Board of Directors’ meeting minutes
Directors
present: Richard Hodges, Richard Long,
Mike Branch, Tom Vance, Frank Wolf, John Boes and
Sherry Gordon
Meeting was
called to order by Chair John Boes. Minutes from the September 2008 MBAA Board
meeting were approved as distributed.
Boes had
spoken with Branch and Gordon, regarding continuing their MBAA Board
participation. Both Branch and Gordon
agreed to continue to serve on the MBAA Board. Vance had previously agreed to
continue to serve on the Board. These
terms are three years in length.
Treasurer’s report. Hodges reported that
we have combined funding from our checking and savings accounts of $10,868. Hodges indicated $2701.18 was deposited from the
Gilmore grant match; there was a $25 gift and there was an expenditure of $20
to the State of
Vance
indicated he has not yet picked up the frames which will hold Sports Ed Camp
pictures. These frames and pictures will
be presented to our donors from large foundations.
Vance
reported he had spoken with the Portage Lions Club on Saturday, September
13. There were 15 Lions present. Vance gave them a history of the MBAA and
distributed copies of our annual report.
They would like to partner with us on upcoming events, such as the SEC,
as well as other events. The Portage
Lions are working on the production of Braille menus; they will be offering the
service to local restaurants in order to improve access to restaurants in the
We had
originally spoken regarding the possibility that the Portage Lions might be
interested in financially assisting SEC participants who could not afford the
$25 USABA membership fee. However, Paul
Ponchillia had indicated he had a few other ideas which we might explore—in
terms of the Portage Lions Club involvement.
Suggestion was that since Scott and Leanne Ford will now be the SEC
coordinators—that we invite them to our next MBAA Board meeting to talk about
how they feel the Portage Lions might be utilized to assist with the SEC.
Discussion
was held, regarding the SEC housing bill.
The bill is about double what the projected amount on the SEC budget
was. Question as to why this cost is so
high this year. Was there double
billing? Hodges got only a portion of
the invoice; however, he does not feel double billing is the problem. Hodges will speak further with Paul Ponchillia
regarding these questions.
Gordon
presented a funding request for the 2008 youth national goalball tournament,
being held
Branch
indicated 4 of the bowlers will be going to a bowling tournament this coming
weekend. Only 4 of the bowlers qualified
to attend this tournament, being held in
The
Kalamazoo Blind Bowlers have 13 bowlers this year.
Gordon
reported on the Paralympics, held in
Vance noted
that there were articles about our Paralympians in
the Kalamazoo Gazette; Gordon noted there was an article on Asya Miller in the
Battle Creek Enquirer and News. Vance
will contact John Hulsebus to see about putting results from the Paralympics on
our MBAA web site.
Discussion
was held regarding the frequency that MBAA Board meetings should be held. We have been meeting monthly, except for July
and August. Question was raised as to
whether we should consider meeting every other month or perhaps quarterly. Point was raised that when Boards meet
quarterly, often they lose their enthusiasm.
Wolf suggested the possibility of an Executive Committee—who might get
together, either face-to-face physically or via telephone, when something came
up of importance. Board members could
contact one of the Executive Committee members if they had a funding request or
point of interest to be considered. Decision
was made that we will not have a scheduled meeting in November 2008. Our next meeting will be in December and we
will talk further about this subject then.
Gordon will
send out a notice to all MBAA Board members, letting them know there is no
scheduled meeting in November.
The next
MBAA Board meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 10 at
Respectfully
submitted,
Sherry
Gordon, MBAA Secretary