Regular Meeting -- December 15, 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 and Treasurer Pam Chambers, Secretary 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 (September 29th) were read aloud and approved.
Nominating Committee. Oceanna asked the Nominating Committee to continue searching for new Board members.
Oprah Project. Bob reported that Chrysos decided not to become a nonprofit, so we needed to change our working relationship with them. Consequently, we are not working directly with them any more, nor are we fundraising for them, and all funds that we previously disbursed to them are being returned to us in full. Also, we are now paying Melissa Bullock directly for her work on a contractual basis, rather than her being paid from Chrysos.
Donations for the project are not coming in as quickly as we thought they would. We have received a $1,000 donation from someone in Houston, and we disbursed 60% to Melissa, 30% to Dr. Gladys as a retainer, and the remaining 10% we retained as an administrative fee for the Center.
Sherry Lund offered us a total of $50K in donations when Bob was visiting Phoenix in September, and she suggested that Bob contact her after the first of the year to pull all the details together.
Finances. Bob reported that we are doing fairly well with paying our bills, although his extended trip out of town has made it somewhat difficult due to the lack of revenue from Personal Growth Sessions while he was gone. GoodwheelChairs and Randall's-based fundraising have also been slower than we expected, However, some people have volunteered to do bookkeeping, house painting and/or lawn mowing, so Bob is following up on those offers. Receipts from charitable bingo are still also lower than we had hoped; usually by this time of the year they have picked up more than they have so far.
Bonuses. Several people on the board said they were dissatisfied with how little we have been able to pay Bob as Executive Director and Pam as Operations Manager. Everyone agreed that $300 per month for Bob's full-time work and $100 per month for Pam's full-time work is too little, but our expenses are substantial enough that we haven't been able to figure out a way to pay them more. When asked, Bob pointed out that the current pay levels are well below the 2006 federal poverty level of $9,800 per year.
Consequently, it was unanimously
RESOLVED, that we commit to providing, for their meritorious service this year, a bonus to Bob of $10,000 and a bonus to Pam of $5,000, to be paid when the Center has sufficient funds at some point in the future. These bonuses are in addition to their current salaries.
Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at around 2:34 pm.
Minutes submitted by Kathy Lee, Secretary, December 15, 2006.