Diaper services have done a great job of assessing need, based on the specific and abundant email inquiries they receive, and they are creating a How to Start a Diaper Service kt to meet one of those needs. They receive 50-75 emails a week from those interested in starting diaper services. There is a potential explosion of growth in this area of our industry.

Annual meeting and board elections are big projects that are moving along smoothly.  Be sure to register for the ABC Show now and make your plans to stay in Las Vegas through October 14-15 for the annual cloth diaper business meetings.

Lori Taylor
Fuzbaby and Firefly Diapers
Secretary, Real Diaper Industry Association

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Real Diaper Industry Association
Board Meeting, June 16, 2010
Conference Call

Present: Leah Carter, Lori Taylor, Dave Milligan, Mandi Meidlinger, Peter Allen, Judy Aagard, Shirley Murdock.  Guest: Jennifer Moore Temple.  Regrets: Shayla Boyd-Gill.  Facilitating: Leah Carter.  Notes: Lori Taylor.  Admin: Rachel Aube.

Meeting called to order at 10:03AM with presence of a quorum.

How to Start a Diaper Service Kit. Project chair and former board member, Jennifer Moore Temple joined the meeting to talk about progress on the kit.  The committee has put together their combined knowledge, and Jennifer and Judy are editing the draft.  They expect a finished product at the annual meeting.  They would like to hire a professional to do graphic design and layout of the kit.  Board approved $500 for kit design.  The cost for a living document will be $350 for electronic and printed version.  Board discussed either inclusion of product samples or a separate product sample kit.
Board Retreat. All present confirm their attendance at the August retreat in Atlanta, pending board elections.  Leah has scheduled strategic planning, recruiting skills, team building, a business meeting, and a tour of a landfill.

Annual Meeting. Registration on the site within 2-3 weeks.  The sponsorship document nearly finalized.  Dave is getting mixed reviews about the dates of the annual meeting after the ABC Show.  Most understand that this was done to accommodate manufacturers.  Weekdays are very difficult for diaper services, and weekends are very difficult for retailers.  We will need to continue to accommodate different needs.

PR Funds. Last month we put funds toward PR, but we aren’t going to use all of that money.  Should this go toward the Consider Cloth project?  Board members discuss whether funds would go to birth educator diaper demo kits or to the consumer-oriented campaign.

Marketing Update. In survey answers so far, members want to donate either monthly or quarterly rather than annually.  All want measurable ROI.

June Member Discussion. Dave will lead Meet the Candidates discussion.  He can use the interview questions developed last year.

Board Elections. Nominations are in for the four terms expiring this year.  Ballots will go out July 5th; due July 26th.  Announce new board members at the July member discussion.  Two bylaw changes may potentially be on the ballot as well: Jr Member category and minor board member clarification.

Member Phone Calls. Members have been happy to hear from Leah.  She encouraged them to use forums and member news feed.  Most will attend ABC and the annual meeting.

Member Media Tools. Work will begin this week on a member press release. Judy is interested in having more releases available for members to use.

Meeting adjourned 11:09AM.

Tags: Board

The Real Diaper Industry Association board elections are underway. Nominations were due this week for the four open positions on the board, and we would like to introduce the candidates.

Manufacturer
Shirley Murdock (Bummis)
Ada Vaughan (Cutey Baby)

Retailer
Tamara Champion (ByNature.ca)
Matt Guckin (Diaper Junction)
Mandi Meidlinger (Jillian’s Drawers)

Diaper Service
Peter Allen (Do Good Diapers)

Diaper Info Service
[none]

All of these terms are three years, 2010-2013. Ballots will go out to members on July 5th. New board members will be announced after votes are counted at the end of July, and members and guests are invited to meet the whole board and other RDIA members at the annual meeting October 14-15 in Las Vegas.

Before then, though, all members will be invited to Meet the Candidates during the regular monthly discussion on the 4th Wednesday of the month, which is next week. Dave Milligan (Bambino Mio – Manufacturer) and Leah Carter (Better for Babies / little beetle – Manufacturer) will have questions for the candidates, and they welcome members to bring their own questions as well.

Watch out for Dave. He has some ideas to stir up the discussion.

Tags: board elections

Committees and board members have been working on great projects. We are wrapping up nominations for the board of directors and looking forward to a Meet the Candidates discussion June 23rd. The Marketing Committee is working on several updates to the Consider Cloth campaign and has sent a survey to all members. A lot of the board’s work is in support of these and other projects.

With diapers in the news, we have also provided new member media tools, including a member news feed. Members should see guidelines on the members section of the website, then send your stories and press releases to info@realdiaperindustry.org. This is a great way for us as members to know what is happening with our colleagues.

Also, several board members volunteered to call members. Between us, we are calling a couple dozen members each to encourage them to attend the annual meeting and to make sure they know what is going on with the association. All members contacted so far have seemed very happy to have the personal contact. This is another way to make the connections that hold us together as an industry.

Lori Taylor
Fuzbaby and Firefly Diapers
Secretary, Real Diaper Industry Association

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Real Diaper Industry Association
Board Meeting, June 2, 2010
Conference Call

Present: Dave Milligan, Lori Taylor, Mandi Meidlinger, Peter Allen, Shirley Murdock, Shayla Boyd-Gill, Judy Aagard. Facilitating: Shayla Boyd-Gill. Notes: Lori Taylor.

Meeting called to order 1:04PM Eastern Time with presence of a quorum.

Minutes. Board approved minutes from 5/19/2010 meeting.

Code of Ethics. The original document from 2008 was approved with a typo. Item “11” was listed as “12.” The board approved correcting that typo to make the last item “11.”

Rash Site. Mandi has been gathering research, compiling a spreadsheet, comparing studies on diaper rash. She will work on a survey. The site itself isn’t urgent but Mandi will work on it soon.

Annual Meeting. Internet access and streaming the meeting is prohibitively expensive. Last year people used their own phones, laptops, and projectors. We may be able to provide some A/V equipment. Sponsorships will be offered in levels rather than for specific events. All is coming together nicely.

PR Update. Members are seeking cloth diaper PR. A new Member News feed on the website gives members a place to publicize. Guidelines for inclusion will be added to members section of website. Page has an RSS feed.

Board Nominations. Any board members who are planning to run again need to have their forms mailed to the Kirkland address by June 15th.

Phone Calls to Members. Shayla, Shirley, and Dave reported on calls they have made. All seemed happy to have someone from the board call them, glad to see committees active, many excited about monthly member discussions. Some won’t be attending the annual meeting either because of the expense or because they couldn’t spare the time away.

Newsletter. A newsletter will go out this week. Send any additions to Lori.

Rachel. Rachel to attend board meetings, so she will be better informed about big projects.

Meeting adjourned at 12:04PM.

Tags: Board

The board listened to a presentation on budget from Treasurer, Dennis Frederick, then we had a great discussion on fundraising. A lot of the ideas add real value to what we are already doing for members.

We are also excited to see the progress the Annual Meeting Committee has been making in putting together a great annual meeting for October 14-15. (Registration will begin soon, and non-members are welcome to join us.)

Lori Taylor
Fuzbaby and Firefly Diapers
Secretary, Real Diaper Industry Association

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Real Diaper Industry Association
Board Meeting, May 19, 2010
Conference call

Present: Leah Carter, Dave Milligan, Lori Taylor, Shirley Murdock, Mandi Meidlinger, Peter Allen, Judy Aagard, Shayla Boyd-Gill. Facilitating: Leah Carter. Notes: Lori Taylor.

Meeting called to order 1:02PM Eastern Time with presence of a quorum.

Annual Meeting. Keynote will be Guy Schanschieff of Bambino Mio. Annual board meeting will be Thursday afternoon. Annual Meeting Committee will create meeting package, with the Executive Committee contributing the annual report section. Sponsorship package will be ready soon.

Budget. Dennis (Treasurer) asked for income generation ideas. Among them: new trade members, new associate members, handling fee for Consider Cloth kit to cover admin costs, charge for levels of How to Start a Diaper Service kit, donations, sell cloth diaper advocacy gear, and investments from industries that are helped by what we do. Board approved Consider Cloth kit price increase from $15 to $25 and an annual listing fee of $100 for Diaper Service Resource Directory.

Member phone calls. Volunteers will each receive a list of about 20 names.

Monthly member discussion. Little support for a bylaw change to allow membership of manufacturers who make disposable diapers, so Bylaw Committee report recommended against further action. Board approved Bylaw Committee final report and distribution of report to members.

Projects. The cloth-diaper-friendly daycare directory is ready for approval before removing dummy records and going public.

PR Campaign. The association would like to engage in positive PR for cloth diapers. Campaign to include tools for members to engage press, legal cautions from attorney, and supporting materials. Board members approved funds toward a campaign and agreed to be active in upcoming email discussions about details. Next week’s member discussion could outline the conclusions.

Nominations. If any board member is planning to run again, please submit nomination forms by June 14th to the Kirkland address.

Tags: Board

May 26th during our monthly member call, we discussed the possibility of adding a new member category.  Please read the short report below for more information.  Members will be asked to vote on this bylaw change during the July balloting.

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Report on potential addition of new category to RDIA bylaws

Leading discussion was Dennis Frederick (All Together Diaper), a board member and member of both the Membership Review Committee and the Junior Member Bylaw Committee.

Membership is limited to those “engaged in business,” but RDIA receives a lot of requests from start-up businesses who would like to join the association while they are in the planning or start-up phase. Since trade members are voting members, who can run for the board and serve as officers guiding the association, it doesn’t seem fitting that those who are not yet operating a business in our industry should be allowed to take on such a role. Still, providing a path to full membership for start-up businesses seems to be in alignment with the purpose of RDIA , which is to grow the cloth diaper industry.

To accommodate and even welcome start-up businesses, a new non-voting Junior member category has been discussed. We have a non-voting Associate member category already. Associate members are those who share RDIA goals but are not in the trade of cloth diapers.

The proposal for the Junior member category includes:

• · Dues equal to the lowest, currently $100 annually.
• · Allow board to request a business plan before granting Junior membership.
• · Must be conducting business, out of the start-up phase, and a full trade member within two years.
• · With proof of operation, the member can become a full trade member without payment of additional dues.
• · Other than voting and board representation, all benefits would be available. They could volunteer for a committee or even serve as Chair.

How many people would this category serve?

As far as we know, fewer than half a dozen members have been turned away so far because they were in the start-up phase. We do get at least that many questions a week from potential new business owners, though.

Could the name be changed to Interim member or Start-up member?

The name Junior was drawn from other organizations, like Junior Chamber of Commerce. The name itself isn’t important. A poll of those on the call resulted in 45% for “Interim Member,” 36% for “Start-up Member,” and 18% for “Junior Member.” Since the support for a name change is quite clear, the Committee will consider a name change.

How can the association assess clear intent to start a cloth diaper business?

There is some concern that a low barrier creates more competition within the industry. Access to research seems like a big draw both for those who should be in the association and those who shouldn’t. We do want to serve those who are genuinely in the start-up process without just opening up to those who are curious without real intent. The proposal that the Membership Review Committee be allowed to ask for a business plan was added to try to avoid a situation that is too open.

A poll of those on the call results in 80% wanting to create a new category and 20% not sure. The interest seems strong enough that the Junior Member Bylaw Committee of Dennis Frederick (All Together Diaper) and Ann-Marie Speirs (Cozy Baby Boutique) will move forward. After the details are given to the attorney to draft a change to the bylaws, that change will be brought to all members on a paper ballot in July.

Tags: bylaws, jr members, Members