The Executive Board met September 25–26, 2015, in Seattle/King County, Washington, and took these actions:

• Approved the schedule for the 2015–2016 president-elect selection process. On October 1, 2015, letters were sent to the 42 eligible former vice presidents asking them to submit their expression of interest and four to eight letters of support by January 19, 2016. State and affiliate presidents, along with past ICMA Presidents, were also sent the list of those eligible and encouraged to contact those they thought would make good candidates.
  
  
• Accepted the FY 2015 audited financial statements and report. In FY 2015 (July 1, 2014–June 30, 2015), ICMA programs and activities resulted in a loss from general fund operations of $270,396, compared with the budgeted loss of $400,000.  
  
  In FY2015, member services and programs remained strong and ended the year either better than budget or better than the prior year. Membership dues revenues exceeded budget targets by $130,245 and were higher than FY 2014 dues revenues by $144,687. At June 30, 2015, ICMA had 9,568 members representing more than 30 countries. (As of the Seattle annual conference, ICMA had over 10,000 members). In addition, net contribution from the 100th Anniversary ICMA Annual Conference held in Charlotte/Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, exceeded budget by $276,393, primarily due to stronger than anticipated attendance.
  
  FY 2014 saw the beginning of a two-year transition period as ICMA revitalized business lines that were no longer sustainable in their current models, such as publishing, performance measurement, and public safety management. ICMA has shifted from print publishing to a focus on producing e-pubs so that ICMA can continue to be a thought leader and provide information to members. An enhanced performance management and analytics product (ICMA Insights™), in partnership with SAS, the leading developer of performance analytics software, was launched at the 2014 ICMA Annual Conference. ICMA also entered into a new partnership with the Center for Public Safety Management to provide direct public safety technical assistance services.
  
  The future of a post-Afghanistan funding stream as part of ICMA’s International Programs also was part of this transition. From FY 2009 to FY 2012, ICMA had international funding in excess of $16M each year (with FY 2012 having the highest levels of over $19M) primarily from funding for a variety of municipal capacity-building programs in Afghanistan. It was expected that this trend would not last. Staff were preparing for a post-Afghanistan reality of reduced funding in the range of $15M by building reserves and focusing on increasing revenues from non-grants-and-contracts sources, which grew from less than $10M in FY 2004 to $15M in FY 2015. However, the reductions in international programs came more quickly and drastically with an unanticipated termination of a project in Afghanistan in FY 2014. International program revenues fell to $15M in FY 2014 and to $8.5 in FY 2015.
  
  ICMA’s building of net assets has allowed this period of investment and assessment to occur. From FY 2004 to FY 2013, ICMA contributed approximately $5M to net assets bringing the total to $6.3M. With the FY 2014 loss of $221,236 and the FY 2015 loss of $270,396, the net asset balance at June 30, 2015, was $5,799,931. The net asset target established for FY 2018 had been $7,625,000, but the board revisited this target during the FY 2016 budget process. To ensure a gradual transition to the new level of grants and contracts funding and to continue investing in the other business lines, the board revised the net asset target to $6M by the end of FY 2018.
  
  ICMA’s auditors, Rubino & McGeehin, delivered an unqualified opinion on the financial statements (the best rating) and reported the twenty-second consecutive year of no material weaknesses.  (FY 2015 Year End Financial Results)
  
  The board expressed its sincere appreciation to ICMA staff for their extra efforts in maintaining high levels of service throughout the past year. 
  
  
• Received a report from the Task Force on Strengthening Inclusiveness in the Profession outlining its findings and recommendations. The 30-member task force, which first convened at last year’s conference, was asked to develop short- and long-term recommendations for the ICMA Executive Board designed to help achieve the membership’s core value of being an inclusive association and profession. Task force co-chairs Troy Brown, city manager, Tracy, California, and Tansy Hayward, assistant city manager, Raleigh, North Carolina, presented the report to the board. Further discussion and action on the recommendations will take place at the December 2015 board meeting.
  
  
• Reviewed the upcoming regional nominations process for selecting regional vice president nominees. The board approved eliminating a fixed date for renewal of the U.S. regional agreements that were first adopted by state presidents in 2012 and to focus instead on the process outlined for amendments with automatic renewal if no amendments are offered. The board also approved renewal of the international agreement as recommended by the International Committee. The 2015-2016 process launched in September. Candidate submissions, endorsement letters, petitions, and letters of support are due December 11, 2015.
  
  
• Approved the process for appointing a 13-member ICMA Leadership Advisory Board. This was one of the recommendations of the Task Force on Leadership presented to the board in November 2014 and included in the staff work plan approved by the board in June 2015. The Leadership Advisory Board will advise the ICMA Executive Board on policy matters, guide staff on implementation of the Leadership Task Force recommendations, adopt a definition of leadership, and make a recommendation to the Strategic Planning Task Force on how to revise the ICMA Mission Statement to reflect the commitment to leadership development and ethics as ICMA’s coequal overarching priorities. There will be two members from each of ICMA’s six regions and one member from the ICMA Executive Board appointed by the ICMA President. Suggestions for appointments will be solicited from state and affiliate associations this month.
  
  
• Reviewed progress on membership recruitment and retention in July when 173 new in-service members joined ICMA (66 Full, 28 senior affiliate, 59 early-career affiliate, and 20 intern members). There was the typical correlation between the conference host state/region and membership attraction, so that the West Coast region (particularly California and Washington) generated the most new members for the month.
  
  
• Reviewed membership recruitment and retention goals and strategies for FY2016, including building on the use of tailored state/country-based strategies to recognize the unique challenges and opportunities in each state and country, leveraging the affiliation agreements, and tapping on-the-ground resources to complement the work of headquarters staff. The model focuses on building partnerships with the states or countries to grow memberships together, rather than separately. ICMA typically has convened the conversations and executed the administrative details; the partner organization usually focuses on personal phone and e-mail outreach to target nonmembers.
  
  Recruitment is also one part of ICMA’s overall strategy to attract and build a profession that reflects the diversity of the communities served. This begins with introducing students to ICMA and the profession via the Student Chapter program; progresses to the ICMA Management Fellows Program, which introduces newly minted MPA and other graduates to their first professional position in a local government; and continues with early-career professionals for whom ICMA offers an affordable tiered dues structure ($150 first year, $175 second year, and $200 capped) plus tailored leadership and professional development programs like the Emerging Leaders Development Program. The student to early-career segment is far more diverse than the pool of current assistants and CAOs. In July 2015, ICMA rolled out a $200 flat-rate dues for department heads. These efforts to attract more affiliate members are geared to strengthening the pipeline of future managers and assistants.
  
  
• Appointed Timothy Vaill for a second four-year term to the ICMA Retirement Corporation Board of Directors and Tom Lundy, county manager, Catawba County, North Carolina, to a second two-year term as chair, beginning January 1, 2016.
  
  
• Approved 20 ICMA Credentialed Managers and 10 ICMA Credentialed Manager Candidates.
  
  
• Conducted the performance review of the executive director and of the 2014–2015 executive board. 
  
  
• Conducted a planning session for the 2015–2016 board.
  
  
• Confirmed that the board’s Audit & Evaluation Committee would be referred to as the Search Committee, chaired by President Pat Martel, for the purpose of executive director recruitment. The board also agreed that only finalist resumes of candidates would be shared with the full board and that final interviews would not be conducted during the regular board June meeting, but during one convened solely for that purpose. 
  
  
• 2015-2016 board meeting dates and sites will be December 10–13, 2015, in Little Rock, Arkansas; February 18–21, 2016, in Austin, Texas; June 2–5 2016,in Napa Valley, California; and September 22–24, 2016, in Kansas City, Missouri.