Regular Meeting -- October 6, 2007
The Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 1:03 pm. The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the meeting: President Pam Latham (Oceanna), Vice President and Treasurer Pam Chambers, Secretary Kathy Lee and Leslie Harvey. The following director was absent: Robert Gardner. 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 following changes were suggested: Change the section on Volunteer Events to begin "Morgan reported that starting on Saturday, Sept. 29 at 10 a.m. she is planning a series of volunteer events, which she has named Operation First Impression." Change "she will get together within Bill Edelbrock" to "she will get together with Bill Edelbrock." Change "creating a 3-month probationary period" to "creating a 3-month provisionary period." The minutes were then approved as amended.
Other HPC's. Bob found out that there are now two other centers with similar names on the internet: www.HumanPotentialCentre.org and .com (a spirituality center in Auburn, Alabama), and www.HumanPotentialCenter.biz (a chiropractor in Reno, Nevada). He thinks this may indicate that the tide is turning toward us and that people are becoming more interested in our way of thinking.
Credit Rating. Bob is considering getting in touch with Dun and Bradstreet to help improve our credit rating. For about $700, they have a package that allows us to list additional vendors with them so they can track our payment history, and if we can get our mortgage payments listed, it will really help our rating. This would help us get our secured line of credit at Compass Bank unsecured, thus freeing up our $10K CD.
Intern. Bob reported that Morgan seems to be doing well, and that creating the contract seems to have made a big difference for her. Operation First Impression went very well, with 7 people showing up. Morgan arranged for brunch and lunch for the volunteers, which let them know that they're appreciated and Bob said that was a first at the Center. Morgan also visited the GoodwheelChairs office with Bob and Larry, and we have 4 scooters and one wheelchair.
As required in her contract, Morgan drafted a plan about how she intends to raise $500/month in new revenue for the Center through December 15th. She intends to focus on three areas: Raising Community Awareness, Raising Funds, and Grant Writing.
New Neighbors. Bob found out that Habibi's Hutch Preschool and "Natural Childlife Preserve" is very likely going to be able to purchase the two buildings across the street on Bert Avenue, and if they do that we may be able to cooperate with them to provide programs for the kids, such as organic gardening.
Tumblebus. Kathy Lee offered to donate her Tumblebus to the Center, and the Board thanked her profusely for her extreme generosity!
Chrysler Cirrus. Bob learned from the DMV that "Kermit" has a lien on it. He's following up with Kim Iberg so that she can get in touch with the credit union that holds the lien and clean it up, so we can finally hold the title to the car.
Finances. We have $14K in the bank after paying $5K on our line of credit, which leaves $5K remaining to be paid on it. We need to look into whether to pay it off now, or only pay $1K per month over 5 months.
Membership. Bob brought up the question of whether we need to have a monthly membership as well as an annual one. It was decided that we won't have a monthly membership, and instead we'll do occasional promotions such as coupons. Oceanna suggested that we still have a "What is the HPC" night.
Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 2:55 pm.
Minutes submitted by Kathy Lee, Secretary, October 6, 2007.