NORTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2006, GLC Room 112

CALL TO ORDER - Chair Walter “Jay” Hooper called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA - The agenda was approved on a motion by Doug Bishop, seconded by Bill Myers.

FACULTY COUNCIL REPORT - Faculty Council Chair Jerry Dobek reported that fall semester is going well and faculty members are busy engaging students in learning. Curriculum Committee is working hard to establish the criteria "cultural diversity." Jerry invited trustees to attend the 25th Anniversary of the Joseph Rogers Observatory. A special open house and free public viewing is planned for October 4. Each year the facility serves approximately 80 academic students, 5,000 community members, 2,000-2,500 school children, for a total of over 100,000 people served in the last 25 years. Jerry announced that he has 720 copies of Max Goes to the Moon to distribute in Michigan elementary schools.

SCHOLARHIP REPORT - Stephen Siciliano, Vice President for Educational Services, presented a report on Scholarship, the criterion measuring the effectiveness of NMC's service to Learner Group One. He presented evidence that NMC is meeting most of the standards for the outcomes listed below and have action steps in place for areas where we are not.

• NMC provides effective transfer education
• NMC prepares students for successful occupational employment
• NMC helps students communicate effectively and think critically
• NMC supports the growth of under-prepared college students.

AVIATION UPDATE - Marguerite Cotto, Vice President for Lifelong and Professional Learning, provided an update on the status of the Aviation program. The stated goal is to maintain and strengthen flight education. Vice President Cotto provided a copy of the most recent draft version of the program analysis prepared by the University of North Dakota team. They have made more than 120 recommendations; of those, 61 have already been incorporated, or are in process. Since July 1 the program is already one-quarter toward its goal of 6500 student flight hours. Marguerite introduced Aviation's new Director, Aaron Cook, and Chief Flight Instructor, Tony Sauerbrey, who provided a brief update and took questions from the board. They will be convening an industry advisory board this fall.

BOARD FINANCE AND AUDIT COMMITTEE REPORT - Bob Brick reported that the committee met on September 19 and considered the following items: year-to-date financial statement; unaudited year-end financials and allocation of reserves; internal auditor priority list; benefits management consultant RFP; Facilities pole barn; Facilities vehicle purchase; and extension of the Merit contract to 6/30/07. They also were updated on the status of disposition of some of the Aviation fleet. Tim reviewed the variances with the board.

BOARD STRATEGIC GOALS COMMITTEE REPORT - Committee member Bill Myers reported that the committee did not meet, but that he had used that time to interview with Bill and Cynthia Banach, the consultants who have been hired to conduct the external scan portion of the strategic plan.

BOARD POLICY COMMITTEE REPORT - Committee Chair Ross Childs reported that the committee will be meeting twice in October to resume their review and revision of board policies. They hope to complete their work by the end of the calendar year.

FOUNDATION REPORT - Cheryl Follette reported the following:

• We have great news about the NMC Scholarship Open. This year 290 golfers participated and 142 sponsors joined in to make this year's event the most financially successful on record. Preliminary indications are that we have raised $79,000 for Honors Scholarships-a 19% increase over last year's net. Cheers to Chairman Nick Edson and the entire tournament committee for their successful efforts.
• The 2006-07 Annual Community Campaign kicks off on October 19th, and much behind-the-scenes work is underway. Co-chairs are Denny Fedorinchik and Jayne Mohr. In advance of the community campaign, our own faculty and staff are invited to contribute to demonstrate their belief in NMC and the power of philanthropy from within. So far, the faculty and staff have contributed 50% of their dollar goal in less than two weeks. The Annual Campaign provides more than $300,000 annually in donor support for the general fund, scholarships and programs and is part of our comprehensive fundraising program.
• Fran Gingras, a member of the Foundation Board and Bob Gingras, a member of NMC's Planned Giving Advisory Council, made a presentation on September 22nd on the topic of using life insurance as a planned gift to NMC. The Planned Giving information session was attended by retired faculty, trustees, Foundation Board members (current and emeriti), and staff members.
• On the alumni news front, Foundation Board member John Dancer joined Teri Hedrich in hosting a focus group of young alumni this summer to better understand how to communicate with and engage alumni in their 20s. We learned that electronic communication is preferred and that their preferred method of giving is on-line. We're adjusting our strategies accordingly for this age demographic!
• The NMC Foundation will hold its regular meeting on October 18th.

FOUNDATION FINANCE AND AUDIT COMMITTEE REPORT - Ross Childs reported that:

• The Foundation Audit has been completed-it's a clean audit-and the Finance and Audit Committee will receive it from Plante and Moran at their next regular meeting on October 11th.
• Finance and Audit Committee Chair Bob Boeve, Tim Nelson and Kathleen Guy have been holding individual meetings with each of the Foundation's investment managers to share year- end investment returns, communicate changes in the Foundation's investment policy and provide an update on NMC. The results so far have been very positive. The final two of these five meetings are being held this week.

BOARD CHAIR REPORT - Chair Jay Hooper reported that the board retreat has been confirmed for January 19 and 20 at Black Star Farms.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT - Tim Nelson reminded trustees to complete their evaluation forms for the Scholarship and Aviation updates. He provided trustees with a card on stress management that was distributed to faculty and staff by our Wellness Committee and invited them to attend the Brown Bag presentation on "Stress Free NMC" on September 29. Tim reported that the MCCA Board of Directors meeting is at Gogebic Community College on Friday and Saturday. MCCA has hired a consultant to guide their new strategic planning process and hopes to have something to react to by December. Tim announced, regarding the Energy Center at MTEC, that the solar panels are up, the small windmill is operating, the biomass digester is being used to generate diesel fuel from used cooking oil from the cafeteria, and the geothermal wells are working. He encouraged trustees to take a look at the center. Interior signage at GLC has been ordered and should arrive within four weeks. Karen Sabin, Assistant to the President provided an update on the Oleson Center renovation. The project is expected to be completed by the end of November.

CONSENT ITEMS - Bob Brick, seconded by Elaine Wood, approved these items on a motion.

• Minutes of the August 28, 2006, regular meeting and the September 11, 2006, special meeting
• Contributions for August 2006
• Summary Report for General Fund Accounts as of August 31, 2006

PUBLIC INPUT - The board heard comments from Tim Dunn, a Great Lakes Maritime Academy alumnus, who encouraged trustees to consider having the anchor and propeller moved to the front of the building to assist in easy identification of GLMA.

EXTENSION OF MERIT CONTRACT - Elaine Wood made a motion, seconded by Ross Childs, to authorize the administration to enter into a contract with Merit Network, Inc., to expand Internet services to 74 Mbps and to extend the agreement to June 30, 2007, at a cost of $76,995 per year, of which $61,388 will be charged to Project Interconnect members. Motion carried.

UNAUDITED YEAR-END RESULTS - Bob Brick moved to adopt the unaudited year-end results as recommended by the Board Finance and Audit Committee. Doug Bishop seconded the motion, which carried. President Tim Nelson thanked the faculty and staff for their help in meeting the budget, which allowed for appropriate transfers to reserve funds as defined in the NMC resource guidelines. He also thanked Vicki Cook and the staff in Business and Financial Services for their extra efforts during the close of the fiscal year, amid two vacancies in their department.

ADJOURNMENT - The meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m.

Recorded by Karen Sabin