ISLA Board Meeting Minutes

Friday, January 2 2009

The Green Room

Call to order: 7:05 pm

Present: Michael McNamara, Joanne Ovitsland, Kevin McMahon, Michelle Wilson, Ian Thompson, Jenny Brown, Masoud Zadeh

Chairperson Michael McNamara opened the meeting by suggesting that due to the need to move forward with the Administrator hiring process, the proposed  meeting agenda be postponed, including a reading of the last meetings’ minutes, and instead the group focus on discussion of potential candidates and establishing the hiring process. There was unanimous agreement.

There was a round table discussion about hiring criteria and priorities. It was agreed that we are looking for a real self-starter, someone who can be a leader within ISLA and also take direction from the board, to ensure the organization is always moving in the right direction. The successful applicant will be ISLA’s ambassador to the community and will be able to set and accomplish specific goals within the six-month timeline of initial employment, goals that will help move ISLA toward success with its housing projects. All agreed that in this regard, experience counts.

There followed another round table discussion and review of resumes and four potential candidates were selected for the shortlist. Each board member voted for up to three candidates.

Excerpted from Joanne’s email of Saturday January 3^rd:

We then discussed who the interview panel would consist of - Michael McNamara and Ian Thomson would like to participate in this part of the process, and it was our understanding that Mike Berman would also like to be on the panel and that the panel should not consist of more than 3 people.  Both Jenny and myself agreed to be "subs" if one of the above can not participate due to other commitments.

The plan is to have the interviews take place before Jan 16th.  Each short listed candidate will be asked to bring to the interview 3-5 examples of potential funding opportunities and a (short) written bit on why they feel they would be the best choice for the job.

… In order to get this rolling asap I will be contacting the short list starting Monday to set up interview times.  I will also be contacting Ron Sitter from HIRRA as they have developed a systematic method of assessing candidates (with weighted questions) to see if we can use their questions (with modifications to fit our needs).

And that, as they say, is that. Next meeting scheduled for the Green Room on Friday January 16^th at 7pm. Hope to see you all there.

Meeting adjourned: 9:00 pm