The board meeting was held at Jack Meacham's home. Minutes of the
previous meeting had been circulated and approved via email.
Attending: Bob and Rosa Watada, Jack Meacham, Michael Kresko, James
Cloutier, John Hofer, Felicia Kenney, Dorothy Soper.
James presided at the meeting.
The board reconfirmed its earlier decision to establish an
endowed fund to be called "The Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund" with
the Oregon Community Foundation. The $25,000 to be used for this
purpose came largely from gifts to WCPCA from Tricia Tate, Natalie
Brinkman, and Tami Beach. Funds for these gifts came from Beryl's
estate.
We approved the two documents that James needs to sign to establish
the fund. Dorothy will let our adviser from OCF, Sara Brandt, know
of our decision. When the documents are printed in final form, James
will sign them and Jack will prepare a check for the necessary
amount. We'll announce the creation of the fund at the October 9th
potluck.
We discussed the organization of our potlucks. The board agreed
to talk further about which nights to schedule the potlucks
including the possibility of their being on alternating Friday and
Sunday nights, and their frequency at the October board meeting.
The board reviewed and accepted the treasurer's report. Current
assets are the following:
OCCU general fund accounts (checking and savings), $4,918
OCCU, Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund account, approx. $672
Edward Jones, Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund, $26,479
Total assets: approx. $32,069
The board discussed our awarding $1,000 in grants to one or more
humanitarian projects this fall. We have already made two $500
grants to Peace Corps Partnership projects this year. We originally
budgeted the award of another $1,000 using funds from the Beryl
Brinkman Memorial Fund. There is enough money in the fund to permit
us to establish the endowed fund at OCF as well as to make one or
more additional awards for a total of $1,000.
The board passed a motion made by Michael to award an additional
$1,000 in grants and to ask Shannon to identify 3 or 4 PC
Partnership projects for us to consider at the next board meeting.
Other projects can be suggested by board members or the general
membership. We'll ask for suggestions in the next newsletter.
Felicia has an inventory of our tee shirts and will put
information relevant to their sale on the website.
She received a request from a university student to use a photo from
Guatemala (1992) that is on our website. The board approved the
request and asked Felicia to stipulate that the source of the photo
be acknowledged.
Felicia asked our response to a request from a State Dept. social
networking site to be on the site. She'll send the board that link
(again) so that members can check on it. We'll decide about this at
the next meeting.
Dorothy reported that we have approximately 116 members; there
were four renewals in August and September and nine people signed up
to learn more about WCPCA at the Saturday Market and the Eugene
Celebration.
At Dorothy's request the board set the January potluck on Friday,
January 22nd, so that Nancy and Walt Meyer will be able to provide
our program. They were PCVs in Mexico, 2006-08, and are WCPCA
members.
The board debriefed the organization's having a booth for two
weekends in August at the Saturday Market and also our participation
in the Eugene Celebration.
Saturday Market: We had a booth to distribute information about the
PC and WCPCA and to sell calendars and shirts. A few people signed
up to learn more about WCPCA. We earned $51 in sales and a donation.
There was no cost for the booth space.
Eugene Celebration: We took part in both the parade and in the
nonprofit booth area. About 20 people participated in the parade.
This number was down from last year's probably because of the rain.
Those watching the parade received the group very well.
James felt that we needed more people to help in all phases of the
work: set up, staffing the booth, take down. The board thanked Artis
for organizing the staff via email. She also sent out hand written
personal "thank you" notes to all participants.
The board thought about having sign ups for participation in both of
these activities at the potlucks one and two months in advance.
The cost of our participation in the Eugene Celebration was $130. We
sold $233 worth of merchandise.
The board felt that both activities had been a good investment of
our time. We liked that fact that we earned enough to cover our
expenses and possibly recruited new members.
Michael and James noted that we are committed to having a booth
at the Holiday Market this year on the weekend of December 12th and
13th. Set up will be on December 11th. The board talked about
organizing a phone tree within the membership to identify people
willing to staff this booth.
Bob Watada reported on a conference that he attended on September
10th on behalf of the organization, "Making the Case for Endowment,"
presented by the Oregon Community Foundation. He gave us an overview
of how OCF works and the fact that it encourages those who have
funds with it to do further fundraising to augment their funds.
The board developed the latter point and at our next meeting will
talk about sending a fundraising letter to our membership to ask for
donations to the endowed fund that we are about to establish with
the OCF. Jack suggested our checking with Sara Brandt of OCF to see
if she can give us a copy of a letter already used for this purpose.
Dorothy will ask Sara about that.
We talked about our participation in the Empty Bowls fundraiser
sponsored by Food for Lane County on October 10th. WCPCA has longed
volunteered as the clean up crew for this event.
Our discussion centered on how to recruit our members to take part
since few have volunteered to date. This is an activity that
Shannon, Michael, and John are working on. We agreed to put a notice
in the next newsletter. Information is already on the website with
Shannon as the contact person.
Michael and James will work on organizing a phone tree among the
membership. Use of a phone tree for such a purpose came up again
with reference to recruiting members to staff the PC booth during
the Street Faire at the U of O in early October.
Justin sent us an announcement about his organizing a Peace Corps
booth for the U of O Street Faire, October 7-9. He's looking for
volunteers to help staff the booth. Below is the email that he plans
to send to the WCPCA membership:
Volunteers Needed! Share your Peace Corps stories and talk to an
entering generation of Peace Corps applicants. The UO Street Faire
takes place at the beginning of the school year and offers students
the opportunity to speak directly with RPCVs. Email Justin
Overdevest, the UO Peace Corps representative, at pcorps@uoregon.edu
to sign up for a 2 hour volunteer time block. Blocks run from
Wednesday the 7th thru Friday the 9th. 10am-12pm, 12pm-2pm, 2pm-4pm.
We can include this information in the next newsletter but we don't
need to send it out as a separate email since Justin will be doing
that.
Justin and Dorothy have been working on the next WCPCA potluck,
which is a regular potluck, on Friday, October 9th, at the
conclusion of the Street Faire. We hope that by holding it on the
campus we will develop a rapport with both returned and aspiring
volunteers at the U of O. The potluck will be at the Many Nations
Longhouse at 6:00 pm. WCPCA members are asked to bring salads and
desserts. Students are exempt from bringing a dish. Justin will help
publicize the event by including it in an email to students and in
flyers to be given out at the Street Faire booth.
The board approved the expenditure of funds to purchase additional
food and soda for the above dinner using the budget line item
"Refreshments/community service...$150" that is already in the
budget.
The evolving program for this potluck is the following:
- Justin's overview of the PC, 10 minutes.
- Announcement of the creation of the Beryl Brinkman Memorial
Fund at the OCF.
- Introduction of Tricia Tate, primary donor of the funds for the
above. We'll present her with a painting by James as a gift of the
organization.
- Slide show/presentation by Jaxon Love, WCPCA member and recently
returned PCV who served in Jordan, 2006-08. Jaxon is now a graduate
student at the U of O School of Business.
Jim Beyer sent the report of the nomination committee. The board
thanked Jim for his work and accepted the report. Nominations are:
Officers:
President: James Cloutier
Vice President: vacant
Treasurer: Jack Meacham
Secretary: Dorothy Soper
Communications Coordinator: Felicia Kenny
Board Members- At -Large:
Maggie Keenan
Evangelina Sundgrenz
Wayne Thompson
John Hofer
Michael Kresko
Shannon Micheel
Geoff Walser
Bob Watada
Rolly Thompson
The board discussed how to prepare a final list of nominees. Dorothy
offered to step in to the role of vice president, leaving the office
of secretary vacant. Board members agreed to contact other members
to see if more will agree to join the board and to identify someone
who will agree to be the secretary.
The board agreed to talk at its next meeting about a possible
fall fundraiser. Ideas included a social event similar to the dinner
at Mekala's that we held in February, and a letter to members as
already mentioned in item # 7.
We scheduled our next board meeting on Thursday, October 15th.
The meeting place is yet to be determined.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 pm.
Minutes by Dorothy
