Regular Meeting -- June 30, 2006
The Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 1 pm. The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the meeting: President Pam Latham (Oceanna), Vice President Pam Chambers and Treasurer Kathy Lee. No directors were absent. 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 and approved as read.
Shift in focus. Oceanna pointed out that over the past three years since we moved into our new campus, there has been a shift in our focus as an organization. Our previous focus on membership activities has been partially replaced by a focus on conferences and other events. We have shifted from a focus inward to a focus outward. She said that we need to think about this at a board level and make sure that it's the way we actually want to go.
A very extensive discussion followed. The board agreed that we need to continue to have both an outward and an inward focus; that it doesn't make sense to let go of either one. Bob pointed out that with the departure of J. P. Smith in Marketing and Development, it seems like even more tasks have fallen on him, and his To Do List has gotten even longer, and the things that have often dogged us -- the calendar being late and not answering phone calls -- are again becoming difficult. Pam pointed out that there are really just 1 or 2 people keeping the Center going now, and that's difficult.
Pam suggested that we have something like a weekly lecture by someone from outside the Center, as a way of attracting new people with new topics, so that we can expand our membership and get more people involved and bring in additional money. We could have one on the Da Vinci Code, for example.
It was generally agreed that there's a chicken-and-egg problem here, in that we don't have the funds to hire additional people, and without additional people we can't do the marketing that is required to bring in additional funds. It was decided that one way out of this chicken-and-egg problem would be to pursue additional volunteers, and that RSVP -- Retired Senior Volunteer Program -- would be a really good start. Bob agreed to check with them and see if we can get senior volunteers, since they would be likely to work well here.
Car Sign. Pam reported that we finally placed the magnetic signs advertising the Center onto the Center's car.
JP. Bob reported that JP Smith had resigned to pursue a new job that pays better.
Bingo. April turned out to be quite low in income, though May seems to have been better. However, this is the usually-low time of year anyway.
Get Dr. Gladys on Oprah! Bob announced that he had been working with Melissa Bullock on a proposal to hire her full-time to promote Dr. Gladys McGarey, the Mother of Holistic Medicine, as a way of furthering our nonprofit mission. Bob would solicit donations to hire her, and she would function in a semi-autonomous way, reporting to Bob, and her work would be outside the normal functioning of the Center (so it didn't add to the extra work at the Center that already isn't getting done, like we talked about above). It was unanimously
RESOLVED, that we hire Melissa for this task, as long as we can raise the funds and as long as it doesn't take TOO MUCH of Bob's time, since he has to focus on his other tasks here at the Center.
Artist Membership. Bob suggested that we create a new membership category, an Artist Membership, and include benefits like use of the Art Barn as studio space and offering their artwork for sale through the Center. He suggested that we talk about this at a later meeting.
INACS. The INACS board is proposing that we renew their lease for another 6 months at their current rate because we failed to do what we were supposed to do as a lessor. Bob said he would check with Owen McAleer about what we had agreed to do, because he doesn't remember that we agreed to do anything that we haven't.
Tree Folks. Bob said that Tree Folks might be interested in playing Bingo with us, and/or renting some of our space. He will check with them.
Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at around 3 pm.
Minutes submitted by Kathy Lee, Secretary, June 30, 2006.