Board of Directors

Regular Meeting -- August 22, 2010

The Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 2:30 pm. The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the meeting: President and Treasurer Kathy Lee, Secretary Pam Chambers, and Tamara Vogt. The following directors were absent: Penny Chambers. Robert McGarey (Executive Director) was also present at the meeting.

Reading of Mission Statement and Approval of Minutes

The Mission Statement was read aloud at the beginning of the meeting. Minutes from the previous meeting were read aloud and approved as read.

President's Report

President's Actions. The insurance people hadn't filed the claim for the roof repairs yet, so Kathy told them to go ahead and file. She checked out the fundraising opportunity "Gone for Good," and she said it seems like a place that sets you up for a giant garage sale, so it might not be helpful for us. She also went to a presentation of a plan called "Stores on Line" that helps people build a web site and place the correct words that will be picked up by the large search engines.

Executive Director's Report

New Policies. For the 990's, Bob created a Whistle Blower Policy and Document Retention/Destruction Policy. They were both approved by the board.

Resignation. Bob read Carol Hintz's letter resigning from the board. The board accepted her resignation with regret and appreciation for her service.

Community Shares. Penny is looking into Community Shares and trying to find out when we will receive our distribution from them. We now have the 990's form and can get started with the enrollment process if we decide to do it again this year. However, this year we will not receive as much in income as we spent to qualify as a member of Community Shares. It was suggested that we could enroll as GoodwheelChairs, which might get more donations.

AHP Board Meeting. Bob attended the national AHP board meeting, and it all went well. M.A. paid for Bob's air flight to Asheville, and donated $1,000 to the Center. It was important for him to be there in person, because he helped steer the meeting by taking notes on the flipchart and helping set priorities, and afterwards Kathleen said that the board had not accomplished as much at any board meeting in the past ten years, and she attributed the change to Bob's help.

Social Networking. Pam has done a good job of the social networking, with MeetUp and FaceBook.

GoodwheelChairs. Interstate batteries hasn't gotten back with us on the proposal. Pam talked about different ways to connect with others about GoodwheelChairs.org.

Rentals. There's someone who wants to rent the cottage and two others who want to rent the garage apartment. They all said they would help get both spaces ready to rent. Those who want to rent the garage apartment say they could move in on November 1st, and the one who wants to rent the cottage might be willing to rent in a week or so.

Online classes. AHP wants to offer online classes, and Bob agreed to explore it more in detail. At the AHP board meeting he suggested they tentatively approve purchasing the online-classes service from Adobe, if it turns out that it will do what they want. They approved the idea.

Finances. Bob handed out the Center cash analysis sheet through July 31st and year to date totals, and the board discussed them. It's clear we need to do a LOT to increase our income soon.

990's. Bob spent around 90 hours compiling and organizing them. Next year it will be easier due to what he did this year.

Personal Status. Bob stated that he, as the director, is red-lining it on energy and motivation. He said he is running out of go power. He needs help and has almost hit his limit. He needs all of us to be working together on this happening.

He also said he is doing a blog on running a marathon this coming spring, while approaching age 60, the 25th anniversary of the Center and 20 years after he ran his first marathon. We have a lot of people who can write it up for the paper or the internet. This is a great media event. We can do something with this.

Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at around 4:30 pm.

Minutes submitted by Pam Chambers, Secretary, August 22, 2010.