WCPCA Board Meeting Minutes - December 9, 2009

Attending: Jack Meacham, Justin Overdevest, Wayne Thompson, James Cloutier, Shannon Micheel, Felicia Kenney, John Hofer, George Jeffcott, Rolly Thompson, Michael Kresko, Evangelina Sundgrenz, Dorothy Soper

The meeting was held at the home of Shannon and Michael. The minutes of the previous board meeting had been circulated and approved by email. James presided at the meeting.

1. James asked for the board's approval to circulate to the membership a description of a job available in Botswana. WCPCA member, John Hannah, suggested this. The board agreed on the strength of John's endorsement of the position and asked that John be listed as the person to contact for further information.

2. Membership activity in November and December:

   • Six renewals through WCPCA
   • Three renewals through national
   • One new member through national
   • Five new members through WCPCA

   Current membership is 113. Approximately 30 people are members of both the national RPCV organization and WCPCA.

3. Update from Dorothy on memberships and donations from the recruitment letters sent in June: Approximately 270 letters were sent. To date sixteen people have responded. Of this number 15 joined WCPCA and one donated but didn't join. Total donations were $155. Adding dues of $217 to this, we've received $372 in response to the mailing. This covers the cost of approximately $275.

4. Dorothy informed the board that Dr. Nicole Brulé, WCPCA member and practicing psychologist, has accepted our invitation to speak at the March potluck. Her topic will be readjustment issues faced by RPCVs, how the Peace Corps responds, and her suggestions of ways that family members, friends, and professionals may best offer support. The board set Sunday, March 7th, as the date for the potluck. Place yet to be identified.

5. The board earlier expressed an interest in making the membership directory more of a networking tool by inviting members to include a short statement about themselves in their entry. Felicia indicated that this is technically within easy reach. We discussed possible contents and length. Felicia suggested an entry of 250 characters.

   We agreed that by the end of December each board member will email to Felicia a statement about himself or herself to include in the directory. With these efforts we can evaluate workable lengths and give the general membership some ideas about how to approach the task.

   An announcement of this plan and examples of entries will be in the December newsletter that will go out at the end of the month. Thus board members should complete the above task by noon on December 30th. Felicia will have to decide what a workable length is after seeing the entries. We anticipate issuing a new directory in February and so members will need to submit their entries in January.

6. Michael gave the board an update on his work to organize our booth at the Holiday Market for the weekend of December 12-13. He plans to email the staffing plan to everyone who will be working.

7. Shannon reported that she has checked with Cosmic Pizza regarding our holding a fundraising activity there featuring the blue grass band whose director she knows. (We had scheduled a fundraiser with this band in the summer but canceled it.)

   The board asked for further information about how this might work. No plan for organizing such an activity was discussed.

8. Local PCV Audrey Squires is seeking support for her project in Guatemala that was described in an op ed article in the Register Guard on 11/4/09. She's received some funds from the Friends of Guatemala which is a 501 (c) (3) organization. Dorothy has corresponded by email with Audrey who sent the proposal for her work which was distributed to the board.

   The board found the project of building classrooms with plastic bottles as part of the construction of the walls worthwhile since it lowers the building costs and disposes of the bottles. We were concerned, however, that it isn't a PCP project and thus doesn't conform to the PC directive that volunteers receive funds only through this channel. We are also concerned that since Audrey will conclude her PC service in April, 2010, the ongoing stewardship of the project is unclear. Audrey told Dorothy that the PC will assign a new volunteer to take her place and that she hopes that he or she will continue to work with the building program. But the board felt that this is an uncertain prospect at this time.

   The board commends Audrey for her work and hopes that the project will proceed but it declined to fund the project at this time for reasons explained above. We encourage Audrey and her successor to apply for funding through the PCP program. If the project appears there, we will reconsider it for funding. Dorothy will email this information to Audrey who will be in Eugene from 12/21/09 to 1/2/09. Dorothy will check with her and try to arrange for us to meet with her.

9. Jack asked the board whether he should move the amount of donations received this year, $236.41, from the general fund to the restricted fund at OCCU. Placing the amount there would mean that it could be used only to fund humanitarian projects or augment the principal in the endowed account at OCF. The board approved his doing this.

10. The board set five goals for 2010 as follows:

    • Goal #1: Continue bimonthly potlucks with a program

      The board, in addition, discussed having other types of social activities during the alternate months. Suggestions included having family friendly activities, sports activities, and social gatherings in a home or bar. Board members or others are invited to give their suggestions to George.

    • Goal #2: Use $2,000 to fund humanitarian projects starting in March

    • Goal #3: Identify fundraising projects and people willing to pursue them

    • Goal #4: Identify local service projects for members of WCPCA to take part in as a group

      John agreed to chair the committee that will work on this.

    • Goal #5: Plan local activities for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps

      Justin has already arranged for a display about the Peace Corps to be in the lobby of the Knight Library at the U of O in the fall, 2010.

11. We reviewed the organization of the committees. Chairs and members are below. We're looking for someone to chair the Activities Committee.

    • Activities: No chair
    • Communications: Felicia Kenney, Chair
      Members: Maggie Kennan, Mary Meacham, Dorothy Soper
    • Financial Planning: Jack Meacham, Chair
      Members: Jim Beyer, Rob Dwan, Deb McLaughlin, Dorothy Soper, Evangelina Sundgrenz
    • Fundraising: Rolly Thompson, Chair
      Members: Evangelina Sundgrenz, Wayne Thompson
    • Membership: Dorothy Soper, Chair
      Members: Dale Dow
    • Volunteer activities: John Hofer, Chair

12. Rolly gave a report of a recent meeting of the fundraising committee. She, Wayne, and Evangelina met.

    For 2010 they saw a continuing but declining emphasis on the sale of merchandise: calendars, shirts, and cards.

    They recommend concentrating on planning a major fundraising activity that would:

    • take place in either the spring or fall
    • include possibly one or more speakers; music; silent auction
    • anticipate the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps

    They plan to continue research on such an activity and invite the board to contribute ideas to the committee.

    In the board's discussion the PC director was mentioned as a possible speaker.

13. Jack submitted the treasurer's report. Current assets are:

    • General fund, OCCU accounts: $6,174
    • Restricted funds, OCCU account: $1,153
    • Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund at OCF: $25,000

    Jack submitted to the board a proposed budget for 2010 which was approved with two minor changes: Expenses for postage were raised to $100; expenses for potluck dinner supplies were raised to $100; cost of a regional meeting was stricken. The net change was to reduce the general expenses by $15.

    Draft budget summary showing anticipated expenses and income:

    Expenses

    • Fixed expenses: $337
    • Variable expenses: $2,665
    • Grants: $2,000

    Total projected expenses: $5,002

    Income:

    • Membership dues: $1,400
    • Fundraising through merchandize sales: $2,300
    • Donations: $50
    • OCF distributions: $1,125 from the Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund
    • Note: no large fundraisers are included in the income projection.

    Total projected income: $4,875

    The board asked Jack to add to the budget $200 for registration fees for leadership conferences. This will bring the total projected expenses to $5,202.

14. The next board meeting will be on Wednesday, January 13th, 7:00 pm, at the George Jeffcott's home.

The meeting was adjourned about 9:00 pm.

Minutes by Dorothy