this problem for the future. In anticipation of membership approval of the proposed bylaw changes, the Board of Directors approved a one-time adjustment to the terms of board members and officers to facilitate a transition to the new bylaws. The approved board member and officer term adjustments are as follows:

Elected Board members (adjusted expiration term):

Casey Barczyk (2012)

James Frost (2012)

Suzanne Lay (2013)

David Summers (2013)

To be elected director (2014)

To be elected director (2014)

Conference officers (adjusted expiration term):

Geoff Gurka – Past Conference Chair (2012)

Kay Hodge – Conference Chair (2013)

Alan Hamlin – Future Conference Chair (2014)

The nominating committee (Casey Barczyk, Alan Hamlin, and James Frost) recommended Larry Carstenson (University of Nebraska at Kearney) and Ed Harris (Weber State University) as nominees for the two new directors with terms expiring in 2014. The board approved sending the recommendation of the nominating committee to the membership.

The Board of Directors elected David Summers to serve a consecutive term as Board President to expire in 2012.

Kay Hodge and Janet Trewin provided an update on the preparations for the 2012 MPMA National Conference to be hosted by the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Preparations are well under way including a call for papers. It looks like it is going to be a great conference.

A report prepared by David Tufte, editor of the Mountain Plains Journal of Business and Economics, was presented to the board of directors. The journal had a good year with 7 papers published representing an acceptance rate of about forty percent. The biggest problem is finding reviewers who will respond in a timely manner. It is the goal of the journal to minimize review time for a timelier disposition of papers.

One item of old business was discussed. At the 2010 board of directors meeting, it was approved to include only full accepted papers in the Conference Proceedings. Abstracts would not be included but would be in a separate CD. Colorado Mesa University produced a Conference Proceedings CD that only included the accepted full papers. Abstracts were provided for all papers and presentations in the conference packets with the papers included in the proceedings noted. The board was in favor of this method of including fully accepted papers in the Conference Proceedings as well as providing abstracts of all papers and presentations.

One item of new business was discussed. Alan Hamlin broached the subject of future conferences and the current core list of hosting universities. Currently Southern Utah University, Colorado Mesa University, Idaho State University, and the University of Nebraska at Kearney are listed as core hosting universities. Provisions for other universities to host conferences are in place, but most conferences fall on the core universities. Some core universities host conferences because a long-time faculty volunteers to be the conference chair. Some critical faculty at these core universities are nearing retirement, however, and there is concern that some core host institutions will not be willing to host the conference in the future. The board discussed ways to encourage and include more universities in hosting conferences. The board decided to discuss this item further at the 2012 board meeting.

The board meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Submitted by,

David Summers, President of MPMA Board of Directors

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