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Minutes Of The WCPCA Board Meeting, April 9, 2012

Location: Home of Dorothy Soper

Attendees: Miriam Aiken, James Cloutier, Maggie Keenan, Dale Morse, Dorothy Soper

Guest: Easther Chigumira, Zimbabwe, U of O Graduate Student, Department of Geography

  1. Welcome.

  2. Updates

    • Membership activity. Miriam reported that with the new first-year members referred by the NPCA minus the non-renewals, our total membership remains in the range of 145 – 150 members.

    • Summer campout. Sam Greer reported that 30 campers have registered, thus about half of the allocated reservation cost has been recovered. Darryl Johnson, the Northwest Regional Representative to the NPCA, and his wife, have registered.

    • Chefs’ Night Out, April10. Vince Ceccacci said that 8 people had volunteered so far. James indicated that he also was going to volunteer and he was not counted in Vince’s numbers. Volunteers should use the back entrance to the Hult Center, from 6th Avenue between 8:00 and 8:30 pm.

    • Newsletter. Keith Beyer organized the items for the last newsletter and Deb Jones created the HTML platform. Dave Soper converted photos of the new tee shirts to the format for the platform.

    • President’s report. Dorothy reported that there were no responses to the “Help Wanted” request in the newsletter, so there will be an attempt to recruit help at the pot luck this Friday.

      • Dorothy invited Darryl Johnson, the Northwest Regional Representative (NPCA) to visit Eugene, and perhaps attend a potluck.  The Nom party would be a good time to meet the most members. He has not responded yet.

      • WCPCA sent $500 to funding the Peace Corps Partnership Project in Vanuatu. 

      • Status of Peace Corps, Mali. Cassady Walters told Dorothy by email that all Mali Peace Corps Volunteers have been accounted for and are safe. The president of Mali has resigned clearing the way for elections to take place. There was a coup at the Presidential Palace with gunshots fired.

  3. April potluck. Maggie reaffirmed that the next potluck will be this Friday, April 13th, at Dorothy’s home. Amy Small, PCV Jamaica, will talk about her experiences. Hannah Klausman will bring the power point projector. The new tee shirts will be introduced for sale.

    May 4th. This will be the Nom party, taking place at the Wesley Center near the campus. Hannah will be in charge of the program.

    Summer picnic. No venue or date has been determined for the picnic. James will ask Bob Watada and Rosa if they would be willing to be hosts again. Dale Morse offered his home as a back up location.

  4. NPCA updates. The NPCA requested that groups name a Group Advocacy Coordinator.  A job description has been distributed.  (A paper copy is attached.) The person who accepts this position will be working with Jonathan Pearson.

    Information about the NPCA Peace Corps mentorship program for newly returned PCVs can be obtained at their website. 

  5. Treasurer’s report. The savings account has $4,039.56 and the checking account has $2,069.98. The restricted account, holding interest from the Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund has $121. (Profits from the sale of tee shirts will be placed in restricted account.)

  6. U of O Peace Corps recruiter. Hannah will need help with the Nom party on May 4th, and the U of O Street Faire activities May 2nd through the 4th.  We need to consider ways of contacting members to ask for their help at the Street Faire.

  7. Funding for Peace Corps Partnership Projects.  The “Guitar Workshop” in Rwanda is now listed on the Peace Corps website.  Tyler Russ of Oregon organized it.  Visit https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=696-014.  The total project cost is $835. The board approved funding for the total cost. All money will be used to purchase guitars for the music program.

  8. Northwest RPCV groups’ meeting in Seattle on March 10th. James Cloutier and Joe HIndman attended. James gave us a personal account of the meeting. WCPCA is scheduled to host this meeting in 2014.

  9. Rose Parade in Portland. The Portland area RPCV groups plan to take part in the annual Rose Parade in Portland and WCPCA has been invited to join them. RPCVs from throughout Oregon are invited to join the Portland groups’ entry in the Rose Parade if space is available. Those interested may check the Portland group’s website to see how to sign up. (www.crpca.org) James has been asked to design a tee shirt for participants to wear if they have no country-of-service costume.

  10. Marketing the “Forever Peace Corps” tee shirts. James took several of the Forever Peace Corps tee shirts with him to Seattle for the regional meeting with the hope that the local groups might like to sell them. Unfortunately, there was no interest in retail sales of the shirt and only one shirt was sold.

    See also President’s report that no one responded to the call for help to sell the tee shirts for WCPCA.

  11. Selling the 2013 International Calendars from RPCVs of Madison, WI. WCPCA will sell the calendars as a fund-raiser for humanitarian projects. We will order 200 calendars as we did in 2012.

  12. Eugene Celebration. It will be held August 24, 25, and 26. WCPCA will participate in the parade and have a booth. In order to get a good position on the causeway, we will submit our application early. The cost of $60 for a booth and $30 for the parade was approved. 

    The taxi has been a popular and familiar part of WCPCA participation in the parade. If Wayne Thompson is willing to be in charge of transporting the taxi to the start location, it will be included again.

  13. Discussion if time permits. The board discussed committing WCPCA to take part in activities beyond the sphere of the Peace Corps community. There was little interest beyond current commitments. Thus we decided not to consider endorsing the Statement of Principles from the County Network for Immigrant Integration. 

    In addition to the two activities for Food for Lane County (e.g., Chef’s Night Out), the board agreed to participate in the Lane County Country Fair again. 

    Miriam gave an update on the activities of the discussion group that meets twice per month at the New Day Bakery. 

  14. Board meetings.  Dates have already been set for May and June.  There will be no meeting in July; however, there may be issues to discuss that require a meeting in August. If a meeting is necessary, the date will be determined in July. The next meeting dates are:

    Monday, May 14th, 7pm, Dorothy’s house

    Monday, June 11th, 7pm, Dorothy’s house

Meeting adjourned before 9:00 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Miriam Aiken, Secretary

April 14, 2012

April 19,2012. Revised Item 5, Treasurer’s Report, deleted phrase about putting proceeds from sale of International Calendar in the restricted account.