Regular Meeting -- January 16, 2011
The Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 2:50 pm. The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the meeting: Vice President Tamara Vogt, Secretary Pam Chambers, and Penny Chambers (by phone). The following directors were absent: President and Treasurer Kathy Lee. Robert McGarey, Executive Director was also present at the meeting.
The Mission Statement was read aloud at the beginning of the meeting. Minutes from the previous meeting were read aloud. The minutes were read and approved.
Programs. Lia is now working on the calendar, and she got the February calendar out before January 15th, which is significantly better than we usually do. Bob has also been revising the database programming that allows us to post our events on local web-based calendars, and after a year of it not working, we got the calendar activities onto 5 or more web sites. Tamara suggests that we look into using Yelp. Fritz has been using Yelp and is impressed with the results he is getting.
Bob is looking into doing online classes. It needs some more research, but will possibly be profitable in the near future. Discussion on the length of the workshops he gives. Pros and cons of length vs income. Bob said that he thinks the big challenge is just getting people to attend.
Our online marketing volunteer, Kaci Hampton, is taking a break, and so the workshops have yet to be posted on MeetUp for January. The automatic postings are working well for other sites.
Bob's mom, Dr. Gladys, asked him to be his attendant on her trip to Australia in May. All of his travel and room and board will be covered.
Facilities. Lee Duprene, landscaping volunteer and one of our newest members, wants to rent 12 plots in the garden for $20 a month, plus $20 membership fee. (The garden cannot be used by anyone but members.) We had a motion that we charge $10 a months for 6 plots and $20 for 12. It was passed.
We got the new roofs and they are working great. No leaking inside or out. Art will return to fix the remaining tweaks that need to be done.
Finances. Having the option to refinance the mortgage with Pat Sconci is a huge deal for us. The change makes the balloon payment in July not so imminent. Bob is still researching other options, but this takes some of the incredible urgency off.
We are coming out of the lowest money-making time of the year, and things are going to pick up soon. Occeanna is going to call LPCs to connect them more to the Center and see if there is any way the Center can be involved in their growth. She has also started renting the Imaginary room, and we got the bathroom fixed in time for her to pay the first rent of $200 instead of $150. (The bathroom looks great!)
Bob said that we've been bleeding a $1000 a month for the last year, and so we really need to change that. We could make that difference up if Bob had 3 personal growth sessions each week, $400 from workshops and $100 from donations each month, and 2 more annual members. However, we need to remember that this just barely gets us solvent. This will get us by.
Pam suggests that the board members send out an email talking about the fundraising for the Center using Ambit Energy. By switching to Ambit the money will benefit the Center.
Bob proposes a Marketing committee to brainstorm ways to bring in more money for the center. Penny, Tamara and possibly Oceanna will have a conference call and come up with an action plan.
Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at around 4:50 pm.
Minutes submitted by Pam Chambers, Secretary, January 16, 2011.