April 25, 2005

April 25, 2005

PRESENT: Dianne Austin, Ann Barden, Cassie Cammann, Jackie Deron, David Coupland

SANGHA TIME

Cassie received a letter from Barbara: she will be reporting soon on the recent Meditation & Non-Violence Conference. Barbara has her new computer and it is working well for her.

There is a hands-on Healing Circle meeting Tuesdays noon-1pm at DSC. Sangha members are encouraged to come or sit at home. Cassie is the current point person - let her know of any requests for healing energy. ACTION ITEM: Ann will talk to the Teacher's Circle about a long term DSC commitment to the Circle; if so, it can be included in the DSC calendars and Alice should be notified.

March Board Meeting Minutes were approved

ACTION ITEMS

• David & Alice have started to look at the use of credit cards to pay for retreats, etc.:ongoing
• Web page link from the Home Page re: donations to DSC: in progress
• addition to the Web pages re: retreats, a disclaimer that DSC retreats may not be appropriate for all people to attend has been added
• partner link to Amazon.com was deemed to have too many issues/difficulties and we will not pursue this further at this time.

REPORT FROM THE GROUP MEETING RE: DISTRESSED STUDENTS

• The group requested to meet with a lawyer to look over the document. There was discussion as to whether this was necessary for a volunteer organization; it also ties us into a document (vs. suggestions to follow when needed).
• There is now the new Website disclaimer (above). The Retreat Committee is also instituting a telephone interview for each retreatant who has never attended a DSC retreat, it they are coming for a weekend or longer (Peg Tappe will be doing the calls for weekend, Barbara for weeklongs/longer)
• ACTION ITEM: Ann will call Planned Parenthood to see what they do about liability issues around using volunteers; when do you bring in a lawyer and what do you as him/her to do?

SEPTEMBER WORKSHOP
September 9-11, 2005 with Aaron, Jeshua et al. The Board approved the Workshop Committee to continue planning the Workshop with the goal of breaking even; there will be upfront costs such as travel, hotels, etc. The Committee will project costs and come up with a cost for the Workshop. They will ask Barbara & Hal to provide transportation for Judy & Tom once they arrive; Carla & Jim are driving. Some Board members will go as working attendees to help evaluate whether this should be a DSC sponsored activity in the future.

VISIONING
May 16th is the meeting to synthesize the input; May 22 is the Sangha meeting. At the Sangha meeting, David will present a financial update. Cassie will report on need for volunteers and find people to present a "pitch" for the committees: workshop, newsletter, retreat. Ann will talk about future needs for Board members. Mary & Cassie will set up drinks & paper products & will ask attendees to help clean up.

FINANCIAL
Assets were down in March due to increase in total Operating Expenses, decrease in donations and classes/retreats.

COMMITTEES:

• NOMINATING: Carol Blotter will fill Sam Clark's position until 9/07 (Corty will formally invite her). The Committee will bring a slate of 3 to the next meeting for Board approval for the upcoming September vacancies.
• NEWSLETTER: Lisa Zucker has resigned as chair; search is on for a new chair
• RETREAT: 17 registered so far for June Retreat - 35 is break even
• Scholarship Fund currently has ~ $1200 and the proceeds from the upcoming Jewelry Sale; the Board had previously approved use of 25% of the profit to be used for scholarship but this will now go back to the Operating Budget. The Fund will need constant replenishment: there is a note in the Newsletter and the Fund will be included on the Dana page of the Website as a special Fund. Retreatants should not have to pay for scholarships (through higher costs).
  • Transportation to the retreat from the airport is problematic; Mary is looking into a shuttle.
  • Jackie Deron will be leaving the committee in July
  • ACTION ITEM: Mary requested that total amount of donations to the Fund and the source (not the name of donator) be reported before each committee meeting; Alice will be asked to provide this. Alice will continue to send Thank-you's to preserve confidentiality
• OMA: Alice received a good Performance Review and was given a raise. She has asked that when the Board approves an activity, it be responsible for finding someone to take charge of it - o/w it falls upon Alice to carry-through. The Board agreed to do so.
• TEACHERS: at next meeting will discuss structure of teacher training and the fall classes. If there is any doubt in the Teacher group about the content of a new class, Board approval should be obtained.

Meeting adjourned at 9:25 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Jackie Deron