Board Meeting - December 11, 2008

Minutes for the board meeting of 12/11/08
at the home of Jack and Mary Meacham

This was a joint meeting that included members of the outgoing and incoming boards. Attending: James Cloutier, Evangelina Sundgrenz, Maggie Keenan, Justin Overdevest, Jack Meacham, Mary Meacham, Wayne Thompson, Rolly Thompson, Dorothy Soper

The board welcomed Maggie Keenan as a new board member at large. She was elected by the board via email at the beginning of December.

Minutes of the previous board meeting had been circulated and approved via email and posted on the website. Minutes of the annual meeting of the full membership on 11/14/08 have been posted on the website. At that meeting the 2009 board members were elected and changes made to the constitution and bylaws. These items have been posted on the website.

Reports:

1. Evangelina, the outgoing treasurer, had submitted a final report for 2008 at the general meeting in November. At this meeting she brought that report up to date and explained that she had handed over to Jack Meacham, the new treasurer, the organization's books.

   A summary of the final treasurer's report is below.

   Current Assets
   Checking account at OCCU	$2,864
   Savings account	$5.00
   Beryl's Memorial Fund invested at Edward Jones
   Current value of the bond	$16,800
   Money market account	$8,563

   Our annual operating expenses are approximately $900- $1,000. Our goal is to pay this sum with membership dues. We met that goal in 2008.

   We awarded $1,000 in two grants. Our total expenditure including the grants was $2,388.

   Our total revenue made up of membership dues, calendar, card, and shirt sales, interest on the checking account only, and donations was $2,927. Total donations for 2008 were $765.

   Jack will draft a budget for 2009 to present at the January board meeting.

2. Dorothy gave the membership report. Included in the figures this month are all of the people who have joined through the national organization during their first year after PC service. They pay no membership dues. Including that group, our total membership is 83. This includes 14 couples and 55 individuals. In November about a dozen people renewed their membership and five new members joined.

   In 2008 we received approximately $1,150 in dues. This figure will probably drop somewhat in 2009 because some of those who paid in early 2008 have a two year membership. With a constant membership number our projected dues for 2009 are $663; for 2010 they are $998.

   We hope to make up for reducing the cost of the dues by expanding our membership.

3. Maggie suggested that board members have a business card with WCPCA contact information to use to recruit new members. The board agreed.

   Evangelina will work on this and report back in January.

4. Rolly confirmed that our next potluck will be on Friday, January 16th, 6:00 pm, at the home of Mike and Chris Helm, 1147 E. 26th Avenue, Eugene. Their phone number is 484-4626.

   Hannah Klausmann will present our program. She is a recently returned PCV from Eugene. Her service was as a high school teacher in Mongolia. Hannah received a grant for her project from WCPCA. She'll describe her project and the area of Mongolia where she lived and show photos that she took.

5. Rolly also reported on her work on the sale of the international calendars. This is our primary fundraising project for 2008. We had a table at the Holiday Market on November 29-30. Some calendars are being sold at local stores. Some members are making individual sales. The calendars are also in the shopping portion of the website. We ordered 200 calendars this year and Rolly expects that they all will be sold.

6. The next portion of the board meeting was devoted to brainstorming ideas for board priorities and action in 2009. To begin each board member shared what his/her ideas were for action/goals. These ideas are summarized below.

   • The board should set a goal for awarding grants. Possibly two grants of $1,000 each to PC Partnership Projects or another worthy program. At least one of the two grants should go to a PC project. Fundraising should then be directed to serving this goal.

   • Fundraising ideas: Further organizing our sales program and coordinating it with postings on the website; continually updating the latter. At least one fundraising project per year should include the opportunity to socialize. Activities should emphasize values that the organization endorses such as sustainability. Also emphasize unique aspects of the PCV experience.

7. Maggie offered several suggestions for developing our electronic newsletter. She's thinking of our having a special feature from time to time: personal experiences of PCVs in the field; recipes from different countries. We all agreed that the newsletter could be developed further and thus possibly gain a greater reading audience.

8. Justin would like to develop connections between students at the U of O and WCPCA. Some ideas include meeting(s) to discuss books that everyone has read; going to a movie as a group; social meetings at the Longhouse. These meetings could coordinate with the potluck schedule by being on the alternate month. WCPCA members as well as students would be the target group. Other board members welcomed these possibilities. Justin would also like to publicize the fact that the U of O is among the top ten universities for supplying PCVs and the state of Oregon among the top three states. Wow!!

9. Rolly observed that the board needs to recruit members at large to help with various projects through the year. The board agreed.

10. The board agreed on the following items that will guide its work of learning, philanthropy, and service in 2009:

    • Goal #1: continue bimonthly potlucks with a program at each; work on developing an alternative activity for the alternate months.

    • Goal #2: award grants to the PC Partnership Projects of three to five Oregon PCVs. Consider funding other humanitarian projects. We didn't set the timing of the awards.

    • Goal #3: identify and carry out fundraising to offer grants and also to add funds to the principal of Beryl's Memorial Fund. This fund is invested and its proceeds are available for grants. Ideas include sending out a fundraising letter to potential donors, one socializing type of activity, continue to sell calendars.

    • Goal #4: continue to volunteer in local service projects

11. With the above goals in mind, the board identified some specific responsibilities to support them and began to identify those who might accept the jobs. These responsibilities are in addition to those specified in the bylaws.

    • developing the newsletter further (Maggie)

    • membership, membership directory (Dorothy)

    • selecting projects to propose to the board for funding

    • maintaining and developing the website and membership database (Felicia)

    • overseeing fundraising

    • coordinating service in local projects

    Further work to find people on or off of the board to accept these responsibilities will be necessary. Volunteers are most welcome!

12. Justin and James reported on their arrangements for the regional RPCV group meeting this winter. WCPCA is the host. Work on these arrangements will proceed and details will be posted on the website. All WCPCA members are invited and may suggest agenda items to Rolly or Dorothy.

    As the host group, members of WCPCA will offer a place to stay for our guests. Please let Dorothy know if you can help with this. Thanks in advance.

13. Next board meeting: The next board meeting will be on Monday, January 12th, 7:00pm, at Dorothy's home.

Addendum: Later in December the board voted via email to keep restricted and unrestricted funds in separate accounts. This decision will mean that all funds dedicated by donors or the board to Beryl's Memorial Fund will be in accounts separate from general funds. 12/24/08

Minutes by Dorothy

Approved by the board via email.