Board of Directors

Regular Meeting -- January 16, 2022

The Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 2:30 pm via Zoom. The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the meeting by Zoom: President Kathy Lee, Vice President Kim Pillsbury, Treasurer Penny Chambers, Secretary John McGarey. Executive Director Robert McGarey and Oceanna Latham were also present at the meeting.

Reading of Mission Statement and Approval of Minutes

The Mission Statement was read aloud at the beginning of the meeting. The board did not have the opportunity to read previous meeting's (November) minutes and we plan to read them next time.

A Resignation from the Board

The board received a nice letter from Lia resigning from the board. The board acknowledged her resignation and wished her the best.

Discussion of Purpose

The board discussed having people on campus with regard to the mission statement, membership, and action plan. Penny led us through the discussion.

Board discussed the possibility of parking a friend's motor home on the property and paying rent and obtaining utilities and possibly a pad. The owner is someone who has led events at HPC before so we have some indication that their philosophies match that of the human potential center. Lisa fithian's trailer is gone so it could go in the same place.

We discussed how having people living on campus helps spark creativity love and playfulness. Penny shared a document which the board edited during the meeting. We spoke about how the community wasn't necessarily a geographical community even though getting people on campus did create more of a connection.

The purpose of the campus included enlivening those who live here and those who don't, creating a loving playful creative community with honest connections. We discussed turning around the people on campus to be more connected, and changing the impression of the requirements to participate in events from 'requirements of them' into 'benefits provided to them'. (see document for details). Bob would love to see a yearning in the members before they come here.The board decided to schedule a meeting specifically to brainstorm how to engage the people who live at the center. Kathy and Penny and Kim voiced interest.

The purpose of membership included benefiting member's lives through events, courses and opportunities (see document for details). 100 active members (150-200 members total) was mentioned as a good target. We probably have 15 right now.

The purpose of additional revenue included maintaining the property, increasing programs and free courses, outreach to a wider audience, getting a wider selection of presenters, and possibly offering grants and providing more help for Bob. (see document for details). We discussed growth that could potentially expand into franchising the center. The HPC has sometimes been in maintaining mode and not growing and this may be an opportunity for growth with the additional revenue

The board agreed that it was helpful to clarify these purposes as written in the document that Penny created.The board unanimously agreed that with the proper person it would be open to having another person on campus.

Executive Director's Report

Bob said that we are doing great financially,

We raised everyone's rent around 10%. Bob finished all required tax documents in the last few weeks. Bought some lighting for zoom. We made several small purchases: a grill, fax machine, and more.

There is $23,000 in the bank and a $44,000 check from insurance on Bob's desk. The negotiator receives 10% of that check and we already paid for most repairs.

Bookkeeping may be able to be done by Bob even though we have been hoping to get some on campus help. Covid seems to have interfered with that plan.

Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at around 4:05 pm.

Minutes submitted by John McGarey, Secretary, January 16, 2022.