WCPCA Board Meeting Minutes - October 15, 2009

Attending: Bob Watada, Rosa Sakanishi, Wayne Thompson, Rolly Thompson, Jack Meacham, Michael Kresko, Dorothy Soper

Minutes of the previous board meeting had been circulated by email and approved prior to the meeting. Rolly presided at the meeting. James and Justin were ill and unable to attend.

1. Treasurer's report: Jack had circulated the treasurer's report via email prior to the meeting. For clarity Jack changed slightly the way the balance sheet is organized and he explained that. Below is a summary of account balances and points of discussion.

   Current OCCU account balances:

   General funds, saving and checking: $5,253
   Restricted funds (separate account): $2,152
   Total at OCCU: $7,406

   Jack clarified that all income to WCPCA is initially placed in the general accounts (checking and savings). The board decides which sums to transfer to the "restricted" account which is available only to support humanitarian programs/projects or to augment the principal of the Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund. We noted that some donations or profits from fundraising activities will be earmarked for the "restricted" account prior to our receiving them.

   In the last month WCPCA created the Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund at the Oregon Community Foundation with a deposit of $25,000. This is an endowed fund; we cannot spend the principal. Distributions that WCPCA receives of the fund's earnings will be placed in the "restricted" account at OCCU.

   When Jack lists the WCPCA assets on the balance sheet, he will not list the principal of the BBMF. That information will be listed elsewhere.

   With the board's endorsement via email Jack closed the WCPCA accounts at Edward Jones. These accounts were created to hold the donated funds that were intended to create the Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund. Most were deposited in that fund; the remainder were transferred to the "restricted" account at OCCU.

   The board accepted the treasurer's report.

2. Networking: We discussed WCPCA as a networking organization. In this connection Michael suggested that we might offer to list the professions or businesses of our members in the membership directory. We agreed that one or two lines following the current information might work. Dorothy will check with Felicia about the feasibility of doing this given our current software. If we go forward with this, the information will be in the next edition of the directory.

3. Membership: Dorothy reported that five new members joined the organization in the last month bringing our total membership to 121. Three of the new members are students who joined at the October potluck. One new member was responding to the recruiting mailing in June. In total 12 people have joined as a result of that mailing.

4. We debriefed the activities of October 7-10 as follows:

   1. Street Faire: Justin organized the PC booth at the Street Faire, October 7-9, and had indicated earlier that he felt that it attracted a good number of students. James Cloutier and Jack Meacham worked at the booth.

      The information sessions that Justin held in the evenings were well attended. Justin was ill at the time of the board meeting and thus couldn't give us further information at the meeting.

   2. Potluck: We debriefed the October 9th potluck. It differed from our usual format since we held it on the U of O campus at the Longhouse and Justin issued a special invitation to students to join us. The latter were exempt from bringing a dish.

      About 55 people came of whom approximately 20 were students. We felt that this was a good turnout. Several board members talked to the guests and felt that they appreciated the evening. We spent $140 for food which is a significant departure from the low cost of usual potlucks.

      Everyone thought that the speaker, Jaxon Love, who described his project in Jordan, 2006-08, did an excellent job that was particularly helpful to prospective volunteers. Three students joined WCPCA that evening. The board felt that the Longhouse was a good setting for the event and that the meeting had to be on the U of O campus to attract students.

      The board was pleased to announce the creation of the Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund at the potluck and to honor the primary donor, Tricia Tate, by presenting her with a painting by James Cloutier.

      George and Diane Jeffcott worked as greeters. They and other WCPCA members helped with the clean up.

   3. Empty Bowls: Shannon sent a report about the Empty Bowls activity on Saturday night, October 10th. Shannon had coordinated the recruiting of volunteers from WCPCA to help Food for Lane County with this fundraiser. Members who worked at the event were James Cloutier, John Hofer, Thomas Mason, Jack and Mary Meacham, and Shannon Micheel.

      Jack reported that the group was very well received and treated to an excellent dinner. The clean up work was significant and more volunteers from WCPCA would have been appreciated by all.

5. Volunteer activities: Dorothy told the board that John Hofer, who will join the board in 2010, will accept the responsibility to identify volunteer opportunities for the WCPCA membership next year. John has been working with Shannon to learn what she has been doing in this effort.

6. Grants: At the September meeting the board agreed to award $1,000 in one or more grants to humanitarian programs or projects at the October meeting. The September newsletter asked for suggestions from the general membership but there were none.

   Shannon has the board responsibility to identify and send information to the board about PC Partnership projects that involve an Oregon PCV and that are available for funding. She identified and circulated information about three such projects. Rolly identifed a fourth project that was listed on the PC website immediately prior to our meeting. All of these projects have 501 status with the IRS. (PCP projects automatically have this status through the Peace Corps and donations are made directly to the PC.)

   The board reviewed these seven projects using the scoring rubric that Shannon has developed. We concluded our discussion by awarding $250 to Students Helping Street Kids International (SHISKI), and $750 to a Peace Corps Partnership project in Ghana called "Bore Hole" that involves a PCV from Oregon. Jack will make the donations.

   SHISKI is a program founded in 1997 by WCPCA member, Bob Crites, to fund the education of Brazilian children who live in poverty. The Ghanaian project will fund the digging of a bore hole to provide well water to a hostel for 400 young women who live apart from their families in a Ghanaian city and survive by doing menial jobs. More information about these projects will be in the October newsletter.

   With this decision the 2009 board has awarded a total of $2,000 this year to humanitarian projects.

7. Calendars: Rolly gave us an update on the sale of international calendars. She will email the full email list to let people know about them and also ask people to sell them to friends.

   Calendars can be purchased through the website and will be on sale at our booth at the Holiday Market. We anticipate selling 200 calendars for this major fund raiser.

8. Speakers: We discussed possible speakers for future potlucks or other programs.

9. Holiday Market: Michael is coordinating the WCPCA booth at the Holiday Market. He'll write an article about this for the October newsletter and will ask for volunteers to staff the booth.

10. Future meeting dates and programs:

    1. November board meeting: We changed our board meeting night to Wednesday to respond to the requests of new board members. The next board meeting will be on Wednesday, November 11th, 7:00 pm at the home of Dorothy Soper.

    2. December board meeting: Wednesday, December 9th, 7:00 pm, home of Shannon Micheel and Michael Kresko.

    3. November potluck which is also the annual meeting will be on Friday, November 13th, 6:00 pm. Place and full program yet to be decided. Program will include reports about the board's work in 2009 by Rolly and Jack and the election of board members for 2010.

    4. January potluck: Friday, January 22nd, 6:00 pm, home of Nancy and Walt Meyer. Nancy and Walt will present a slide show to describe their project in Mexico, 2006-2008.

Minutes by Dorothy