Board Meeting - December 11, 2007

West Cascade Peace Corps Association
Minutes of the board meeting, 12-11-07
Meeting held at the Epstein home.

Attending: Benj Epstein, James Cloutier, Wayne Thompson, Rolly Thompson, Evangelina Sundgrenz, Deb McLaughlin, Dorothy Soper

1. Treasurer's report:

1. Evangelina submitted a written report showing the balance in our accounts as follows:

   Oregon Credit Union, 11-30-07
     Money market CD account: $507
     Business savings: $5
     Business checking: $5,826
     Beryl's Memorial Fund: $22,542

2. She requested funds to buy a receipt book to issue receipts forpurchases from WCPCA and also noise makers for us to use in the Eugene Celebration parade. The board approved these requests.

3. Regarding plans for Beryl's Memorial Fund: The board previously agreed to invest the funds for a short term with Edward Jones Investments in Eugene, working with Rick Karr as an investment advisor. Mr. Karr has offered to help us at no charge. The offer was made to Sheryl Kerchoff and extended to us by Jim Beyer.

   The board asked Evangelina to invite Mr. Karr to a board meeting so that we can talk to him about his recommendations for this investment. and likely returns. We agreed that we would like the funds invested for growth and stability. Our longer term plan is to raise enough money so that the fund will have $25,000 in it and then can be managed by the Oregon Community Foundation. We will also need to be a nonprofit organization with a 501 C3 status to take this step. Our applying for that status was discussed later.

2. Dorothy submitted the following report regarding the elections that we held in November for new board members and ratification of a proposed new constitution and bylaws. The board accepted the report and thus confirmed the election of officers and the acceptance by the membership of the new constitution and bylaws as described below.

   Election Report, 12-01-07

   Many thanks to Artis Spriggs and Tom English for working on Friday (11-30-07) to count the ballots returned in our recent election. Twenty-seven ballots were returned and all votes were "yes" to ratifying our newly revised constitution and bylaws and "yes" to all of the officers listed on the ballot. Thus all of the current officers will continue in office with the exception of Shannon and Michael who decided not to continue.

   A word on membership and other communications: We now have 50 paid up members. I sent a paper ballot to 46 of them. We don't have addresses for four members. With 27 of the 46 ballots returned, we had a 58% response. Three respondents sent in checks to renew their memberships. Four members wrote nice congratulatory notes regarding our organization's receipt of gift funds. One of these members wondered how we would interpret "humanitarian" in selecting projects to fund and also whether local projects might be funded (re: money in Beryl's Memorial Fund). One household would like to receive communications from our organization on paper. No one else took up that offer.

3. The board appointed Felicia Kenney as the "Communications Coordinator", a new office authorized by the new constitution and bylaws.
4. The board agreed that only one person should contact Felicia regarding additions or changes to the website. This plan was to simplify the process. Dorothy volunteered to do this and board agreed. Thus board members should send Dorothy emails with the item(s) to add to the website.

5. Tracking membership: The board agreed that membership payments should first be recorded by Dorothy who will record the payments and the type of membership and determine the expiration date of the membership. This information that will be with the secretary will allow Dorothy and Benj easy access to membership data for purpose of recruitment and notifying members when their membership is about to expire.

   Dorothy will mail the checks with the above information to Evangelina who will also record the membership and deposit the checks.

6. National membership: We've never been able to determine which of our members has joined via the national organization. The funds are sent to us in a lump sum with no names attached. Evangelina has learned that the names of those who have joined are posted on national's website but that she needs a password to access the specific space. She's planning to have the password shortly. This information will allow us to bring our membership data up to date.

7. The January potluck will be at the home of Benj and Joann Epstein, 395 Monroe, on Friday, January 11th, at 6:00 pm. James Cloutier is going to arrange the program. He plans to ask Kipto Biwott to speak. Mr. Biwott is a cross country track star (middle and distance runner) at the U of O. He's from Kenya and will be able to talk about his life there and how came to be at the U of O and possibly his plans for the future.

   Rolly also may be able to arrange for someone to talk about the well digging project in Cameroon that West Cascade has recently funded.

8. We talked about the importance of using our email list of members and interested parties to advantage. We'd like at least one email to go to the people on this list each month so that the membership stays connected. This monthly email should include information about upcoming meetings at a minimum.

   We agreed to add four names to the email list:

   • Tricia Tate (who gave money for Beryl's fund) and her husband
   • Tami Beach (attorney who settled Beryl's estate and gave moneyto her fund)
   • Parents of one of the volunteers whose project in Cameroon we contributed to
   We have to verify the spelling and email addresses of the people named above.

9. Rolly reported on calendars. About 85 have been sold generating about $800 in revenue. Our cost was about $400, thus we are close to a $400 profit.

   Rolly originally ordered 100 calendars and recently ordered more. She thinks that we should order more than 100 for the first order next year and also order them as early as possible. With more time we might be able to sell far more.

10. We agreed to think of people to recommend to be appointed to the board as members at large. The bylaws permit the board to appoint two at large members.
11. Rolly is working on our application to the IRS for a "501-C3" status as a nonprofit organization. She plans to submit it in mid-January.
12. We agreed to have a message service through a telephone company and Rolly will work on setting this up. This would allow us to publish a telephone number for the organization and to use it on official correspondence. Benj volunteered to be the person to check the messages.

13. We discussed fundraising. A first goal is to raise the amount in Beryl's memorial fund to $25,000 so that we can create an account with the Oregon Community Foundation which would manage the fund.

    We talked about sending out a request for donations to the "Esteemed Correspondents" email list that was created by Beryl for her personal use. We noted that we would probably be more successful if we first acquired "501 C3" status. No specific plans were developed for this idea.

14. We clarified our dues schedule which needs to be updated on our website. The annual dues for WCPCA are:
    • $10 ... student
    • $35...individual
    • $50...couple
15. The board voted to authorize Felicia to purchase the data base software "Microsoft Access" to use to create a data base for the organization's membership. We would like her to check with Brett to see if he can get an educational discount for this purchase.
16. The board signed a "Get Well" card for Dustin and a "Thank you" card for Jim Beyer.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.

Minutes by Dorothy