April 2010 Board Meeting Summary

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SUMMARY OF MOTIONS
DETAILS

The meeting was called to order at 5:45 PM.

Present were Bev Anderson, Karen Polastri , Penni Smith, and Wayne Hewlett.  Amy Considine was not available.  Omar MoheyEldin and Katri Kehraevuo came to the meeting as invited guests and prospective board candidates.  Arvin Magusara, also a guest and candidate, arrived a bit later.

We had a very brief time of introduction of the candidates.

Bev passed out the president’s report for March.  She will e-mail it to all after the meeting.

Penni distributed the March 2 report for review.  M/S/C to approve March 2 report.

Penni gave the account balances.  On April 5, the bank balance was $31,363.76.  There were eleven checks outstanding, totaling $1,257.46, so the actual balance was $30,106.30.  The support group sub-accounts totaled $12,539.34, so the NCCNA general fund had $17,566.96.  There are no outstanding bills to pay.  After the report Penni submitted based on March 15 income and expenses, the only change was one deposit made, so it was pretty much a quarter-end report.  She will do an official quarter-end report sometime in April.

Penni explained that each month she prepares a worksheet to compute the balance against the bank and update the support group balances.  She asked if people would like to receive the balance reports.  People expressed interest, so she will plan to e-mail after completing it each month.  As it is done to get balances for the meeting, it will not go out much before the meeting.

There are currently 653 members.  Bev believes she has about 50 dues payments to be processed. 

Penni explained why the $1,000 approved as a contribution to research at the January meeting had not been paid.  It was just a week after the payment was approved that Bev announced her resignation and we were considering shutting down the organization.  It didn’t seem prudent to send such a large sum in the midst of the uncertainty.  Karen agreed that it was wise to wait.  After a little discussion, M/S/C to actually send the $1,000. 

Wayne asked about the support groups contributing to research.  Penni explained our policy that we will send a letter to groups with excessive reserves asking them to reduce the balance.  The policy includes contributing to research as one of the options.  We had discussed the letter in January, but agreed not to send it when we were unsure what was going on with the organization.  M/S/C to send letter to groups.  Penni will draft the letter and send it for comment before sending it to the groups.

Penni asked if we should send $1,000 now or wait until we hear back from groups.  Everyone agreed to go ahead and send the TNA check.

We looked at the revised budget.  Karen felt it was “lean and mean.”  Penni asked about predicting income.  Though she relied on some reasoned assumptions, she felt much of it was just a guess and wondered if she was missing something.  Karen agreed it was somewhat a matter of guessing.  The primary changes to this revision was to plan for additional income based on dues renewals for 2010, more new members, and fundraising contributions.  There were also additional expenses, mostly related to fundraising and ongoing operations.  M/S/C to approve the revised budget.

Bev created an iGive account for the NCCNA in March.  She woulld like us to promote iGive in the newsletter, on the website, and in all appropriate promotions.  We discussed what it would involve and whether our members would use it.  Penni explained in detail how it works, particularly that it primarily benefits iGive by building their database, which they sell to their retail partners.  The important thing is that for NCCNA to benefit, we must be selected as a charity by the user, and the user must initiate all shopping from the iGive site.  M/S/C.

Katri, Arvin, and Omar each spent a few moments introducing themselves, giving some background and explaining the reason for their interest in the NCCNA.  After that, they left the room, then returned separately to talk a bit about any questions or concerns they had.  Then the board considered their candidacy. 

M/S/C to welcome all three to board.

We looked at strategic plan.  Penni asked about how to proceed.  Were we just to start assigning tasks or did we need to actually adopt the plan?  Bev said she thought it should fall under our procedure of handling policies, in which case the next step would be to approve it and open it for comment and possible minor modifications.  M/S/C to approve strategic plan.

We took a quick look at the plan and designated “gatekeepers” who would be responsible for overseeing the progress in that particular area of the plan.  The gatekeepers are:

Board Development-Karen
Support Groups-Bev
Membership-Omar
Fundraising-Wayne
Health Care Providers-Katri
Publicity & Promotion-Arvin
Research-Board

Following that, we decided that everyone is to review strategic plan and identify what things they want to work on, even if that is outside their gatekeeper area.  Also, we are to look at timeline for the item and decide if it should be a goal for the first, second, or third year of the plan.  This should be done before the next meeting.

Penni is to update the Board Essentials document and send it to the new members.

Penni asked what is happening with TNA.  They still have not responded to our proposal.  Bev said we should operate as we did before.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 PM.