Attendees: Andrew Kalloch (President), Kathryn Adair (treasurer), Sandy Smalley (Secretary), Thomas Hiura, Marilyn Milne, Ralph Pledger Absent: Sally Bell, Miles Pendleton, Marti Ravits
Introduction of Josh Pugh, one of our new interns
Minutes of 11/30/23 meeting approved
President’s Report: Andrew – Nominations for new Board members should be locked in by April. We ideally need 5 new members. We have 2 candidates who are very interested. Sally and Miles are continuing on the Board in name only until elections are held. We are in non-compliance re: President-elect and Past-President positions. Should we revisit our by-laws to address this? No action was taken at this time. We can advertise for applicants at our fora and on social media, as well as reading out to people in person.
There was discussion around providing lunches at Friday fora. This has been losing revenue and requires a volunteer to administer. Currently, Mary Leighton has been doing this, but is it worth the effort and expense? We will integrate the question of providing lunch into our member survey.
Springfield City Club has reached out to CCE re: a merger of our two clubs. There is a different political culture of the two, which might benefit us both. We could share staff and volunteers, but there are logistical problems to work out. SCC meets one to two times/month at Roaring Rapids Pizza. There would be potential technical problems with our recording in that setting. The Board agrees that we could try a joint program once a month to see how it goes. Andrew will follow up.
Staffing: We are constrained by our budget from hiring a new Managing Director. Andrew and Kathryn have proposed two part-time positions: an operations coordinator and a communications and media coordinator. Each would require 5-12 hours of work weekly and pay would range from $15-$19/hour. A job description was provided for each position. The Board will review and discuss at our next meeting.
Treasurer’s Report: Kathryn – The club is solvent. Our major expense was the salary for our employee, which we are no longer paying. Therefore we should see an uptick in our net reserves. It is difficult for Kathryn to track our sponsorships on Bloomerang. Ralph and Kathryn will work together to clarify how these are recorded. We have a sponsor for one of our fora, with another possible. The Finance Committee is meeting quarterly.
Membership Committee: Ralph – Membership is at 112. There was discussion about maintaining annual membership dues, or switching to monthly. Monthly dues would help to stabilize revenue. There is now a Sustainer membership option on our website, which may make members more likely to continue renewing their memberships. This issue was tabled for now.
Program Committee: Andrew – Thomas expressed his desire to join the Program Committee. New members of this committee are taking responsibility for programs. There could be improved communication within the committee. CCE will be partnering with other City Clubs on statewide races during the political season. CCE will be hosting the Attorney General election program.
Media Committee: Marilyn’s provided report – I am working with the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce to use our $500 ad credit. This project was begun by Randi. Because of her absence, I am interested in learning how publicity is being done for each week’s program. I did distribute a release for the first program of 2024 but not since. A media coordinator – or even a set process – would be helpful, rather than relying on me! We have a great program lineup, which I’m grateful to the Program Committee for developing. It looks great on our website to have week after week of programs in the queue, and it sure makes my life easier as I add website content. Thanks, Program Committee! We continue to record each program. Thanks, Ralph Pledger and Jim Dotson! Either Thomas Hiura or I list the needed audio edits for the KLCC broadcast and our podcast, and our paid sound engineer makes those edits to meet our deadlines. In recent podcast episodes, the program on recalls has been listened to most often. Several recent programs haven’t had any listeners: Dangers to Journalism; Arts & Music Education; Outdoors: Good for You, Good for the Economy; Civil Liberties in a Blue State. I continue to use hashtags, social media, website links, etc. in each episode description. Overall, we have had more than 2,300 downloads since launching the podcast in 2020. We have paid 9 Planets to update plugins to protect from hacking. We have updated our email address. I send weekly program alerts to area media, but could use an intern.
Development Committee: Andrew – Next week he, Josh and Marti are meeting with Lund Development to see if it is feasible to engage their services. Is our sponsorship list up to date on our website? Ralph and Marilyn will do this.
General Updates – We have 3 meetings scheduled with U of O students in a nonprofit clinic. The dates are Feb 13 and April 8. We are encouraged to participate.
Our next Board meeting is Feb. 22 at Kidsports Fieldhouse, second floor.
Respectfully submitted, Sandy Smalley, Secretary
