Board of Directors’ meeting minutes
Directors
present: Rob Wall Emerson,
Boes called
the meeting to order. Minutes from the
January 2008 Board meeting were okayed by the Board
members present; however, since there was not a quorum present, approval was
not given at this point. A quorum was
present later in the meeting and the minutes were approved.
Treasurer’s report. There was a $500
gift from Ponchillia’s. No expenditures this month. Total of $32,948 in the
combined accounts. Hodges is
working with the bank on a small discrepancy.
Again the Board okayed the treasurer’s report;
however, since no quorum was present, approval was not given until later in the
meeting.
Branch
presented the funding request for the Midwest Blind Bowling tournament. Date of the event is March 14-16 in
Boes
presented a funding request from the tandem bikers for $20.23 for 7 adult bike
helmets. Mike McAbee
found these helmets on the “repocast.com” web site. The helmets are ANSI certified. Funding request was approved unanimously and
reimbursement will go to McAbee.
Hodges read
a funding request for the
Boes
reported he had heard back from the folks at Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan, regarding the possibility of a Board member from BCBSM. Boes completed some
paperwork and sent them the paperwork, as well as a copy of the MBAA
by-laws. Boes
indicated he has heard nothing yet from Blue Cross. Boes noted that if
he has heard nothing by March, he will again telephone the person he spoke
with.
Mary Lou
Brooks is completing the grant application for the Braille Transcriber’s
fund. She also came upon an application
for an emergency fund grant for $2000.
Brooks is supposed to be at the meeting today—plans are that she brings
the grant applications for Boes to sign.
Coyne noted
the Kalamazoo Gazette article on the blind bowlers which was run on January
15. Great article! Branch indicated he had been contacted by
someone from the Gazette and they came out and also took pictures.
Coyne
reported that Amy Seth, Director of the campus recreation program is very open
to the idea of a train the trainer session.
Next step is that we need to make a decision as to whether we want to do
this event. Most likely, most of the
participants would be student workers.
Amy does not have a good feel for the number of visually impaired
students who use the
Hulsebus
brought up publicity for the Kazoo goalball tournament, in terms of a call for
volunteers. Vance indicated he would
assist with distribution of the flyer which requests volunteers. Hulsebus also noted he was on the Lori Moore
show this morning, talking about the tournament and the need for
volunteers. Board members were also
encouraged to share the volunteer request flyer with family, friends, church
groups, etc.
Web site. Hulsebus asked how the Board would like to
proceed with web site development. Not
too many comments were received. Gordon
had noted some difficulty in accessing some of the site. Vance noted the simpler, the better. Hulsebus noted there are no fancy graphics or
“exploding dolphins”. Noted was the fact
that Hulsebus definitely wants the site to be kept updated with current and
upcoming events. Suggestion was for
Hulsebus to continue to pursue the cost of a URL package and continue
development of the MBAA web site. We
also need to think of a name for our web site.
MBAA.org is already taken. We do
not want such a long web site name that folks are not able to remember it. Hulsebus will explore web site names which
are available and will plan to report at our next meeting. If Board members have any electronic
documents, related to MBAA, please get those documents to Hulsebus for
inclusion on the web site.
Wall
Emerson asked if the MBAA had ever supported long distance runners. The answer was yes, when Boes
ran the
Discussion
was held regarding the frequency of having MBAA Board meetings. Sometimes there seems to be fewer items which
are presented or which need to be discussed—to the point that sometimes our
meeting lasts only 20-25 minutes.
Discussion involved the fact that what we could look at would be to have
agenda items assembled a week ahead of the meeting. If there are a sufficient number of items, a
meeting would be held. For today’s
meeting, there were certainly a good number of items to discuss. If there was only one agenda item which could
wait until the following month, then we may decide to not have a meeting. Coyne felt going around the table and getting
updates from everyone was very valuable.
Therefore, we will continue with our monthly Board meetings.
Brooks
reported she has a grant application from the Michigan Braille Transcriber’s
Fund. Deadline for this application is
Brooks
spoke about the recent SEC planning meeting, which also included a goalball
tournament planning meeting. At this
point, Ponchillia’s had indicated they were going to
be giving up a lot of the duties of the SEC and of the goalball
tournament. The plan has been to be
“prepping” folks to take over different key roles of the SEC. This year’s SEC will be May 4-10. We will have both the junior and senior camps
again this year. We really could use
some assistance with driving vans for the SEC.
The vans are obtained through
Branch
asked if pictures are sent to our donors so they are able to see what we are
doing with the money they donate. Brooks
indicated she and
Meeting was
adjourned. Our next meeting will be held
on Wednesday, March 12 at
Respectfully
submitted,