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Editor's Note: Following is a letter sent to COMMON's team of Annual Meeting volunteers from Wayne Madden, COMMON's newly elected president.

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Dear COMMON Volunteer,

As the new COMMON president, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued dedication and commitment to your user group.  This will be the first of many communications to you so that you are kept up-to-date on decisions made by your Board of Directors and help ensure complete transparency.

I want to give you an update on the meeting we had in Reno. The first item was the 2009 Board elections, which ended on-site on Tuesday, April 28th.

It was the first time in COMMON history where attendees to a conference had the opportunity to meet the candidates before casting their votes. Congratulations to Bruce Hoss Collins, Pete Massiello, and Trevor Perry for being elected to the Board.  I also want to thank the outgoing Board members, Beverly Russell and Leo Lefebvre, for their many years of commitment to COMMON and serving on the Board.

Another important development from the Reno meeting was the announcement of some organizational changes that the Board had to implement to ensure COMMON's viability.  They were announced at the Meeting of the Members (MOM) to give our members a clear picture of the current situation, to discuss some immediate changes put in place to keep COMMON healthy, and to openly ask members for input at the meeting and ongoing input as we continue to evolve. COMMON is a user group and COMMON's members will ultimately define COMMON's future.

To provide some background, COMMON's Annual Meeting in Reno certainly followed the current trends in the conference industry as a whole due to the economy. We experienced about a 48 percent drop in attendance from the 2008 Annual Meeting while the average industry trend appears to be a 50 percent--60 percent drop in attendance. This certainly is bringing some urgency to COMMON's financial position in terms of protecting our reserves and ensuring we have the right model moving forward.  That started many conversations about the 2009 Annual Meeting relating to how we could reduce risk, manage the event wisely, and also what types of changes would be necessary for the future to ensure that COMMON will serve our members.

The plan presented at MOM was primarily the immediate tactical decisions that are necessary to improve results in 2009 and protect our reserves, including some modifications to the annual conference model based on trends, eliminating some expenses relating to programs, and to redefine our volunteer benefits.  To prevent long-term impacts on COMMON's education programs, certification initiatives, and ongoing programs, the Board will eliminate certain subsidies related to the Annual Meeting and volunteer benefits.  We were able to come to consensus on budget items that were not essential to the quality of COMMON's programs. The following are highlights of changes that were approved by the Board: 

2010 Annual Meeting

• Reduce to 15 total session tracks
• Eliminate one education day of the conference total of four days
• Eliminate one Expo day to a total of two days
• Eliminate one Power Down social event (proposing Tuesday night)
• Eliminate liquor subsidy at social events--liquor would be... (available)  but (from)... a cash bar
• Dramatically reduce scope and COMMON expenses associated with main event
• Eliminate subsidy for IT Executive Conference or hold independently outside Annual Meeting
• Reduce lab rooms to one pre-conference and one lab room throughout conference
• Move event to hotels without the use of convention centers

 Volunteer Benefits

• Suspend Community and Networking (CaN) budget (including staff time required to support)
• Suspend Leadership and Advocacy (L&A) budget (including staff time required to support)
• Reduce Strategic Education Team (SET) budget to half current level
• Create volunteer registration rate for volunteers
• Complimentary registrations and travel expenses ONLY for Tech Team; all other volunteers would pay volunteer rate. (No housing or air benefit provided other than [to] Tech Team)
• Speakers get the volunteer rate if they present at least one session
• For each additional session presented, speakers receive a 25 percent discount off volunteer rate to a maximum of 100 percent discount (two through five session(s) during the same Annual Meeting)
• Reduce Board travel reimbursement at Annual Meetings to five room nights for the Executive Committee only
• Suspend the volunteer gift for 2010 Annual Meeting, review for subsequent (years)
• Eliminate subsidies for the Guest Program

Additionally, as a result of these changes COMMON has downsized the staff to better align the resources with the future needs of COMMON.  You will see the current staff taking on more diverse roles to support the organization as we continue to evolve.  The roles of the staff are now also in-line with roles and responsibilities that staff at similar associations perform on a daily basis.

Every member of COMMON certainly recognizes the value of volunteers to our organization; they are our greatest asset. Before making this decision, the Board examined practices across the entire association industry. COMMON was in a small minority of groups that offered registration and travel benefits to volunteers.  For example, SHARE, the long established user group in the IBM z Server market, has never offered benefits to volunteers.  With this decision, COMMON is not only aligning ourselves with the majority of the industry and in volunteer practices, but we are also doing something absolutely necessary in terms of creating a business model that works for our user group.  We are celebrating 50 years in 2010, and we believe with all of the changes outlined above, we are taking the first steps to ensure our members can move into the next 50 years.

What are the next steps? With the tactical decisions behind us, the next step is to continue to evolve our strategic plan, inviting our program leaders and members to collaborate on ideas, and to continue to refine the future model of products and services we provide to our members. That is the challenge for our new Board, our volunteer program leaders, and our members going forward.  This is an opportunity for you, as a fellow member and volunteer, to help define your user group's strategic plan by giving us your ideas.  We're actively looking for new ideas as we move forward and continue to evolve; the collaboration from members like you will help define this member organizations future.  As COMMON approaches its 50th anniversary, keep in mind that the ideas from members, and their investment into their user group, will chart the next 50 years of this great organization.

If you should have any questions regarding these changes, please do not hesitate to talk to a Board member or your program leader.  We want to be as open as possible about our decision-making, and we encourage your feedback and any ideas that you may have.

Sincerely, 

Wayne Madden

COMMON President