Attending: Rob Dwan, Rolly Thompson, Wayne Thompson, Bob Watada,
Felicia Kenney, Michael Kresko, James Cloutier, Dorothy Soper
James presided at the meeting. Minutes of the previous meeting had
been circulated by email and approved.
James reported that he had attended a curry dinner fundraiser
sponsored by the Columbia River RPCV group in Portland. He
reported a successful evening with a good turnout. They held a
silent auction with 6-8 items for sale.
Rolly said that there are only four calendars left to sell. She
will offer them at a good price.
Jack was unable to attend the meeting and he distributed the
treasurer's report by email a few days in advance. The board
approved the report of which highlights are below:
OCCU general fund accounts: approximately $6,100
E. Jones, Beryl's fund, money market account: $6,500
E. Jones bond, face value: $20,000
Total assets are approximately $32,300 compared to $31,900 in January.
Major expenditures in the last month were:
$500 grant to a PC project in Guatemala for a library project
$500 grant to a PC project in Tanzania for medical staff housing
Profit from the fundraiser dinner at Mekala's Restaurant held after
the Regional RPCV group meeting netted $521. More information on
this activity will be found in paragraph #13.
Jack suggested that his reports maintain the value of the bond at
its purchase price of $20,000 since its fluctuations make it
difficult to assess other financial information. We'll continue to
monitor the bond's value and can report it separately at the board
meetings. The board approved this approach. At the time of this
board meeting the bond's value was $17,605.
Dorothy reported that WCPCA now has 82 members. Three new
joined in the last month. With Felicia's agreement we'll
distribute an updated membership directory for 2009 in June.
Dorothy will send information about the new members to the board in
a separate email.
Felicia reported that she has transferred our email list of
approximately 300 individuals including both members and interested
parties to Google groups. She feels that this service is much
better than Dotster.
She'll be offering several computer classes to interested parties
beginning in April. She has circulated a proposed list of topics
to the board and will do so again.
Michael asked if there were any questions about Shannon's
suggested scoring rubric to rate Peace Corps Partnership Projects
when we are evaluating them for funding. The board approved her
suggestion enthusiastically.
We reviewed the list of volunteers to help with clean up for the
Food for Lane County fundraiser, Chefs' Night Out. Eight people
had indicated that they would help. Felicia suggested that she put
out an announcement of the activity via email once more to the full
mailing list. The board agreed to this.
Our goal is to have at least ten people. Those who have done this
before reminded everyone that volunteers are free to sample all of
the food along with the paying customers. The selections are
plentiful and outstandingly good.
At the last meeting the board indicated an interest in using the
list of RPCVs in our region that appeared in the new directory
published by the national organization to attract new members and
seek contributions for our grants.
Dorothy agreed to draft a letter and create a new kind of stationary
using the taxi design that is on the website. She'll present that
to the board at the next meeting. We'll have to make decisions
about the wording of the letter, the stationary, whether to include
a return envelope, stamped or not, etc.
We reviewed the goals that we have set for 2009 (at our
December, 2008 meeting) to determine how to direct our time and
resources. Below are the goals and the status of our work on each.
The board was pleased to see that we're pursuing the goals
successfully.
Goal #1: Continue bimonthly potlucks with a program . We've done
this and are having a good attendance and excellent programs.
Try other types of gatherings: Justin is doing some of this at the U
of O; Artis will be working on some ideas and would like a cochair
for activities.
Goal #2: Spend $1,000 to fund one or more PC Partnership Projects by
March. We've funded two projects for a total of $1,000 and thus
have already met this goal. The board anticipates making one or
more additional grants this year.
Shannon has accepted responsibility for identifying projects for the
board to evaluate and has created a scoring rubric to help with this
task.
Goal #3: Identify fundraising ideas and find people willing to
pursue them.
Wayne and Rolly agreed to do this. We completed a successful
calendar sale in January and held a successful fundraising dinner in
February. Rolly and Wayne organized both. At this time we
discussed briefly having one more fundraiser this year, perhaps at a
winery in the fall.
Goal #4: Identify local service projects for members of WCPCA to
take part in as a group .
We don't have an overall chair for this activity. The board
decided that it would like to have individual members suggest activities and present
a plan to the board for recruiting and organizing volunteers from
the organization. We have to make this decision known to our
membership to encourage participation.
The only long standing commitments that we have at this time is to
take part in two activities organized by Food for Lane County,
Chefs' Night Out and Empty Bowl.
The board members who are interested have been able to get their
names on the Group Leaders list of the NRPCVA. Anne Baker is the
contact for this matter at the national organization.
The national organization has asked that each affiliate group
identify a contact person to receive information about plans for the
celebration of the 50th anniversary of the PC. Rolly will be that
person for WCPCA.
James gave a brief report on the regional meeting held on
February 21st. Joe Hindman, WCPCA member and NPCA representative
for the western region, presided. The WCPCA group was well
represented with 13 members and guests present. Members of other
western region organizations who came were: Richard Ireland of the
Columbia River RPCVA, Portland, OR, Sam Greer from Boise, Idaho,
Aileen Lie, Paulette Thompson (Seattle liaison to the NPCA board),
and Joana Ramos from the Seattle, WA, RPCV organization, SEAPAX.
WCPCA provided a hearty potluck with one purchased item from Cafe
Yumm. Evangelina secured the donation of a cake from Sweet Life.
Our members housed several of those who attended from out of town.
The meeting went well and the minutes are posted on our website.
The board thanked Rolly for the overall organization of the event
and Shannon and Evangelina for their help.
A main concern that we have is to secure an up to date list of all
of the RPCV organizations in the western region and a contact person
for each. Joe Hindman will secure this for us.
More recently it was suggested by the Seattle group that the next
meeting which will be in May be held by teleconference. The
board agreed with some reservations. It would like an actual
meeting with a teleconference backup. This seems reasonable since
the western region is huge; it includes the states of Washington,
Oregon, Idaho, California, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Montana and the
US territories in the Pacific.
Dorothy will let the SEAPAX group know of our view.
At the regional meeting board members learned that there is an
agreement in place that each organization will contribute annually
to the expenses of the regional representative. $1 per member is
the suggested contribution. The board decided to contribute $100
to Joe for his expenses this year as the regional representative.
Wayne reported on the fundraiser dinner at Mekala's on February
21st after the regional meeting. The dinner sold out and then
some. About 75 people came. Our profit was $521. Wayne was
pleased with Mekala's food and service, especially since more food
than anticipated was needed. He thanked Jack and Mary Meacham for
their work.
Artis, cochair for activities, asked for some suggestions of
activities. Board members suggested activities that could include
children such as a picnic in a park, possibly with baby sitting
available.
The next board meeting will be on Monday, April 13th, 7:00 pm,
at the home of Jack and Mary Meacham.
