Board of Directors

Regular Meeting -- May 16, 2010

The Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 3:11 pm. The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the meeting: President and Treasurer Kathy Lee, Vice President Tamara Vogt (by phone), Secretary Pam Chambers, Penny Chambers (by phone) and Carol Hintz. No directors were absent. Robert McGarey (Executive Director) was 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 the minutes were approved as read.

Executive Director's Report

Networking. It's been less than a month since Bob started doing networking with the wheelchair people around town. It has been easier and more pleasant than he thought it would be.

Finances. Bob informed the board about the GoodwheelChair 50%-off sale that ended yesterday. Wednesday he sold 13 chairs, and was just $15 of reaching the necessary $3500. So we paid off the IRS UBIT from the old bingo hall ($1K), and also made the mortgage payment ($2.5K). Then Bob handed out a Cash Analysis sheet with approximate figures for 2009 and for 2010 YTD, and discussed the information. Clearly, until Bingo kicks back in we need to bring in more income, and we hope and expect that Bob's networking with GoodwheelChairs will do the trick. Penny suggested that Bob negotiate with the bingo unit so that we can have a reduced payment each quarter as we pay back our contribution to the buffer.

Shawna has been doing a great job of bookkeeping data entry, and these financial statements wouldn't have been possible without her. And Annapurni is coming back to volunteer starting in June after having her baby.

Interns. Bob says that about 6 people from the Center's mail list have expressed interest in interning, so he has been working with Penny's help on getting the conceptual framework, the written description, and the application ready for our next batch of interns. He handed out all the printouts and then we discussed several important questions about internship.

First, Bob asked how long we wanted internships to last. He said that most internships last from 2 weeks to 3 months, and only a few last as long as 6 months. He said he prefers to have ours last at least 6 months, and preferably longer, but he wanted feedback from the board. After discussion, the board agreed to the idea of 6 months with the possibility of renewal.

Penny suggested that we call the places that have an intern program and ask what their intern experience has been. Also ask what they would do differently now than they did at the beginning. Bob says he would like to know what kind of a curriculum places like Esalen offer their interns. Bob said we can do this research as part of developing our internship program, but he doesn't want to wait to decide about the length of internships because we really need to get going on this.

Secondly, the board discussed what kind of essay questions to have on the internship application. A number of possible questions were suggested, and Bob will look through them and select the best ones so he can send out the applications to those who have inquired.

President's Report

Shaklee. Kathy said that we made a total of $12 last month. She knows we can be better. Jessica sent us a letter we can use to encourage our members to buy more products, and Bob hopes to send it out soon, possibly merged into a newsletter format.

New Business

Batteries Plus. Penny has contacted the Austin store to see if they will donate batteries for GoodwheelChairs, which would allow them to get a tax credit and advertising as well.

Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:40 pm.

Minutes submitted by Pam Chambers, Secretary, May 16, 2010.