Michigan Blind Athletic Association

Board of Directors’ meeting minutes

November 14, 2007

 

Directors present:  Tom Vance, John Hulsebus, Frank Wolf, Mike Branch, Tom Coyne, Bill Welke, Richard Hodges, John Boes and Sherry Gordon

 

Boes called the meeting to order.  Minutes from the October 2007 meeting were approved as distributed. 

 

An e-mail vote was conducted regarding accepting John Hulsebus as an MBAA Board member.  All votes were “yes”.  Welcome to the MBAA Board, John! 

 

Treasurer’s report.  During the month of October, we had $8.94 interest from the savings account.  This was the only activity in October.  Balance is $15,000.56.  Report was approved unanimously. 

 

Gordon announced that goalball practices will begin this Saturday.  The Kalamazoo goalball tournament will be held March 1 and 2, 2008.

 

Gordon is updating the MBAA Board roster and will distribute this to all MBAA Board members.

 

Boes indicated he had spoken with Mary Lou Brooks; Brooks had spoken with a couple of professors in the Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies, regarding recruitment of possible MBAA Board members.  Professor Dr. Richard Long will be joining us at our December meeting.  We hope Richard will be interested in joining our Board!  Vance noted it would also be a plus if we could find an attorney to be on our Board—to replace Bob Burkholz.   

 

Vance indicated he would run some copies of the MBAA’s annual report and will bring them to the December meeting.  Coyne will bring a copy of the MBAA’s by-laws.  Vance noted he thought that Mary Lou Brooks had been posting the MBAA’s annual reports on the WMU web site. 

 

Welke noted his term on the MBAA Board expires June 2008 and he does not plan to continue on the Board after his term expires.  Noted was that we need to have not less than nine members and not more than fifteen members.  Coyne asked whether there might be any other constituents who might be interested in being represented on the MBAA Board.  From the young goalball group, Boes had previously asked Alyssa Williams; however, she could not commit, due to her work schedule.  Vance suggested possibly someone from WMU’s recreation center—Coyne will contact Amy Seth as a possibility. 

 

Welke suggested possibly someone from West Hills Athletic Club.  He had mentioned this but did not get any response.  Question was raised…is it time to do another “train the trainer” workshop?  Some discussion involved challenges for persons who are blind in getting to an athletic club to work-out—transportation, cost of a membership, etc.  Boes asked if we could assist someone with that expense, if needed.  Another possible area for training might be in the high school setting…are there high school students, who are blind, who are not participating in gym class—other than just setting along the sideline?  We know there are…that is the focus of who we assist with the Sports Ed Camp.   

 

Branch will speak with the bowlers to see if any of them might be interested in any other types of physical activities.  Welke will talk with West Hills and Bronson Athletic Club; Boes will talk with Borgess and Curves; Coyne has a list of the participants from the last time this was done and will talk with those folks he is able to contact.  Basically, we need to find out if there is enough interest to do the train the trainer program again.  If there is enough interest, we will plan to hold another workshop; if not enough interest is shown, no workshop will be held. 

 

Meeting was adjourned.  Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 12 at 4:00 p.m. at the Michigan Commission for the Blind Training Center.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Sherry Gordon, MBAA Secretary