05/17/2022

FIXED INCOME ANALYSTS’ SOCIETY, INC.

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

 

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

PRESENT: Ralph DeCesare, Mark Howard, Greg Lemos-Stein, Erin Lyons, Pawel Mosakowski, Henry Shilling, Robert Slowko, Mariarosa Verde, Larry White, and Lauren Nauser

EXCUSED: Monica Aggarwal, Diane Vazza

Mark Howard was designated to run the meeting in Monica Aggarwal’s absence.

Review of Minutes from 3/15/22:

Mark Howard made a motion to accept the minutes; Mariarosa Verde seconded the motion. The minutes were approved as written.

Treasurer’s Report:

Pawel Mosakowski presented the Treasurer’s report.

FIASI continues to be in good financial position.

• Assets down slightly from last year due to lower Income and slightly higher expenses:
  • Timing issue with recognition of some Corporate Sustaining Membership fees
  • Increase in management fees
  • Allocation for web development
  • Membership will increase next report due to ESG event
• Mark Howard suggested giving thought to narrative for the Annual Meeting. Potential areas of discussion include:
  • Investment in website development, strategic plan, member benefits, stable cash position, set earning expectations, etc.
• Lauren Nauser said that end-of-year earnings are typically all that is presented
• Pawel Mosakowski will not be present at annual meeting, currently scheduled for 6/21

No formal vote was taken to accept Treasurer’s report.

New Member Report:

Lauren Nauser presented membership update. 

• 3 new members to date; numbers are changing daily due to upcoming ESG Event, proving importance of events to drive membership

Mariarosa Verde made a motion to accept; Mark Howard seconded the motion. Approved.

Programming Committee Report:

Ralph DeCesare presented the report.

• Housing Conference planned for 6/2/22; Speakers include HOF’er Laurie Goodman and Mark Zandy. Taylor Riggs will moderate
• Potential August/early September event; received second refusal from Ben Bernanke
• Mark Howard suggested Jim Grant might be a timely speaker for the Annual Meeting. Ralph DeCesare agreed to reach out to him
• Lauren Nauser confirmed she has the Cornell Club secured for 6/21. The venue can hold up to 50 attendees, with the option for others to attend virtually

Marketing Committee Report:

Robert Slowko presented committee update.

• Discussed Competitive Analysis that he has been working on with Pawel Mosakowski. Suggested presenting report on best practices, learnings, and recommendations at the Annual Meeting
• Website meeting was held with Bowen, present were Robert Slowko, Lauren Nauser, Erin Lyons, Monica Aggarwal, Arash Kamyab, and Andrew Auslander. Discussed scope of project, details and next steps
  • Working on new logo and re-branding. Bowen has agreed to do this within the original price of the project
• Robert Slowko identified four individual who have been quite helpful in marketing the ESG event:
  • Jessica Broughton
  • Valerie Yuen
  • Alexis Bancroft
  • Jorge Calderon

 

ESG EVENT:

Mark Howard thanked the research judging committee for their work, and noted that Mariarosa Verde was a tough judge. Limits on submission length might make sense as some were over 60 pages

As of 5/17, 295 attendees have signed up, but still coming in. Lauren Nauser confirmed there will be additional social media posts in advance of event, and Joyce Chang will be tagged in email blasts which should increase the numbers

Henry Shilling outlined the event’s run of show:

• Day 1: Thurs/May 19th 1:30 PM Start
  • 1^st Panel on US Infrastructure
  • 2^nd Panel on Role of Central Banks
  • Followed by Q&A with Hester Peirce, SEC Commissioner
    • Focus of her remarks on Rule 6, Climate-related disclosures for companies in US, why she voted against, CRYPTO, changes to fixed income markets, mutual funds and ETF’s
  • Cameos by Jessica Broughton, Stephen Winterstein, Valerie Yuen, and Jorge Calderon, all of whom were instrumental in recruiting panelists
• Day 2: Fri/May 20^th
  • Q&A with David Wessel and Paul Taylor, President & CEO of Fitch Group
  • Announcement of FIASI/Fordham Research Competition Winners
  • 13 papers reviewed: $5,000 to Winner, $3,000 to Runner Up and $500 each to 3 Honorable Mentions. Awards funded through FIASI and Fordham ($10K each). Only $4K spent last year, have $16K in reserve
    • Competition broadened this year beyond NYC to include the tri-state area; 5 of the 13 papers came from the expanded geography

Mark Howard asked if past sustaining members and Bloomberg were approached to attend, and if a broad range of NY institutions were blanketed.

• Lauren Nauser confirmed speakers were provided documents and links to circulate, and free passes to invite people from their organizations
• During prep calls. speakers were asked to talk up the event
• Letters were sent to all the Deans of schools involved in the research competition
• Erin Lyons confirmed that Credit Sights sent out an invitation to 15,000 users on May 10^th, which had a 10% open rate and 30% CTR. She said she would edit the invite and send out the discount code again.
• Henry remarked he sent out emails to Bloomberg, Reuters and Barron’s. Greg Lemos-Stein spoke to dozens of reporters; he will reach out to press again as Hester Peirce has a somewhat contrarian position and may be considered newsworthy
• Lauren Nauser will recap where the attendees came from post event
• Sponsors include DBRS Morningstar ($5K) and Fitch ($10K); Erin Lyons confirmed that MSCI is contemplating Corporate Sustaining Membership but could not finalize in time for ESG event. However, they are sending 6 members to the conference.
• Henry Shilling confirmed that several board members will participate in the introductions of panel discussions and announcement of winners

Mark Howard thanked Henry and team for a great effort

 

Annual Meeting Discussion:

Mark Howard led discussion on potential new board members, announcing that Larry White was stepping down.  He was thanked for his years of service and contributions, especially serving as president during the pandemic. Larry White said he would continue to help as needed.

• The nominating committee, comprised of Larry White, Dianne Vazza, Henry Shilling, Monica Aggarwal and Lauren Nauser advanced candidates based on the following criteria:
• Members that have “leaned-into” new initiatives
• Add star power/gravitas to organization
• Future needs
• Recommendation made that Joyce Chang of JP Morgan and Jessica Broughton of BNP Paribas join the board. All members felt positive about the candidates. Henry Shilling and Robert Slowko spoke on behalf of Jessica Broughton, who they had recommended. Along with her strong qualifications, she adds youth and diversity to the board. If either candidate does not accept, the committee will go to their next candidate.

 

Committee Structure Discussion:

Mark Howard started conversation regarding accomplishments and challenges of strategic plan. He understood that a lot of work and emotions have gone into the project.  The exercise was to help FIASI transition in a post-pandemic world, and to leverage technology to turbo charge relevance to the Fixed Income community.  Understanding that it doesn’t happen overnight, or in a straight line, he opened the discussion for positive feedback and/or frustrations around the following:

• How does the board feel about committee structure? Is mandate, resources suitable enough?
• Are we properly measuring accomplishments of the committees?
• Are we acknowledging contributions of committee members appropriately?
• Are we doing enough to nurture new candidates for the BOD pipeline?
• Are we sufficiently intentional in advance planning for board members?
• Are we planning for revenue diversification?
• Discussion regarding Hall of Fame
• Should we re-calibrate Sustaining Memberships?

Roundtable thoughts about committee structure:

• Larry White applauded Robert Slowko and team for getting new people involved; need to motivate and help them to take the next step to a board seat.
• Ralph DeCesare mentioned that Sean Egan has been helpful in bringing ideas to the Programming Committee. This group needs people with strong contacts within the industry and a knowledge of “the street”
• Erin Lyons mentioned that Membership is still figuring out the structure and admits they have lost some momentum. She hasn’t had the time, and a lot of folks have been between jobs and focusing on that. But she is now ready to move forward. Mentioned that Deb Murrin has been helpful. Important to understand the needs of specific committees. Mark Howard agreed that it’s important to match the right members to the various committees
• Gregg Lemos-Stein noted that with the pandemic we haven’t been able to leverage the full potential of membership without in-person events.
• Most agreed the committee structure adds value vs. one person going it alone
• Pawel Mosakowski agrees that non-profit is a collective environment that requires a lot of time and effort—the Competitive Analysis will lay the groundwork to explore ideas and emulate good things other organizations are doing
• Robert Slowko added that co-chairs might be useful to help pick up the slack. He believes the success of Marketing Committee based on empowering people to take on tasks they are passionate about
• Lauren Nauser confirmed that any person who served on a committee has been invited to the Annual Meeting, and asked about their availability on specific dates
• Mariarosa Verde suggested letting committee members present at board meetings
• Mark Howard suggested thinking about more rigorous budget planning and possibly loosening the purse strings, giving thought to an investment phase to grow the organization.

Corporate Membership Discussion:

• Need to collectively refine draft criteria in existing and future memberships. Need to onboard new members.

Having no further business items, the meeting was adjourned.