Attendees: Andrew Kalloch (President), Kathryn Adair (Treasurer), Sandy Smalley (Secretary), Randi Bowers-Payne (Managing Director) Thomas Hiura, Ralph Pledger, Marti Ravits Absent: Sally Bell, Marilyn Milne and Miles Pendleton
Minutes from 10/26/23 were approved. Board meetings are moving to Kidsports at 2054 Amazon Parkway. Friday fora will continue at the Maple Room, unless an announcement is made in the future.
President’s Report: Andrew – We have at least 7 people suggested as new Board members. Nominators need to contact those individuals and see if they are interested. Ingrid Kessler has offered her resignation from the Board. Sally Bell plans to resign, but will stay until we have elections. Miles Pendleton needs to be contacted about his plans. We are currently in non-compliance with our bylaws because we do not have a President-elect.
Development Committee: Andrew – We need to rebuild this committee, and we need leadership. Marti Ravits has offered to co-chair if she can find a partner to help lead the efforts. Randi and Kathryn have offered to help create a team. The Turtles list may be a good resource.
Finance Committee: Kathryn – The Club had a net positive for the month. Bloomerang is now connected to our bank account. The Finance Committee meets again in January and will consider ways to improve our financial picture, including the frequency of our meetings.
Media Committee: Marilyn –
This has been another month of smooth progress on media fronts. With two Fridays of no
programs, November hasn’t been too arduous except for the five UO student speakers on
Nov. 17. With one exception, the students didn’t hold the microphone close to their mouths
and their responses needed to have the volume boosted in the editing process. Perhaps a
sign could be made showing ice cream in a cone and a mouth about to eat it – and that
could be shown to speakers when they begin to hold the mic away from their faces! In
addition, five speakers put us over the 59-minute limit for KLCC’s broadcast of the program,
and some serious condensing needed to be done. Even after deleting the intermission, etc,
we had to cut nearly 5 minutes. We sped up the audio and deleted lots of applause. Ideally,
we won’t have that many speakers again. I am reviewing and recommending Chamber of
Commerce communications vehicles that are part of that group’s sponsorship. We created
a Giving Tuesday mini-campaign, thanks to Andrew’s generous matching offer. Randi
recorded our podcast intro/exit so the sponsor list is up-to-date.
Here’s an ongoing issue: We should have program descriptions two weeks in advance at
an absolute minimum. In addition to posting the descriptions on our website so people can
find them in a timely way, I create the livestream description 1.5 weeks in advance of the
next program. Ralph posts that description, again so people can read it and plan to
participate. All of our public-facing publicity stems from receiving the program descriptions
in a timely way. I know the Program Committee is stretched thin and working hard – weekly
Friday programs are a recurring “feed the beast” experience – but lately, we’ve had too
many times, including when this report was written, when there are NO upcoming forums
listed on our website. These blank home pages are a real disservice to the club and its
members/potential participants. Whatever can be done to get program descriptions at least two weeks ahead will be very helpful!
Membership Committee: Ralph – It has been suggested that to better monitor our monthly cash flow, we switch from a yearly membership fee to a monthly membership fee. The committee meets again in January and will consider this. A motion was made and passed to offer each Club member the ability to gift a year’s membership to one other person. There is no charge for this gift. The hope is that those receiving the gift will choose to renew their membership the following year.
Managing Director’s Report: Randi – Randi has provided a comprehensive report which all Board members should read. She has created an email for the public to reach the Board without releasing any members’ personal email accounts. Sustaining memberships are now available. We have 5 applicants for intern positions; one of whom is in a master’s program. CCE has been selected to participate in the UO Nonprofit Board Governance Clinic. Dec 15: Randi will submit documents to Clinic Feb. 13: full board meeting and information gathering April 8: student team submits a written assessment to CCE April 16: presentation of assessment to full board Randi has laid out priorities for CCE moving forward. These are described in more detail in her written report, but include hiring part-time employees, evaluating the frequency of our programs and performing exit interviews with departing board and committee members.
Our next board meeting will be Jan. 25 at Kidsports.
Respectfully submitted,
Sandy Smalley, Secretary
