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Minutes Of The WCPCA Board Meeting, January 9, 2012
Location:
Home of Dorothy Soper
Attendees:
Miriam Aiken, Keith Beyer, James Cloutier, Josette Greene, Maggie
Keenan, Felicia Kenney, Dale Morse, and Dorothy Soper
Guest:
Easther Chigumira, U of O student in Department of Geography, from
Zimbabwe
Welcome to Easter Chigumira, guest
from the University of Oregon
Updates
Newsletter – January
newsletter distributed to members. Board members should read
article about Cassady Walters, PCV in Mali, now in Mali.
Question: do we
want a Comments section on the first page of the newsletter for
members to send comments about articles? Agreed to try it. The Board approved a $300 grant
in December 2011 to the “Gender Empowerment Weekends” in
Ukraine; it was sent and accepted. The PCV who organized weekends
is from Oregon.
Dorothy is going to make a
presentation at OASIS on February 22nd
at 1:00. The topic is the “Peace Corps at 50”. She
asked if others would be interested in participating. She suggested
a panel style presentation similar to the one for the League of
Women Voters in 2011. James will go and Dorothy asked for one other
person. Felicia will set up the technical part of the DVD about the
Peace Corps. Dorothy will also ask Hannah Klausman (U. of O. Peace
Corps Recruiter).
Campout in August. Sam
Greer has reserved 12 tent sites for August 2 – 5 at Sunset
Bay. Each site can accommodate 2 cars with space for 6 – 8
people per tent site. There is a $20 registration fee per adult and
$10 for youth ages 10 – 18 for campsite and dinner. The
meeting is mostly a social event with a meeting at the potluck
dinner in the Gazebo Meeting Hall. WCPCA is responsible for the
dinner. Sam will be asked to join the board meeting in February or
March to talk about the arrangements and events at the campout.
Felicia will create a web site on WCPCA’s site for the
campout. We need to identify a local contact person for the
campout, to answer questions about the location, etc.
Northwest Regional Meeting in
Seattle on Saturday, March 10. SEAPAX is the organizer and host
for the meeting. The meeting is half a day during the 2-day
weekend. $100 has been allocated in the budget to cover travel
expenses to Seattle. At the business meeting, group representatives
talk about what their groups have been doing in the past year to
recruit new members.
Calendar sales. 21
calendars remain to be sold. New price is $8 per individual
calendar and $6 per calendar for a purchase of 5 or more. The price
has been adjusted on the web site. Report on proceeds to date is
included in the treasurer’s report. The cost per calendar was
$4.36 each; 229 calendars sold as of January 4. Question posed to
the group is how to sell the remaining calendars. Swahili Imports
will take an additional 10 calendars to sell.
Goals for 2012. The board
agreed by consensus to accept 2012 goals as worded below:
Goal #1:
Organizing activities to serve the Peace Corps’ Third Goal, to
“bring the world back home.” We will list
activities under each goal as they occur, such as:
- Six potlucks, each with a program including the NOM party
- Two discussion group meetings per month: Salon Ouagadougou
- Volunteer groups of WCPCA members support two Food for Lane County
fundraisers usually held in March and October
- Participation in August in the Eugene Celebration weekend with a
parade entry and staffing a WCPCA booth
- Participation in community activities such as the International
High School’s “Africa Day” during the winter
quarter and a presentation to OASIS in February
- Affiliation with the National Peace Corps Association to maintain
a national perspective and recruit members
Goal #2:
Funding of humanitarian projects
- Select humanitarian projects to fund focusing on projects organized
by PCVs from Oregon
- Fundraise to support this goal
Goal #3:
Supporting the University of Oregon’s Peace Corps recruiter
- WCPCA members will help staff campus recruiting events
- WCPCA will cosponsor a spring party known as the NOM party to honor
newly appointed Peace Corps trainees form this area
Treasurer’s Report. See attached proposed new
format for the 2012 budget. Dale explained that it is a simplified
format, with very conservative estimates for income and expenses;
these estimates can be changed as the year goes by. In general,
membership dues cover administrative expenses and fund-raisers are
used for humanitarian projects. He suggested that the board create a
fund-raising committee.
It was suggested
that we put money into the restricted account to, in turn, contribute
to the principal in Beryl’s Memorial Fund at OCF. It was also
suggested that, since $4,000 was contributed to humanitarian projects
in 2011, we might want to consider increasing the 2012-budgeted
amount to $3,000 (currently at $2,000). No action was taken on
either of these suggestions. Josette made, and James seconded, a
motion to accept the proposed budget. Motion carried.
Checking account balance is $2,140.11
Savings account balance is $4,037.56
Further planning and budgeting for activities in 2012.
Potlucks
are scheduled in February, April, May, and August.
The February potluck will be at Tom and Nancy English’s
house on Friday, the 10th. Serena Parcell will speak about her
activities in community health in Swaziland. The April
potluck will be on Friday, the 13th. The May
potluck, the NOM party, will be on the 4th, pending
contact with the minister, we hope to hold it at the Wesley Center.
The date for the August potluck date was not been set.
Vince
Ceccaci suggested smaller social events at restaurants or
bars near the U of O campus. The board thought that the U of O
Recruiter might be interested in organizing such activities.
Dorothy will contact Hannah to see if she is interested in working
on this, possibly with Vince.
Other
social activities. Not discussed.
Volunteer
activities. Continue support for Food for Lane County (Chefs’
Night Out and Empty Bowls). James will coordinate those activities.
United Way was suggested as well as street cleanup, which is fun
to do and takes about 2 hours. Need someone to coordinate United
Way and street cleanup.
Fund-raising
Activities. Currently we do calendar sales and tee shirt sales.
We’ll need a new tee shirt design to market and we should
expand the market beyond members and local sales to a national
market. Board should be thinking of other fund-raising activities.
Review
and select humanitarian projects for funding. Conduct an
on-going review to identify projects for funding.
Overall group organization to pursue goals (item 4, above).
Dale suggested “the following sub-committees: Programs,
Membership, Eugene Celebration, Calendar Sales, and Communications.
A member of the board would be a part of each sub-committee and would
report back to the board. It is possible that with active
subcommittees we would not have to meet every month as a board.”
Presently, the
Membership Committee consists of Felicia and Dorothy and Miriam is
joining the committee to assist in renewal notifications and other
activities; the Communications Committee consists of Felicia and
Keith and activities include the mid-month and monthly newsletters;
the Programs Committee includes Maggie and Josette and they plan the
potlucks. James has agreed to coordinate group involvement in the
Food for Lane County events (see 6d above). Dale believes that we
should make an effort to include non-board members on committees to
reduce the burden on board members, to “bring along”
potential new board members and, create an institutional memory of
our activities.
The board agreed
that focus should be on a fund-raising committee and that the
committee should present plans for fund-raising to the board for
approval. Need to identify people with the skills to create a
committee and make plans for presentation to the board. A starting
point can be the potlucks where the board meets people face-to-face.
A notice will also be placed in the newsletter asking for volunteers.
The objective is to fund-raise AND get others outside the board
involved.
Discuss WCPCA endorsing the Statement of Principles of the Lane
County Network for Immigration Integration, organized by Bob
Bussel, Director, Labor Education Research Center (LERC), at the U of
O. Representatives of a large number of governmental agencies
and private organizations that serve local immigrant communities are
represented on the committee.
The committee
has drafted a Statement of Principals and is seeking an endorsement
of this statement by a wide number of local governmental agencies,
private organizations, and individuals. Dorothy asked the WCPCA
board to give thought to endorsing this statement since it expresses
community support for individuals from many Peace Corps host
countries. An endorsement would be a strong indication of our
continuing concern for the welfare of these people and a solid
expression of our mission to "bring the world back home."
This was
the final agenda item for the board meeting and it was not
discussed. However, Dorothy asked that we read the Statement of
Principles and think about WCPCA endorsement. Below is a copy of
the Statement of Purpose.
Purpose
Statement, Lane County Network on Immigrant Integration
The
Lane County Network on Immigrant Integration (LCNII) is dedicated to
making Lane County a friendly living space that welcomes immigrants
from all over the world. LCNII assists newcomers to achieve economic
mobility and social inclusion by developing and enhancing a network
of organizations and resources that facilitate the integration
process.
LCNII
is comprised of individuals and organizations interested in the
integration of immigrant populations in Lane County. Membership
is voluntary, as is participation in any specific activities of the
group. The purpose and activities of LCNII are independent and
are not intended to represent the positions of the organizations or
employers of the members. We fully recognize that individuals
may not be able to make commitments on behalf of their organizations.
The
purposes and roles of LCNII include:
To
serve as a means of networking for organizations and individuals who
work with immigrant groups in Lane County.
To
provide education, outreach, and dissemination of information related
to immigrants and immigration to both immigrant groups and the
general public.
To
build relationships, alliances, and coalitions around issues related
to immigrants.
To
inform the group about social and political advocacy opportunities on
immigration issues. Participation in social and political
advocacy will strictly be on a voluntary basis.
To
provide a forum for conversation where different voices may be heard.
To
facilitate mutual conversation and dialogue between immigrants and
the community.
To
encourage mutual learning and create opportunities for participants
to be more effective in their own work through networking and
collaboration with others. 10/31/11
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The 2011 WCPCA Annual Report was approved and will be posted on
the web site.
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The next board meeting will be February 6th at
Dorothy’s house at 7:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted January 18, 2012
Miriam Aiken, Secretary
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