Board of Directors

Regular Meeting -- June 7, 2008

The Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 1:25 pm. The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the meeting: President Kathy Lee, Vice President and Secretary Leslie Harvey, Treasurer Pam Chambers and Robert Gardner. 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. The minutes were approved as read.

Treasurer's Report

Pam reported that she paid the electric bill for Morgan, though Morgan has not yet paid the Center for this bill.

President's Report

Garage Apartment. Kathy reported that she did some cleaning in the garage apartment after Morgan moved out. It still needs to be repaired and painted. Robert Gardner plans to see if any permaculturists might be interested in renting it. This way it can be in line with the Center's goals. Perhaps we can get them involved in repairing the place, too. Also, the bathroom still needs a lot of work, and she has a list of other tasks that needs to be done. We'll need to look at possible foundation repairs, too.

Tumblebus. Robert Gardner has been moving the bus occasionally to keep it running. We still need to get it sold. Robert needs specs on the bus, and when he gets that he will post an ad on Craig's List and other sites.

GoodwheelChairs. Chris Grigassy is somewhat frustrated because Larry has not been as helpful in the process as we had first understood he would be. We have posted a sign near the building. Bob will invite Larry to lunch to thank him for his support, and to talk with him about putting up the banner on on the building. He also wants to see if we can get Home Respiratory to work with us more. We still need to provide continuing education workshops for social workers that Larry paid us for in advance.

Prather Letters. The letters went out, but we haven't received any responses yet.

Vice President's Report

Shabby Chic. The door has arrived and is scheduled to be installed by Scott and Robert Gardner next Friday.

Executive Assistant's Report

Roof repairs. Robert reported that he will do some minor repairs to the roof to help buy us some time before replacing it. Scott provided trusted contacts for replacement so we can start getting bids.

Permaculture. Robert is working with Patricia Michael to teach classes here, and the grounds can work as the "lab." He also has options if the classes don't work out because he's made plans for the Center's grounds that won't cost anything.

Executive Director's Report

Bingo. Bob reported that he is very excited in that he feels like things are finally moving in a productive direction! In terms of bingo, we did well again in May, even better than in April. Bob's not sure why - perhaps the stimulus checks? In any event, we should receive ~$8000.

Self-Esteem Class. The class had 10 students. This is proving to be as strong as the Assertiveness class. The new graduating present was a custom t-shirt; the students were very excited about that.

Air Conditioning. We are still waiting on Wansley Refrigeration to install the vents in the Imaginary room, but we are not bugging them because we want a good discount on the split system to be installed in the new office.

Matching Donations Opportunity. Alan McCracken let us know that if we became part of the National Federation of Charities group we might have the opportunity for income without much work. We will try to do this in the fall.

Computer Issues. Bob has been working with Meghan Morris to get assistance with the web site. There have been a number of computer issues lately that have started to be resolved. Bob has been doing upgrades, and more are still coming now that he knows it will be easier than he thought it would be. These upgrades will let us be able to update the website so that it is more interactive and can be updated by members (on their own computers) as appropriate.

Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:46 pm.

Minutes submitted by Leslie Harvey, Secretary, June 7, 2008.