CITY CLUB OF EUGENE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Minutes for Thursday, April 23, 2020
Meeting started at 5:30pm
Via ZOOM
Board Members present:
- Josh Burstein (Secretary)
- Skip Coburn
- Scott Coltrane
- Robin Fletcher
- Joel Korin (Immediate Past President)
- Ralph Pledger
- Eric Richardson (President)
- Katherine Schacht
- Paul Thompson (Treasurer)
Board Members absent:
- Kitty Piercy
- Vacant (President-Elect)
Staff present: Silver Mogart, Executive Director
Guests: None
- Vote to allow Proxy voting during extraordinary times
Joel noted that Section 2.11 of the Bylaws allows for alternate voting. Also, Oregon Nonprofit Law was updated as of January 1, 2020 and now expressly allows for votes by email (for both Board of Directors and for members).
Paul suggested that we use a site called electionrunner.com. It would send an email to everybody and would contain a link to a ballot.
Joel said that would be OK as long as the cover email listed the requirements. He added that there must be a minimum of 10% of members in good standing as of 20 days before the ballot for it to be valid, which is about 15 people. Paul said that he would first send an email, and the next day people would receive the link to the ballot.
The nominees on the ballot will be:
President-Elect: Kitty Piercy
Board Member (1-year term): Margaret Hallock
Board Member (2-year term): J. Ingrid Kessler
Board Member (2-year term): Marilyn Milne
Board Member (2-year term): Ralph Pledger
Board Member (2-year term): Fred Roberts
Board Member (2-year term): Marilyn Milne
After discussion, the following schedule was approved:
Paul will send an explanatory email on Tuesday, April 28.
Paul will send the voting tool via electionrunner.com on Wednesday, April 29.
The ballots will be due by midnight on Wednesday, May 6.
The results will be sent out by noon on Friday, May 8 to the entire club membership.
- EXEC DIRECTOR’S REPORT- Silver
Silver delivered the Executive Director’s report. He noted that the City Council Ward 1 program was the most popular one viewed, with almost 600 views. The Board of County Commissioners had about 300 views. People, including candidates, have been sharing them on social media.
Eric asked how many followers our Facebook page has. Robin says approximately 786. It was noted that there is a donation button on our page. Some thought it might seem tacky, but we agreed that we need the money. Robin has donated a little to it and learned that Facebook does not send it to us until it hits $100.00.
Eric suggested that Scott’s draft letter to sponsors be revised for members and posted on the Facebook page.
- TREASURER’S REPORT – Paul
Paul said that we had $29,500 in the bank, which was creeping down. He still was anxious about Kaiser Permanente’s check coming it. Kitty as liaison is checking with them. Robin noted that Marilyn Milne, who brought them in, is a nominee for the Board. Paul said that we had enough money to do what we want to in the short term.
- Board Nominations-Appointments
Eric as president will transition to Scott as of the May 7 election. Scott then will appoint the Secretary and Treasurer at the May 28 meeting of the new Board. Eric verified that Skip Coburn is willing to serve as the new Treasurer during the next few weeks of transition, noting that Paul already has resigned. Once all the changes are done after May 28, we will change signatures with the banks.
Eric said that Bernie Bopp, who might be good on the Program Committee, is willing to try us out by attending the May 6th meeting. He asked Silver to add him to the Google group and asked Scott to appoint him to the PC at next month’s organization meeting.
- Online programming Update- Joel
We had a program canceled for May 1 regarding LTD, but it worked out for our benefit, since we had six candidates running for mayor, so we made it two hours.
May 8 will be the Turtles program. It will honor Kaarin Knudson (Housing), Derek Johnson (Civic Engagement), and Our Children’s Trust (Environment).
Joel said that he and Paul will be talking with John VanLandingham to look at having the speaker and recipient together. We were thinking about moving to live-streaming, but other City Clubs have tried that and encountered technical glitches.
Eric asked if we saw ourselves going through June. Joel said that we are booked through July. We do have an opening on May 29, and then June and July probably will be done remotely. This may offer some interesting advantages, such as for a gun violence program, not only could be have a University of Oregon professor, but also someone from Rutgers, and possibly someone from a Seattle hospital.
- DEVELOPMENT/FUNDRAISING – Skip
The aforementioned letter came out of the Development Committee.
In addition to seven diamond sponsors, we have a letter out to the AARP, which is the only sponsor that would be renewing between April 1 and August 1.
We are focusing on keeping what we have. That would keep us in good shape.
We will follow up on the seven letters to Diamond Sponsors with a phone call from their liaisons.
As summer goes on – June, July – we will send a similar letter to the 11 Gold Sponsors.
Skip says that the Development Committee may want to replace him as Chair when he becomes Treasurer. Eric is offering to join, if not chair, the Committee.
Josh asked for clarification on the seven Diamond Sponsors. Skip said that we call them that, but technically we have four Diamond Sponsors (Kaiser Permanente, PeaceHealth, Lane Community College, and the University of Oregon) and our two institutional sponsors (City of Eugene and Lane County), plus we are looking at a letter to the AARP.
- General Discussion
Thanks to Paul, Robin, and Kyle for their service. Robin will continue monitoring the Facebook page. Paul will work on podcasts.
The Baker Center is closed through end of summer and has made no decision for fall yet.
- Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned by acclimation at 6:36pm. The next meeting will be on Thursday, May 28, 2020.
Respectfully submitted,
Joshua Burstein, Secretary
