Board of Directors

Regular Meeting -- September 29, 2006

The Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 1:04 pm. The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the meeting: President Pam Latham (Oceanna), Vice President and Treasurer Pam Chambers, and Secretary Kathy Lee. Robert McGarey (Executive Director) was present via telephone, and Larry and Rebekah Spector were 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 approved.

Vice President's Report

Bob's Fund-raising Trip to Phoenix. Pam reported that during the time that Bob has been in Phoenix doing fund-raising for the Oprah project, she has taken over his work here, and that she now knows what it's like to be in his shoes. She's feeling overwhelmed, and she doesn't know how he does it.

Ideas from the Retreat. Pam said she would like for us to come together once every couple of weeks to talk about and do things that we talked about at the retreat, especially since we haven't really accomplished anything from the retreat yet.

Community Volunteer Work. Colleen suggested that we wear our new Center T-shirts while doing volunteer work in the community (such as at the KLRU fundraisers), as a way of being more visible to the public. There was some support for this idea, as well as some discussion about whether doing community volunteer work was directly related enough with the core of our actual mission.

President's Report

Rental of Practitioner Space. Oceanna reported that she checked with Louis Knox, Greta Gardner and Rhonda Caffee about whether they would like to rent space here. Louis and Greta said no, and Rhonda said that she might be interested if she had a client that preferred to meet in south Austin.

GoodWheelchairs.org Logo. There was extensive discussion about what kind of a logo we should create for GoodWheelchairs, and several ideas were presented for the logo itself, as well as for possible graphic designers that we could use to design the logo.

Bingo. Larry reported that he could provide free pizza for a few nights at the bingo hall, to see whether that helps us bring in more clientele.

Executive Director's Report

Murlin & Shirley Johnson. Bob reported that Murlin Johnson from San Antonio had promised to attend this month's meeting to present a proposal for him to do fundraising for us related to GoodWheelchairs, and that he isn't here nor did he call to let us know that he wouldn't attend.

Esalen. Bob asked that an article on Esalen be handed out to the board members, since Esalen is kind of the grandfather of the human potential movement, and it could provide a possibly good model for us to use here.

Real Estate. Bob reported that the office space at the corner of Bert and Manchaca has been placed up for sale, and he thinks they were asking $350,000. He said it seems like that might mean that our property is increasing in value.

Fundraising. Bob reported on his fund-raising work in Phoenix as part of promoting holistic medicine and getting Dr. Gladys McGarey's work disseminated more widely. He recently talked with Gary Zukav who wrote The Seat of the Soul, and Gary was also excited about the benefits this project could provide for the world.

Artist in Residence. Bob said he feels that, in the spirit of supporting and triggering creativity in our members, that it would be a good idea for us to have an Artist in Residence. Such a person could help make the arts more accessible to our members, by doing such things as offering free art classes, or obtaining free or low-cost tickets to local theater productions. The Artist in Residence would live on-campus, and we could provide him or her with living space at a reduced price. He pointed out that J.P. Smith could act as our first Artist, since he has access to a number of free or reduced-price tickets to local plays. After discussion, it was unanimously

RESOLVED, that the Center create an Artist in Residence position modeled on the ideas described above, and that we appoint J. P. Smith as our first Artist. He will provide free or low-cost tickets for local plays for members, and we will offer him living space on-campus in the upstairs garage apartment on a month-to-month lease for $400 per month plus utilities.

Anomaly Archives. Bob reported that the Center has essentially been providing space at no cost to the Anomaly Archives for over two years now. Extensive discussion followed. The Board asked Bob whether he saw the financial position of the Archives changing in the foreseeable future, and he said no. Bob said that he hadn't seen any reason to ask them to move out, since we don't have anything to replace them with. Several people disagreed, pointing out that we're looking at renting that space to practitioners, and that creating an empty space invites new opportunities to move in. After considerable further discussion, it was unanimously

RESOLVED, that we thank the Anomaly Archives (Scientific Anomaly Institute) for their presence over the past few years and wish them the best on their future endeavors, and then point out that we need the space for other purposes and that we'll need them to move out by the first of November.

Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:44 pm.

Minutes submitted by Kathy Lee, Secretary, October 12, 2006.