Regular Meeting -- August 25, 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: Vice President and Treasurer Pam Chambers and Secretary Kathy Lee. President Pam Latham (Oceanna) was absent. Robert McGarey (Executive Director) and Melissa Bullock were 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.
Planning Retreat. Bob reported on the strategic planning retreat that he, Pam, Oceanna, and Rebekah and Larry Spector attended for four days during the past week. It was held at Larry and Rebekah Spector's Bed-and-Breakfast house in Driftwood, Texas. Major topics discussed and decisions reached include:
Center Brochure. New phrasing for a brochure was devised: "Awaken Your Mind and Heart to Life. The Human Potential Center provides a stimulating environment for open-minded, open-hearted people to discover and grow into the talents, creativity and love they already have inside."
Massage. Pam will change the name of her massage sessions to "Body Work Intensives," and extend the time to 90 minutes. The price will now be $90.
Spiritual Transformation Counseling. We will now call Oceanna's work "Spiritual Emergence Counseling."
Price List. We will make a price list of all the services we offer and have it clearly displayed at workshops and activities.
Rentals. We can rent out the Garden Room and the Massage Room as soon as we fix the Massage Room up. However, first we have to find out who would be interested in renting it. Board members need to keep an eye out for people who might be interested.
Randall's Good Neighbor Program. Rebekah did a lot of research and found out that we can raise up to $1,000 per month if just 200 families sign up to donate 1% of their total Randall's purchases to the Center. She devised a way to make it easier for people to sign up, and plans to help us implement the plan. She also plans to canvass her neighborhood and get people there signed up.
Follow-up Packages. Bob reported that when he was in Phoenix meeting with Chrysos, he learned about the effectiveness of offering follow-up packages at conferences and workshops. He is planning on creating such a package and offering it to workshop attendees when he presents the All-Day Dreamshop in Houston in September.
Membership. The structure for Center membership was discussed extensively at the retreat. It was generally agreed that the current structure is not accomplishing our goals very well. However, Bob suggested that we need to explore the topic in depth and consider all the ramifications of any changes, and so he suggested postponing this discussion until after we are able to increase our monthly income substantially so we can take care of pressing problems like secretarial support and PR and marketing.
GoodWheelchairs.org. Larry presented an idea at the retreat that he had been mulling over for a long time. He said that if a person has a minimum-wage job, they usually can't get covered by Medicare or Medicaid, and they usually can't afford medical insurance. That means that they have to pay for medical equipment like wheelchairs out of their own pocket. Unfortunately, they also can't negotiate the kind of steep discounts for that medical equipment that HMO's and insurance companies can. So they are stuck paying full price for wheelchairs because they don't have enough money to pay for insurance so they can get a discount. And current studies indicate that around 22% of the American population does not have medical insurance and may be falling through the cracks in the system.
So he thought if there were a nonprofit that could accept the donation of used wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment, and then resell that equipment to people who don't have the luxury of having their insurance pay for needed equipment, that would be an important service to the public that could fill a need that is currently not being met. In addition, it could also provide a steady source of income for the Center.
The board agreed this is a problem that needs to be addressed, and that his idea would be a way to promote the health and wellness of the uninsured and the underinsured as well as others in the general public who cannot afford to pay the full price for medical equipment. In addition, the board pointed out that Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs says that when we help people meet basic needs like the ability to move around their house in a wheelchair instead of being confined to bed, those people are then more able to address the wellness and self-actualization needs that are the Center's primary focus.
Therefore, it was unanimously
RESOLVED, that upon approval from our nonprofit consultants at the Nonprofit Center, we will begin recycling durable medical equipment in a way that is targeted to the uninsured and the underinsured as well as others in the general public who cannot afford to pay the full price for medical equipment. We will work with other nonprofits and/or businesses to serve this critical need in the public sector, starting as soon as is practicable.
Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at around 3 pm.
Minutes submitted by Kathy Lee, Secretary, August 25, 2006.