Michigan Blind Athletic Association

Board of Directors’ meeting minutes

March 12, 2008

Directors present: Sue Fluri, John Hulsebus, Rob Wall Emerson, Mike Branch, Tom Coyne, Bill Welke, Tom Vance, Richard Hodges and John Boes

Boes called the meeting to order. Minutes from the February 2008 Board meeting were approved as distributed.

Treasurer’s report. Hodges reported we had $950 in participant fees come in this month from the Kazoo goalball tournament. Balance in our savings account of $25,907.30 and in checking $3,712.27 for a total balance of $29,619.57. Hodges also indicated we are required to file a report with the federal government—which has been filed. Treasurer’s report was approved unanimously.

Hulsebus gave a report on the Kazoo goalball tournament, indicating it was a very successful tournament. Kalamazoo had two mens teams and two womens teams. The Kalamazoo Chaos ladies’ team finished with the silver medal. The men finished fourth and fifth. There was a team from Ontario, Canada. Colorado Bandits won the ladies’ tournament; Pennsylvania Venom won the mens’ tournament. A total of fifteen teams played in the tournament.

Hulsebus presented the funding request for the New Jersey goalball tournament—taking place April 5-6. Total estimated cost for 14 athletes and 3 coaches is $3550. Request is for $2822. Request was approved unanimously.

Boes presented a funding request for the New Perceptions Tandem Club for bicycle maintenance. There are 6 bikes and estimated maintenance amount is $600. Coyne referenced a discussion we had at one of our MBAA Board meetings where we spoke about the possible need to begin replacing the tandem bikes—since they are now 8 years old. Are we at a point where we should begin replacing bikes, rather than refurbishing them? Motion was made to approve the expenditure of the $600 for maintenance and at the same time, have Gordon look into the lifetime expectancy of the bikes with possible replacement time-frames.

Coyne read a funding request from the New Perceptions Tandem Club for renewal of the annual liability insurance. Cost is $45—which has already been paid by Gordon. In addition, a request for reimbursement for the MBAA’s annual $25 fee for the membership to USABA—which was already paid by Gordon was also presented. These expenditures were approved unanimously and a reimbursement check will be written to Gordon.

Welke suggested the possibility of coming up with a list of expenditures which are annual expenses—for example the liability insurance for the MBAA Board, the liability insurance for the New Perceptions Tandem Club, the annual membership fee to USABA, etc. If an expense were on such a list, that expenditure would not need Board approval to pay. Hodges was asked to come up with such a list and present it to the Board in either May or June and this procedure would begin at the beginning of our new fiscal year.

Coyne has spoken with Chris Moss who supervises students who work at the Student Recreation Center at WMU. Chris is very interested in the “Train the Trainer” concept—which would instruct student staff regarding how to work with blind or visually impaired students who use the SRC. This training would need to happen in April, due to WMU’s semester ending part-way through April. This training will take place at WMU and will most likely be a morning session. Coyne, Hulsebus and Boes will coordinate this training among themselves and Chris Moss. Hulsebus will bring goggles from goalball to use for this training. Another thought was to “tap into” the students who will be taking part in this training—as possible volunteers for the Sports Ed Camp and the goalball tournament. We will expect a report on the Train the Trainers training at our April MBAA Board meeting.

Branch reported the bowlers are going to their Midwest tournament this coming Friday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Hulsebus has done some research regarding the MBAA’s web site. Possible URLs might be mbaa-mi.org or mi-blind.org. Hulsebus noted that although the proposed web addresses do not have the word “blind” in them—that should be no problem since most people who would be searching for our web site would use Google or another search engine—and the search engines do not search for the word “blind” in the name of the web site. The cost would be either $120.75 or $166.80 (cost from two different entities) for a 2-year commitment—which would include disk space and the URL name. Hulsebus recommended going with the $120.75—that being the lower cost. Discussion was held regarding whether putting the name of Kalamazoo in the title would be necessary. This was thought to not be a good idea since we have recently been obtaining some funding from other parts of the state—other than just from Kalamazoo. The Board decided that the web site of www.mbaa-mi.org was the desired web site. Hulsebus also noted that for an additional $1.95 for the two years—that his name could remain anonymous. Motion was made to have Hulsebus go ahead with reserving the disk space and URL name: www.mbaa-mi.org for the two years at a cost of $120.75 and to also include the $1.95 for keeping Hulsebus’ name anonymous. Hulsebus was asked to send a copy of his credit card receipt in order to be reimbursed by Hodges. Motion was approved unanimously. Vance suggested that our web site start out small and gradually build—namely since if web sites are not kept up to date, that is a big problem. Hulsebus re-iterated that he plans on having a very simple web site with no “bells and whistles” and that he plans to keep the site updated. Vance suggested having an icon with “how to donate”. Hulsebus indicated this was currently on the proposed web site with Boes’ name as the contact person to receive donations. Also, MBAA Board members’ names are on the site; however, no contact information for our Board members is on the site.

Boes reported he had spoken with Mary Lou Brooks regarding the grant application from the Michigan Braille Transcribers Fund. Brooks had also spoken with Sue Ponchillia—who had suggested we not go ahead with the “emergency” request until after Paul Ponchillia had spoken with Francillia. Ponchillia apparently plans to speak with Francillia soon.

Coyne reported he had checked with a photographer regarding taking pictures of MBAA sponsored events, including the SEC. The photographer is currently in Florida and when he returns to Michigan—will contact Coyne. This will be great—to be able to put some of these pictures on our new web site! Coyne did not discuss any price; however, Coyne thought this gentleman would probably charge by the hour. Note was made that we did approve up to $500 for these photographs at our February Board meeting.

Hulsebus announced that the evening prior to the Kalamazoo goalball tournament, he received a call from Channel 8 News. They were interested in taking some film of some of the Michigan athletes who would be going to the Beijing Paralympics. Throughout the summer, Channel 8 would like to highlight some of the athletes who will be going to the Paralympics—although Channel 8 will not be at the Paralympics. Channel 8 was at the Kalamazoo goalball tournament and got some film of both the men and women. Those athletes trying out for the Beijing teams include Tyler Merren and Stephen Denuyl for the men and Asya Miller and Kristin Millerov for the women.

Meeting was adjourned. The next MBAA Board meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 9 at 4:00 p.m. at the Michigan Commission for the Blind Training Center.

Respectfully submitted,

Sherry Gordon, MBAA Secretary