Board of Directors

Regular Meeting -- December 18, 2005

The Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 1:16 pm. The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the meeting: President Pam Latham (Oceanna) and Vice President Pam Chambers. The following directors were absent: Treasurer Kathy Lee. Robert McGarey (Executive Director) and Steven Michael Hernandez were 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. The minutes from the previous Nominating Committee meeting were read and approved.

Executive Director's Report

Mortgage Refinancing. Refinancing the mortgage requires that we have a current profit and loss statement, and so it has been placed on hold until we can get one.

Marketing and Development Position. J. P. Smith has been hired for this position, and is working out very well so far.

Event Planning. A committee has been working on developing new ideas for our next large event, and has been making some real progress, even though nothing is definite yet.

Finances. Bob reported that this has been a challenging year financially. We spent $2K more than we budgeted on a car for the Center, and $5K more than we had budgeted on labor. In addition, we earned $23K less this year than last year from bingo. Bob said that the normal response to a shortfall like this would be to reduce expenses, and one of our biggest discretionary expenses is labor, i.e., JP Smith. However, Bob believes that he's doing a great job and that his work is an important component to have in place for our 20th anniversary this coming year, and so eliminating that position seems like it would be a mistake.

Anomaly Archives. The Archives hired JP as Assistant Curator. He has now moved in to his living space and will begin paying rent to the Archives, so we will again start receiving rent for the Garage from them soon. (They haven't been paying because they didn't have any money.) The agreement for the Archives to move into the Garage is now being stalled by us, due to our inability to finance the repairs we need to do before the Archives starts their repairs.

Fund Raising. Lia Nelson spearheaded a fund raising campaign, which entailed mailing out about 200 letters and Wellness Calendars with a request for a donation in honor of a friend or family member. Though the letters should probably have been sent out sooner than they were, this is our first real fund raising effort, and we're delighted. Thanks, Lia!!!

Steven Michael said that he would like to also raise some funds for the Center before the 31st of December, and the board agreed to let him see what he can do, with the understanding that if he was successful we might be able to pay him something for his efforts.

Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 2:23 pm.