LAKE CHAPALA SOCIETY
BOARD MEETING
MAY 2, 2008

BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:  Nancy Creevan; Tod Jonson; Rich Bailey, Mary Ann Waite, Diane Miller

ABSENT:  Rick Feldmann, Mary Alice Sargent

OTHERS PRESENT:  Scott Casbeer – Treasurer; Lynn Bishop – Recording Secretary

GUESTS:  Charlie Smith, Kenee Campo

The meeting was called to order at 11:30 am by President Nancy Creevan. 

Minutes of March Board Meeting

08.05.17          Moved by Rich Bailey, seconded by Tod Jonson THAT minutes of the March Board meeting be accepted as previously distributed.  Motion Approved.

Financial Report
The financial report was presented by Scott Casbeer and copies distributed to all members.   The following points were noted:

• Membership fees are down slightly.  It is difficult to reconcile the peso amount of fees with the number of members.
• Video rentals are down 17%.
• Donations are up 102.5% due to the large donation made toward the crime reporting system:

Action:  Nancy Creevan to contact the donor to inquire if he has a preference as to where this money should be used now that LCS is no longer involved with development of the crime reporting system.

• Directory sales shows a 100% increase because this is a new category.
• During the review of expenses Scott noted that we are seeing the benefits of previous maintenance.
• A one-time purchase was made of three laptops for student aid recipients. These are offset by the fact that LCS will no longer have to reimburse students for renting computer time at an internet store or café over the long term.
• Supplies & copies are up 34.6% and Scott expressed his ongoing concern regarding this item.
• Scott noted that when the large donation is taken out of the report, the financial picture does not look as good, and there is a limited amount in reserve funds.
• Video rentals are still a problem, and at this point it doesn’t seem as if the LCS can compete with the videos available at the  (tiangis) market.  It was noted that one of the problems could be that there are not enough new movies available.  Expenses for purchasing videos is down by 50%
• Membership fees is the biggest revenue and during discussion it was suggested that the LCS does not do a good enough job of making people aware of what they get for their membership – beyond the obvious LCS benefits. People need to be aware of where they can receive discounts with their membership card.  This information should be provided in the newsletter and on the website.

Action:  Mary Ann Waite will ask the Public Relations Committee to draw up a list of where discounts are currently available.  In the future, it might be good to have a bilingual representative of the LCS approach other businesses to ask about the possibility of them providing discounts to LCS members.

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Scott reported that the employees have expressed concern regarding the contracts that they are going to be asked to sign.  During discussion it was agreed that the name of the document can be changed, and it should be pointed out that the information required (names of employees, when they started working, how much they are paid, general responsibilities of their job, who they report to, who reports to them) is more to do with what information the Board needs than with what the employees have to do.  When Rick Feldmann returns home, the board will discuss ways to mitigate employee anxieties over these documents.

08.05.18          Moved by Rich Bailey; seconded by Mary Ann Waite THAT the financial report be accepted as presented.  Motion Approved.

Board members agreed that Scott should continue providing the financial reports in the same format as they currently are.

SPACE RECONFIGURATION UPDATE:   Charlie Smith

Charlie Smith provided copies of an overview of the suggested space changes and diagrams showing the changes.  He noted that if possible, changes should be made that do not include any construction.  The estimated cost of these changes is 58,000 pesos but this amount is likely to increase, as some of the figures are purely estimates and not actual bids.

Some Board members expressed concern that the space reconfiguration does not provide private and quiet enough space for the membership people.  Methods of how membership might be handled in the future were discussed.  Nancy pointed out that she would like to see membership front and center, but in a quiet space.  Various suggestions were made for changing the configuration but it was noted that some of these suggestions may not be agreeable to people in other areas.  Charlie pointed out that it is not possible to design the space with just one area of operations being taken into account.

Concern was expressed that the current library space has only one exit and all large spaces should have two exits.  Another door could be installed where the current windows are.  Further discussion of the space reconfiguration will be held at a future meeting.

Major Donation:  Motor Home:  Charlie Smith

An individual has offered to donate a large motor home to the LCS.  Following discussion, Board members agreed that the Board does not wish to have anything to do with ownership of this vehicle or with transporting it into Mexico but would be more than happy to accept the donation if the donor is in agreement with the LCS selling this on  E-bay.

Action:  Charlie Smith will contact the owner to see if he is in agreement with the LCS selling the vehicle.  An income tax receipt for the value of the vehicle can be provided to him. 

Website Update:

Kenee Campo reported that the hits on the LCS website are up by 35% from March to April.  Part of this increase can be contributed to the new classified section.  She is able to see where the hits are coming from and it was suggested that this information might be of interest to the LCS members.  Kenee will provide this info on a regular basis for inclusion into the LCS newsletter and also in Jeanne Chaussee´s column in the Guadalajara Reporter.

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Kenee indicated that when she was doing the newsletter and website she put articles in every couple of months regarding what was happening at the LCS website, benefits of membership etc.  It was suggested that this be reinstated and articles should be provided to Jeanne Chausse, and in the newsletter offering a small amount of information that will get the readers to go to the website for more details.

Action:  Mary Ann and Kenee will provide information about the website every month for the newsletter and for Jeanne Chausse.

Kenee will add the various categories for the classified ads to the top of the website.

Kenee reminded members that she requires more information regarding Pay Pal.  This information can be provided by Rick Feldmann when he returns. 

Action:  Kenee to contact Rick Feldmann for Pay Pal information and to contact Coralee at the Wilkes Center for pictures of the students receiving the laptop computers.

• Moved by Mary Ann Waite; seconded by Rich Bailey THAT the library database be put on the website.  Motion Approved

Kenee reported that all previous information that was on the website, such as the member questionnaire, is on file in a safe place although not accessible to the public.

TRAVEL CLUB:

Diane Miller reported that the members of the Travel Club committee first met with herself and Nancy Creevan and they were provided with copies of the 5 responses received from Travel Agencies.  The committee, consisting of Walt Wehrell,  Sandy Jeronimo, Dan Cross, Sandy Rogers and Karen Anderson have now held their first meeting.  They have come up with some innovative ideas and Diane requested that they be given more time to discuss these ideas.  They would then present recommendations to the Board.  The Board agreed that the committee take the summer to review the Travel Club and make recommendations and that Walt Wehrell be invited to present these recommendations at a meeting in the Fall.

08.05.20          Moved by Diane Miller, seconded by Rich Bailey THAT the Board discontinue the LCS Travel Club for the summer.  Motion Approved

Action:  Tod Jonson to send an email to Sylvia today, with copies to all Board members,  notifying her that the Board voted that as of May 7 the  Travel Club is discontinued for the summer.  This means she can no longer advertise for the LCS Travel Club or have a representative in the booth at the LCS.

Nancy Creevan reported that she had a meeting with a representative from the Red Cross at which time she indicated that the LCS will not do bus trips to the Gallerias Mall or Costco until such time as the Red Cross no longer wishes to offer these trips.  At that time the LCS would have the first chance at taking over providing the trips.

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COMPUTER BACKUP:  Nancy Creevan

Nancy reported that she has rehired Samy Kovaks to backup all the LCS computer files as this has not been done for approximately 6 months.

Discussion followed regarding various methods of ongoing backup.  It was agreed that this will be discussed at a future meeting.  In the meantime, Rich Bailey offered to donate a 40-50gb hard drive that could be used provided that it is the right size for the job.

The meeting went into closed session at 1:50 pm and came out of closed session at 2:00pm.
 
Moved by Diane Miller, seconded by Tod Jonson that the services of Ken Gosh are no longer required as head of the LCS gardens, effective immediately. Motion approved unanimously.

Action:  Nancy Creevan to inform Ken Gosh of the board´s decision.

Moved by Diane Miller, seconded by Rich Bailey that LCS not replace Alejandro the gardener at this time. Approved unanimously.

NEW NEWSLETTER EDITOR:  Mary Ann Waite

Eloise Hollyfield has resigned as newsletter editor after putting in 18 months in the position. Anita Caldwell has agreed to do the newsletter for the next month and when Sandy Feldmann returns they will meet with her to discuss what will happen in the future.

Nancy Creevan pointed out that the editor needs to know that information that is not from a Board member or a department head – regarding their specific area – must go through the Board before being put in the newsletter.  All submissions to the newsletter should be copied to all Board members.

NEW TASK FORCE:  Nancy Creevan

In response to the President’s Message in the May newsletter, nine people have come forward to volunteer to form a task force to discuss ways of keeping better track of each other and ensuring that people are not alone, sick or injured in their homes for long periods of time without anyone knowing.  The Task Force will try and come up with recommendations on what the LCS can do to help address this problem. Whatever the LCS decides to do we will consult and coordinate with the Red Cross.

Around the Table:

Rich Bailey:   At one time the idea was raised of forming small committees/groups to discuss specific suggestions that are made to Board members.  If someone has a suggestion they could find others with similar interests, form a committee, discuss the idea and make recommendations to the Board.  This would get more of the membership involved in the LCS and ideas that have merit would not be lost.  This would keep the Board from having to be involved in all basic discussions on every topic.

Diane Miller:  Roomtime software is working now.  She is receiving far fewer Spam messages from the email sent via the LCS website.  Kenee had signed up some of the Board members who have email coming to them from the website on a free, three month software trial.  This seems to be working very well in drastically reducing the number of spam messages coming to personal email in trays from the website.

Tod Jonson:  Requested confirmation of the date for the July Fiesta – Saturday, July 26th.

Mary Ann Waite:  Asked about the possibility of a Director of Special Events that would be in charge of all events.  Nancy Creevan replied that it would not be possible to have one person in
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charge of all events as it would be far too much for one person.  Events usually held are the July Fiesta, travel club (if we have one), and Club Salas.  The next Club Sala is June 7 and will be “Magic & Music”.  Cost of the ticket has not been determined but will include a buffet. Larry Reeves is chairing this event.

Mary Ann and Julie Rene, who has 20 years of retailing experience, will go to Guadalajara once the weather is cooler to look into different merchandise articles for sales on the patio.  Nancy reminded Mary Ann to ensure she checks the budget before purchasing items.  Rich Bailey suggested that the budget reporting for merchandise sales should be changed.  Income from sale of merchandise should be transferred back to the expenses in order to provide money for purchase of more merchandise.  It was agreed to discuss this at the next off-site meeting.

Nancy Creevan:  Reminded Tod that he can have the karaoke machine for the silent auction at the July fiesta, since it is too small a home-style model for LCS events. LCS is soliciting donations for the silent auction now and will store items in the front half of the Radio Shack.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:45 pm.

Respectfully Submitted

_________________________________________
Lynn Bishop, Recording Secretary