FIXED INCOME ANALYSTS SOCIETY, INC.

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, May 5th 2021

PRESENT: M. Aggarwal, R. DeCesare, M. Howard, G. Lemos-Stein, E. Lyons, P. Mosakowski, H. Shilling, J. Singh, R. Slowko, B. Toth, D. Vazza, M. Verde, L. White, and L. Nauser

ABSENT: A. Kamyab

Review of Minutes from 1/20/21:

Mariarosa Verde made a motion to accept the minutes from the 1/20/21 Board Meeting. Pawel Mosakowski seconded the motion. The minutes were approved as written.

Treasurer’s Report:

Mariarosa Verde presented the Treasurer’s report.

Current assets of $544,029.87 as of 4/30/21 leaves FIASI in good financial position.

Income positive because of ESG events and membership dues collected to date
Erin Lyons asked for clarification regarding difference between net income ($31K) and assets ($15K). Lauren Nauser to provide explanation of difference post call
Diane Vazza made a motion to accept Treasurer’s report with the caveat of getting the explanation; Erin Lyons seconded the motion. Approved.

Nominating/Governance Committee Report:

Larry White reported that three members are leaving the BOD: Arash Kamyab, Brian Toth and Jas Singh.

New slate of officers needs to be approved by membership:

Monica Aggarwal—President
Mark Howard—Vice President (1 Year Term)
Pawel Mosakowski—Treasurer
Erin Lyons—Secretary
Larry White read list of expectations of Board Members and said that each member will be reviewed on an annual basis.

Mark Howard commented that expectations not previously formalized, but adding clarity to the roles and responsibilities and transparency was a key take-away from the strategic planning sessions
Ralph DeCesare suggested that meeting and event attendance, as well as oversight to avoid conflict of interest with BOD clients, should be added to protect the reputation of FIASI
Lauren Nauser mentioned she had added a social media bullet point based on conversation with Mark Howard
Larry White will revise list and send back out for review by BOD
Programming Committee Report:

Henry Shilling reported that the ESG & Fixed Income Conference scheduled for 4/22 & 4/23 was quite successful. It was an example of great support and team spirit, with input coming from many BOD members.

Including speakers, there were 350 registrants, with 88 no-shows—that contributed $1K in fees.

Specific call-outs included:
Larry White for his interviews
Mark Howard, Ralph DeCesare, Diane Vazza as review committee for competition
Robert Slowko for entrée to Baer Pettit (MSCI), and offering up marketing committee to advance the program
Valerie Yuen & Jess Broughton for their input
Pawel Mosakowski for crafting the message
Lauren Nauser for pulling the event together
Overall event made $26K in gross revenue; $22K net after expenses–$3K to competition winner
Positive feedback-22 formal responses: 55% Excellent, 40% Very Good, 5% Good
Event established platform for future engagement; areas to examine as part of post mortem:
Review competition for Year 2
Sponsorships
Content and Programming
Lauren Nauer, Henry Shilling, Robert Slowko, Ralph DeCesare and Jessica Broughton to be part of evaluation
Several members gave kudos to Henry Shilling for the successful event
Robert Slowko said recording and note access post conference was positively received
Pawel Mosakowski mentioned that ESG field is becoming crowded, with stiff competition specifically around Earth Day. Mark Howard added that knowing this, FIASI should lock up best panelists, thank those who participated and we want to come back, and possibly spend some of the profits to secure the future of the event
Henry Shilling reiterated that thank you notes went out to all speakers; in addition they received 6 month free membership and were offered a token gift for those who could accept. Feedback from a number of speakers was that they appreciated the opportunity and view FIASI as a neutral/objective forum
Monica Aggarwal suggested integrating a separate page on the FIASI website for ESG and other high impact event topics

Ralph DeCesare reported on upcoming events:

5/19—Women Underrepresented in Portfolio Management (Authors)
6/8 or 6/15—One Hour conference on Autos (S&P, Moody’s, Barclay’s)
Working with Sean Egan on CLO conference—potentially 3rd week of June
Working with Stephen Winterstein on an Alternative Data Conference either during the summer or early fall—Mark Howard mentioned he may have recommendation on speakers for this topic. He has been speaking with Steve Berkley re live world transition space and Soper story. Ralph DeCesare to contact SB to discuss
Working with Marty Fridson on a High Yield Conference in the fall
Other ideas include Asian Discrimination (Joyce Chang), Black History Month in Feb, open to thoughts and other suggestions
Erin Lyons suggested topic around Disruptions to Supply Chain across Industries—possibly focusing on hard hit sectors. Mariarosa Verde suggested possibly an economist looking at it from a macro level. Gregg Lemos-Stein suggested a point-counterpoint format on potential inflation
Erin Lyons mentioned a repeat of the WIFI event, with different people
Ralph DeCesare asked for input about summer timing—Lauren Nauser and Henry Shilling think it’s worth a try to keep the momentum going. Lauren Nauser requested save the dates from Ralph DeCesare for upcoming events.

Erin Lyons discussed need to figure out how to repackage event replays.  Lauren Nauser will work with Google Analytics to figure out to see how many registrants/attendees clicked on the recordings.

Larry White asked Ralph DeCesare how he thought the committee was functioning—Ralph DeCesare responded that committee (12) may be too large, however due to attrition it will probably get to a core 4 or 5 members which should be manageable.

Marketing Committee Report:

Robert Slowko reported that there was a tremendous amount of energy around the ESG event; specifically great effort from Jessica Broughton, Valerie Yuen, Andrew Auslander, and Pawel Mosakowski.

There are two major initiatives upcoming:

Elevation of FIASI Brand, including:
Social media (Twitter, LinkedIn)—move to an organizational tool
Logo/Website updates
Messaging board for membership
Event Marketing and Fee/Revenue Structure, Attendance Analysis and Membership Inventory
With Arash Kamyab, Brian Toth and Jas Singh stepping down there is a need to fill the gap on this committee. Larry White suggested with excess of members on Programming, if skill sets and interest in marketing exist, potential switch to Marketing. There will be a meeting in the next two weeks. Diane Vazza suggested sending out another request to membership to see if there is interest in joining. Monica Aggarwal suggested internships with Fordham. Are there potential members who could straddle multiple committees?  Erin Lyons believes to do Membership well there needs to be 3-way communication between Membership, Program and Marketing. Lauren Nauser said she had a few contacts she could share with Robert Slowko.

Lauren Nauser mentioned that Survey Monkey can generate information from all Zoom Meeting and via Social Media. Henry Shilling suggested the need for a macro analysis of responses from surveys to be shared with committees.  Mine the responses and screen for eligible candidates. Monica Aggarwal said there is a need to generate learning and set KPI’s

Membership Committee Report:

Erin Lyons reported the committee has met three times. Have discussed messaging, benefits and mission of FIASI, and events. Some ideas discussed include:

Target individuals with posts on LinkedIn
Buddy Program Challenge
Reaching out to past attendees
Pilot program with Universities-link up competition for synergy
Mentorship program (looking for feedback on this idea) between FIASI member (mid-career level) and student
Monica Aggarwal suggested a speed networking event to create interest in the Financial Services/Fixed Income industry
New Corporate Membership standards/fees. Erin Lyons does not think that bundling membership is a great hook. Rather let members join and have them ask their employers to underwrite the fees. Corporations want to showcase their brand. Pricing in this area typically much more than current model
CAMCAST–$12.5K per annum for website branding and 2 hosted calls
IACPM–$12-$15K per conference-website branding, speaking spots, access to membership list
Others $10-$15K for either event or annual sponsorship
Larry White agreed need to raise fees. MSCI has great interest in joining. Maybe can use them as a pilot. If that works, could use as a model moving forward. Need to get back to them to assure them we are interested and they should be patient for a bit longer
Robert Slowko-should we scrap the CSM model? Or would that just be one of the tiers? What are the differences?
Mark Howard would like to have committee find next tier of senior FIASI members at the Director/Managing Director levels. Would suggest mapping the universe of which companies are growing/not growing in Fixed Income to identify the organizations of the future. Pawel Mosakowski suggests that FIASI plays a role for mid to senior tier to manage career independent of employers in a volatile industry.

Motion to accept new members made by Robert Slowko. Mark Howard seconded. Unanimously approved.

Change to by-laws summarized by Larry White.  Basically eliminated the paragraph re corporate sustaining members guaranteed a board seat. Larry White made a motion to accept this change; all members on the call verbally confirmed agreement to the change to strike paragraph. None opposed.

Hall of Fame Report:

Expect to do either a virtual or hybrid in the fall (Sept/Oct). How are people feeling about “in person”? Robert Slowko said hybrid; Larry White does not want to wait until the spring. Gregg Lemos-Stein likes the idea of October with a scaled-back, in person component. Prior to 2009 the event was in the fall; only moved to the spring after the crash in 2008.

Other Items:

Annual meeting in June-possible outside event.

Having no further business the meeting was adjourned.