Annual Membership & Board Meeting -- March 19, 2006
The membership and the Board of Directors held their annual meetings at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 1:10 pm. The following members (constituting a quorum of the full voting membership, currently comprised of 13 people) were present at the meeting: Pam Latham (Oceanna), Pam Chambers and Robert McGarey. There was one board position coming up for renewal (Place 3), and it was unanimously agreed that Oceanna should continue to fill that position. Since there was no further business, the Annual Membership meeting concluded at 1:20 pm.
The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the Annual Board meeting: President Pam Latham (Oceanna) and Vice President Pam Chambers. Robert McGarey (Executive Director)) 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.
Since there are currently only three Board members and there are four offices that need to be filled, the bylaws require that we declare an emergency so that we can elect a person to more than one office. So it was unanimously
RESOLVED, that we declare an emergency and elect Oceanna as President, Pam Chambers as Vice President, Kathy Lee as Secretary, and Pam Chambers as Treasurer.
Gardens. Pam said that she has been getting the yard in shape with flowers and has some renewed energy for creating a butterfly garden.
20th Anniversary. Bob reported on how happy he was that the "birthday party" organized by Oceanna and Lia was such a delight, and how cool it is having 20th anniversary t-shirts and magnetic car signs! Thanks to both of you!!! Now people can buy and wear them, or put them on their car doors! (Are you listening?)
Office Work. JP and Pam are both doing a good job. JP has proposed that we create a front desk out of the bar area, and he's working out the details.
Conference. The Memorial Day conference is coming along well, and we're going to start marketing it this coming week.
Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee is currently inactive, and we need to get it going again.
Conflict of Interest Policy. The Board reaffirmed the Conflict of Interest policy that it instituted on March 1st via unanimous agreement in writing. A copy of the policy will be placed in each Board member's notebook, and new Board members will be required to sign the policy.
Bingo. Upon Bob's recommendation, it was unanimously
RESOLVED, that the Board approves the idea of the Center joining a Unit Accounting agreement with the other 4 charities currently at American Bingo. The details will be worked out by Bob, and he is authorized to sign the final agreement.
Financials. Bob presented financial statements that are current, accurate and up-to-date for the first time in the history of this corporation. Yay! Our 990's and our 8734 are being checked by Lois Jebo, and Bob will submit them (on time!) as soon as he hears back from her.
Bob said that if we want to increase our operating funds, we have three options: increase our program income, decrease labor costs, and/or increase bingo income. He said that we're working on increasing our program income with our May conference, and working on increasing our bingo income by the Unit Accounting agreement. He thinks that it's possible that actually increasing our labor costs might increase our program income, if we were to hire someone who could supervise the conference and increase the attendance. He's looking into the possibilities.
Bob is checking into using some of the extra income from bingo to fund overhauling the A/C vents into the Imaginary Room and/or upgrading the garage so that the Anomaly Archives could start working on it. He's reluctant to upgrade the garage until he knows that the Archives will actually actively work on it, and they are currently still having trouble obtaining their IRS nonprofit approval.
Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:24 pm.