City Club of Eugene
Board Meeting Minutes
November 18, 2021
Board Members Present: Kitty Piercy, Scott Coltrane, Skip Coburn, Ingrid Kessler, Sandra Smalley, Marilyn Milne, Andrew Kalloch and Ralph Pledger. Executive Director present: Silver Mogart.
1. Call to Order and Welcome at 5:31 pm
2. Adopt minutes of October Board meeting—Moved to adopt as presented, seconded, and approved.
3. Update on going live:
a. Technical aspects: We will be able to get in to the church early next week to evaluate our systems with only small technical issues still to be addressed. We’re on target!
b. Timing: Announcements that we intend to meet in person in January are starting to appear.
c. Audience Issues: We’ll have to decide how many people we can safely invite. We are requiring proof of vaccination, mask-wearing and social distancing.
d. Insurance for new equipment: The cost is $395 per year through Advantage Insurance Agency which covers about $5,000 in new equipment. It will be locked safely in the Church in between uses. Motion to approve, seconded, and passed. The exact total of our expenditure for new equipment will be researched and provided.
4. Executive report—notes were provided in advance.
a. Viewership numbers are a bit low as the pandemic progresses. There was board conversation and gratitude expressed to the programming committee noting the importance and poplarity of our recent programs including homelessness and hate crimes.
b. Podcast numbers are not reported through most podcast services and therefore are significantly underreported.
c. Client Relationsip Platform: Neon is now severed with the final invoice paid.
d. Meeting Space: The Church contract has been signed on our side.
e. Sponsorship Updates: We got a check from LCC for their Diamond Sponsorship. Thank you LCC! In the script for our programs we are mentioning the County and City twice, both at the beginning and the end. Thank you City of Eugene and Lane County!
f. Membership and Sponsorship numbers are holding steady.
g. Office Space: Price for square footage of rental space has increased to about $1.60 per square foot. Right now we are not paying anything but we need a long term solution. A commercial lease will be reviewed from both a business and legal perspective before being signed.
h. Internal Controls: There is concern for how we count income. For checks mailed to us, we do not have the staff to have a separation of tasks such as opening the mail and depositing checks. However, in this case there is a paper trail. Cash sales at lunch are counted by both Silver and a volunteer.
5. President’s comments—There will be an evaluation of our Executive Director at the end of January 2022.
6. Committee reports
a. Membership committee—Notes were provided in advance.
i. Proposals for outreach to promote diversity that were presented to the Board at our last meeting were reviewed with a nod towards perhaps producing a two-sided bilingual flyer at some point in the future.
ii. The idea to connect with high school and college thereby get credit was discussed by the Board in greater detail. Several Directors as well as our Executive Director and other City Club Supporters have school contacts. We would make sure to reach out to the entire community not just certain schools. However, in the short term it may be difficult to coordinate a smooth launch as we are just returning to in-person meeting. A slow approach to implementing this idea seems smart. It’s quite a bit of work to maintain these programs so this may be something for a volunteer or paid position to do in the future. We need to have initial conversations with community partners to know what works best. Andrew Kalloch has taken on the teacher outreach effort.
b. Program Committee—The uncertainty in returning to meeting in person is challenging. It was reiterated that our firm goal is January, starting on the 7th. We plan to do this unless there is a change beyond our control, such as a change in the pandemic status. We will not have a board meeting in December and will meet only if we need to cancel plans for in person meeting. Full steam ahead!
c. Nominating Committee—is in progress. The next meeting is 12/16/21 to review a long list of possible board members.
d. Development Committee—so far all sponsors are renewing. Things are going well!
e. Budget/Finance—notes were sent in advance.
i. October financials are not available due to our early Board meeting this month and will be sent to the board next week with Skip’s comments.
ii. Columbia bank is merging with Umpqua. We’ll see how our relationship with the newly merged bank unfolds.
f. Media – notes were provided in advance. Additional items:
i. An email blast will be sent out on giving Tuesday asking for donations.
ii. Today Marilyn sent the reporter at the RG who wrote the headline article on our recent local hate crime the link to our program on hate crimes.
7. Futures discussion—a part-time staff is not sustainable. We can’t have our organization grow without having our staff grow.
a. Board Discussion: Do we need a full-time and a part-time person? Or two part-time? Providing healthcare benefits was discussed counterbalanced with concern for ongoing financial stewardship of the club. Concepts to help make healthcare affordable include joining an umbrella nonprofit group to get access to health insurance. Benefits design could include offering a bump in salary if the employee gets health care outside of City Club. It was noted that a full benefits platform can add 40% more cost than wages alone. What about a salaried full time position rather than hourly? It was noted and reiterated that hourly wage employees may not donate time to City Club with no exceptions.
b. Action Plan:
i. In January the finance committee will meet to discuss planning through a financial lens.
ii. In February we will have a strategic planning retreat. Kitty will send Directors a list of potential dates.
iii. Ongoing timing: We may need intermediate steps like a five year plan.
9. Further business? Action items? None were added.
10. Adjourned at 6:32 pm
Respectfully submitted, J. Ingrid Kessler, DVM, Board Secretary
