Update on Negotiating Committee - recap of April 2020 meeting

[Donna Charlevoix]

Dear UNAVCO Colleagues,


On April 6th and 7th, the joint UNAVCO/IRIS negotiation committee held its 3
rd meeting. Originally scheduled to be a full day in Chicago, our meeting
was successfully held as two, half-day video conferences. As with prior
in-person meetings, the discussion reflected the tremendous alignment and
collaborative potential of the two consortia. Many discussions were
significantly advanced.


   -

   We welcomed UNAVCO board member Ronni Grapenthin to the committee. He
   replaces UNAVCO Board member Andrea Donnellan.
   -

   Robert Gagosian joined the meeting to share his experience as the
   initial President and CEO of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, which
   formed through the successful 2007 merger of the Consortium for
   Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE) and the Joint Oceanographic
   Institutions (JOI). He shared lessons learned from the merger and
   integration process and answered questions from the committee.
   -

   The committee reaffirmed our commitment to a merger of equals and
   discussed research on the legal options for executing the merger, with
   guidance from experienced nonprofit consortium merger attorneys, including
   a review of the benefits and costs of several technical variations.
   The discussion also included a review of the contracts and liabilities of
   each organization that would inform the legal options.
   -

   Staff from both organizations shared data on the financials, personnel
   policies, and benefit packages of each organization to inform discussion of
   the integration structure and costs.
   -

   We began to discuss criteria for which functions and activities of the
   new organization might be co-located. We also discussed a community-informed
   process by which locations would be chosen for these facilities and offices.
   -

   The committee developed a draft timeline for merger and transition
   activities. The timeline will include substantial efforts to inform and
   engage our members prior to any decisions being made. We assigned subgroups
   to further develop the member engagement and transition plans.
   -

   We scheduled our next Negotiation Team meeting for June 16th and 17th via
   video conference.

We are excited about the progress we have made through careful and
thoughtful research and deliberation. The vision of a strong, combined
geophysical consortium is beginning to take shape. We look forward to your
questions and input this summer prior to the development of formal
recommendations for approval.


Thank you for your continued support of UNAVCO. If you have questions
please reach out.


Becks Bendick, UNAVCO President, bendick at unavco.org

Lucy Flesch, Chair, UNAVCO Board of Directors, lmflesch at purdue.edu
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