MCPP Board of Directors Meeting Minutes October 22, 2023

MCPP Board Meeting notes

MCPP Board of Directors Meeting October Minutes 

Henderson Room, University of Michigan League

Ann Arbor, MI

Sunday, October 22, 2023

9am – 10:30am

Present: David Freiband, Eve Avrin, Karen Weber, Linda Young, Lisa Larson, Tamra Frei, Shil Sengupta, Miram Lorrain, Michele Rivette, Elizabeth Waiess

President: D. Freiband

• Motioned to accept Sengupta’s September 2023 minutes with suggested revisions. Lorraine seconded the motion. Board approved unanimously.
• Voted on bylaw changing reinstating the Secretary back as a full member on the Board. This was unanimously approved on the Board electronic listserv. Freiband motioned to approve this motion. Lorrain seconded the motion. Board approved unanimously.

• Status of Bylaws Approval: Marybeth Atwell has called for a vote on the Bylaw changes by the membership at the behest of the Board. So far, 20 people have

 voted in favor, one against. The voting period will last approximately ten more days.

• Hybrid versus strictly Virtual Meetings: Survey results from querying September credit seeking presentation attendees showed the following: only 9 were “very

likely” to attend in person when the speaker is virtual. Somewhat likely: 14, very unlikely: 6. On this basis, the Board decided to continue having attendance be

entirely virtual when the speaker is virtual.

Treasurer: Eve Avrin

Cash Flow:

• Balance of checking account as off 9/17/23 in our UMCU accounts: $20.061.32

Net Worth:

$20,964.51

Savings Balance: $2,015.17

Checking Balance: $18,949.34

Investments:

MCPP Schwab Cash Investments: $8,150.28

MCPP Schwab Market Value Account: $59,276.69

• Overall Total Net Worth: $88,391.48: this went down a little from last report due to slight market downturn.
• Transferring Treasurer Position: Avrin and Frei are working out the details with the bank in transferring the account.

• Members discussed opening a Chase account and transferring money from UMCU to Chase because Chase has branches in Lansing, where Frei lives,

     and Ann Arbor. Board explored the possibility of keeping some funds in the UMCU account.

• Ultimately, Board agreed to leave decision to discretion of subcommittee

     consisting of Frei and Avrin, our current and past treasurers, in consultation with Freiband, current president. Subsequently, this subcommittee

     recommended the Board keep MCPP’s funds in the credit union account.

• Freiband, after the meeting, sent a message to the Board explaining the

     subcommittee’s decision and the authorization UMCU needs from MCPP in order to make the needed changes to its account. On this basis, Freiband made the following             motion to the board:

“I move that we, the Board of Directors for the Michigan Council for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, approve the University of Michigan Credit Union (hereafter referred to as “U.M.C.U.”) to make all of the following changes to our account effective October 23rd, 2023: 1.) The removal of Eve Avrin and Peter Wood, former treasurer and former

president, respectively; 2.) The addition of Tamra Frei and David Freiband, current

treasurer and current president respectively; 3.) Our account mailing address from “Eve

Avrin, 5340 Plymouth Road, Suite 209, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48105,” to “Tamra Frei, 139 S. Clemens Ave, Lansing, MI 48912;” and 4.) The address on our checks to 139 S.

Clemens Ave, Lansing, MI 48912.”

• Beth Waiess seconded the motion. Nine out of 10 members of the board voted. All 9 were in favor and none against, so the motion passed.

Vice President of Programs: Miriam Lorrain

• No Update
• Freiband noted that the Board is getting close to the juncture when we need to start looking for presenters for the 2024-25 academic year.

Membership: Linda Young and Lisa Larson

• Status of 2023-24 membership renewal process- Young and Larson reported that they are in the process of writing up a letter to send out to the MCPP community, encouraging members to renew. The Board discussed some of the points worth making to motivate members’ motivation to renew.
• One of the points featured: that MCPP is offering a hybrid format.
• Larson and Young are targeting mid-November to send out letters.

Committee Reports:

Website: Karen Weber

• 69 people currently signed up for upcoming day’s meeting.

     Status of posting community listserv announcements policy on MCPP website: The Board decided to put this information in the “About Us” section Weber asked to get           

     clarification about details to implement under “drop down” menu in context of creating it with help of web developer.

• Young provided clarification: that this detail would be implemented in the

     picklist for “listserv guidelines” under the “About Us” tab.

• Change still needed to be made: Avrin still listed under “Treasurer”: this will

     need to be changed imminently.

Social Work CEUs: Tamra Frei

•  No updates

Psychology CEs: Miriam Goldstein

• Working on the APA C.E. recertification application, which is due in early 2024.

New Business:

• Board discussed whether to have meal with next physically present speaker, David Levit, PhD., in March, 2024. Eve offered to facilitate this, including

finding a restaurant.

• Freiband mentioned that 3 groups would be benefactors if MCPP were to dissolve, rather than the two that the board had discussed previously. These are specified in the bylaws. The Board explored whether the board wants to continue having the third recipient, representing psychiatry, in addition to the ones representing social work and psychology. Relevant details: (1) many more psychiatrists involved when organization originally formed, (2) question of whether this Psychiatric organization reflects our organization’s values. This will need to be explored. The Board decided to take this up at a later date.
•  The Board is not using the venue for November (given that the program will be virtual).
• The Board also cancelled the venue for January because the meeting will be virtual.
• The Board discussed how to recruit more members to join it. We came up with the idea of including a required question on the post-presentation

questionnaire about whether each attendee would like to consider joining us. Karen offered to add this to the questionnaires starting with those for the

current day’s presentation. The Board also discussed the idea of inviting specific people to be on the Board.

• The Board explored whether it makes sense to have a strategy for each person in a critical position to have a back-up.

• Freiband motioned to adjourn the meeting. Frei seconded the motion. All voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

Next Meeting: November 12 (virtual/virtual)

Meeting adjourned at 10:30am.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Shil Sengupta, recorder.