Board of Directors’ meeting minutes
Directors
present: Sue Fluri,
John Hulsebus, Gerald Rickert, Tom Vance, Frank Wolf,
John Boes, Tom Coyne and Sherry Gordon
Boes
called the meeting to order. Boes noted we do not have a quorum in attendance at this
meeting. There were no changes or
corrections noted to the minutes from the October 2009 meeting.
Treasurer’s report. Hulsebus reported we
have at the end of October $6214.83 in savings; $8567.62 in checking; for a
total of $14,782.45. Still outstanding
is a check which was issued to Sue Ponchillia for approximately $1600. Gordon will check with Paul Ponchillia on
that check. We also received $3000 from
the Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation.
As of November 5, our actual money on hand is $16,188.39.
Frank read
a letter from the Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation. Letter said that the Board of Trustees, on
Coyne and
Vance joined the meeting at this time, thus completing a quorum of directors.
Boes
indicated he had received correspondence from the Michigan Braille Transcribing
Fund (MBTF). There are several
stipulations in this letter. Boes indicated he had signed the letter, indicating we
agree with these stipulations, and returned the letter to the MBTF, as
requested. Noted in the letter was that
the grant amount of $10,000 has been awarded to the MBAA for support for the
2009-10 athletic activities. This money
must be used for 2009-10 sports activities.
Grant funds are not to be used for wages or administrative costs. MBTF is to be provided with the original invoice. Payments will be made to the vendors. Copies of the invoice and checks will be sent
to the MBAA. Boes
indicated he hoped that Carol at WMU would be willing to do a group billing for
housing and food and would submit this invoice to the MBTF. MBTF is to be provided a financial report for
this grant. MBTF is to be provided
pictures from the different athletic events which are supported by this
grant. Any funds not used will be
returned to the MBTF’s general fund. MBTF is to be sent a final report which
summarizes the project outcome. MBTF is
to be given credit for any print or verbal recognition. Confirmation in writing is to be provided to
MBTF of these acknowledgements. Copies
of any publicity received as a result of this grant must be submitted to the
MBTF as part of the grant activities.
MBTF will make a formal presentation of the grant, to the MBAA, if
requested.
General
conditions of the grant include: Grant
is to be used solely for the purpose described and for purposes approved by the
Board of Directors. Grant is good for
one year; however a written request may be submitted to extend this grant for
one year. The amount of this grant has
been provided, based on information your organization provided on the grant
request. No significant changes may be
made in the budgetary allocation as provided in the grant application, without MBTF’s approval. If
grant is intended for support of a specific project, any un-used funds will be
returned to the MBTF.
The $10,000
is available for use by the MBAA immediately.
Noted was that although the $10,000 from MBTF is not money which we will
see in our MBAA bank accounts, we need to have it in our financial records when
we figure budgets for this coming year.
Boes
noted he has not yet heard from the Gilmore Foundation regarding our grant
request to them. We believe the Gilmore
Board met yesterday to decide on grant awards.
Rickert
informed the Board that the bowlers are hosting the State bowling tournament in
the spring of 2010. The bowlers have a
signed contract for the hotel and alleys.
Rickert is not sure how long ago the league
got new bowling rails. However it has
probably been at least 10 years. Rickert explained that the 8 rails are partly held together
with duct tape and look very poor. There
is only one person who makes the bowling rails; that person charges $253 per
rail, due to the cost of the materials and the crafting of the rails. Eight new rails are being requested, at a
total cost of $2024. League participants
are willing to contribute $400, which is about 20 percent of the total
cost. Therefore funding request is for
$1624. The motion was made and seconded
to approve this request. During
discussion, Gordon brought up that in the past, equipment such as the cost of goalballs, have come out of the annual goalball
budget. Since we do not know what our
total budget is this year, how can we plan for such expenses? Rickert noted that
this year’s bowling travel expenses are anticipated to be higher than usual,
due to the fact the National tournament is being held in
Discussion
involved a recall of the way things used to be with the MBAA; that we had
plenty of funding and could purchase items which we needed and even had the
funds to begin new programs, such as the tandem club. Now our financial resources are totally
different. Coyne noted that at some
point, we may need to consider sponsoring only the Sports Camp—as the MBAA did
in the beginning. Therefore the
possibility is there that if the MBAA were to purchase the bowling rails, this
might be the last purchase of that type for some time if the MBAA chooses to
change their focus of which events we are able to sponsor.
We returned
to the subject of voting on the motion for the bowling rails. Coyne made a motion to table the vote on the
bowling rail request for one month—until the December 2009 Board meeting. This motion was seconded. Further discussion involved the possibility
of looking at a plan where only a few of the rails might be replaced this year
and then a few more rails might be replaced the following year, etc. By doing this, there would not be such a
large request all in one fiscal year.
Frank
suggested that regarding this year’s budget that we get together with the SEC coordinators
to find out what their actual costs are anticipated to be so we are able to
make an intelligent budget for our overall costs. For example, how might the SEC budget be minimized? Might
there be some type of “tuition” cost for an athlete to attend the SEC? This might be one way to lessen the total
cost of the SEC since at this time, SEC participants
pay nothing to attend the SEC.
Gordon
brought up the point that at this point in our fiscal year,
it is a bit early to decide how much each sports group will be allotted since
we do not know what our entire MBAA budget is.
We do not yet know how much we will receive from the Gilmore
Foundation. We usually decide budgeted
amounts in December. Boes
indicated he would talk with Scott and Leanne Ford, prior to our December MBAA
Board meeting, in order to find out what sort of actual costs the SEC
anticipates. We should also know, by our
December meeting, how much money we will be receiving from the Gilmore
Foundation; therefore knowing what our entire budget is to work with this year. Boes indicated that
with this knowledge, we should be able to let each sports group know, by
January, how much each has been allotted.
Coyne noted
that in the USABA newsletter, there is information on the first class of
persons who are being inducted into the Hall of Fame for USABA. Coyne proposed that the MBAA nominate Sue
Ponchillia into the USABA’s Hall of Fame. Sue is clearly the type of person who deserves
this type of recognition. Gordon will
contact Mark Lucas, USABA Executive Director, in order to find out how a
nomination be made.
Boes
noted that we need someone who is employed by WMU who can be responsible for
signing the contracts for the MBAA for facilities rental for the SEC and for
the goalball tournament. Boes indicated he would check with Paul Ponchillia, with
Mary Lou Brooks and with Richard Long—as to what we need to do along those
lines.
Boes
indicated he is not aware that a meeting between Richard Long, Jim Leja, Mary Lou Brooks and Gayla
Dennis has occurred; this meeting is related to the Fund 24 account at WMU and
the concern of how the Low Incidence Outreach folks, A.K.A. the School for the
Blind, might be able to get us the $2000 that usually comes toward the cost of
the SEC.
We spoke
regarding the possibility of new grant opportunities. In the past several years, we have had “new”
money from the Ann Arbor Track Club and from the MBTF. Wolf indicated there are no other grant
possibilities in the Kazoo area which have not already been explored. Vance indicated we have never had the luxury
of a grant writer on our Board; although Mary Lou Brooks has taken the grant
writing course. We might look into a
program at WMU—such as Public Administration—where we might have a grad student
assigned to us to explore grant possibilities and to write grant requests for
us and that student might be able to get some academic credit for this “real
time” work. Vance indicated he would
check with Mary Lou and the Public Administration Department at WMU to begin
looking into possibilities.
Gordon
noted that earlier this week, Mary Lou Brooks had surgery and would not be back
to work until close to the middle of January.
Here’s to Mary Lou for a quick recovery.
Hulsebus
indicated he is still holding the check which was issued to the MBAA from the
Fluri
announced that the Michigan Ski for Light program will be held
The next
MBAA Board meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 16 at
Respectfully
submitted,