Insuring transparency and broad representation during a period of rapid growth was a major concern of the Board at its January meeting. As a result, the CEE Board has made some significant changes to CEE governance. The first was to formally establish guidelines for the composition of the Board regarding region, type of administrator (IOU, public utility, nonutility), tenure on the Board, and fuel, so that no one characteristic is either overly represented or excluded. These guidelines will be used by the Nominations Committee as it develops its annual recommended slate for the June Board election.
A second governance change has a twofold purpose. In recognition of the many highly qualified individuals among our growing membership, the Board wanted an avenue to benefit from their outlooks, energy, and ideas. In addition, the Board especially wants to apply these perspectives to the CEE portfolio. As a result, the Board has voted to create a Portfolio Advisory Committee, whose role is to keep the Board aware of new ideas and possible direction for current and new program committees.
Membership on this committee is structured to include both Board members and administrators from member organizations who have responsibilities for their own portfolios. The committee provides participants with an opportunity to work with Board members and consider joining the Board. If you would like to explore participation on the Portfolio Advisory Committee, don’t hesitate to contact Marc Hoffman at mhoffman at cee1.org. Both these changes are an effort to keep Board governance as representative and transparent as possible.
CEE has been growing at 25 percent a year and recently recorded its one hundreth member. The Growth Committee proposed a plan, drafted with the help of a management consultant over the past six months, to gradually expand capacity as revenue growth allows.The growth plan identified the need for more investment in infrastructure, particularly management functions and IT. As a larger organization, member services, information technology, finance, training, recruiting, and human resources all require more attention. The needs for a new IT system were specifically addressed in a separate effort recommending use of well-established Web tools to support member participation and to more efficiently and effectively advance CEE work and mission. The Board endorsed the growth plan recommendations.
Growing CEE management and IT infrastructure requires sustainable growth in revenue. Matching previous year’s growth, the budget approved by the Board projects up to a 25 percent income increase from $2.7 to $3.5 million in 2009. Member contributions make up most of the increase. The Board is cautiously optimistic about growth in new members, member support of supplemental projects, and members becoming full-fledged program administrators, however, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding the economic crisis, the Board authorized an initial budget of $3 million to support the 2008 level of work at 2009 cost levels. This initial budget includes an additional position to support Motor Decisions Matter activity at the current level of funding.
The Board conditionally approved funding for incremental growth needs as growth in revenues are proven by events. Management is tracking member commitments in order to request as timely as possible approvals to proceed. The Board approved the following items, contingent on revenue.
- Already funded in the initial budget, the Board authorized a second person to work with Motor Decisions Matter on promoting MDM workshops, such as the highly successful one held by MidAmerican in Moline, Illinois last year. http://www.cee1.org/resrc/news_items/MDMMoline.html
- As funds become available, CEE plans to formalize member services through the addition of a staff position responsible for assisting members take advantage of CEE offerings.
- The Board affirmed the recommendation that CEE pursue proposals for a new information technology infrastructure that will streamline work and increase productivity.
- Interest in social marketing and behavior change has skyrocketed in the past year—the Board approved an additional staff person for the BIG Committee, tied to a one-year supplemental project.
- Both the residential and industrial teams have justified an additional staff person, as pressures increase on committee activities.
- The Board also approved additional part time staff to support accounting and human resources at CEE.
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