LAKE CHAPALA SOCIETY
BOARD MEETING
AUG. 6TH, 2008

BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT:  Nancy Creevan, Mary Alice Sargent,
Mary Ann Waite, Richard Bailey & Rick Feldmann.

ABSENT: Diane Miller

OTHERS PRESENT: Scott Casbeer, Reba Berryman & Vivianne Prive

The meeting was called to order at 11:37am by President Nancy Creevan

Nancy introduced Vivianne Prive as the new Membership Director.  She will be trained in her new role by Richard Belair and take over his duties as Membership Director as of Sept. 1st, 2008.

Nancy introduced Reba Berryman- Non-ESL Coordinator at the Wilkes Center who requested Student Aid for Joel Gomez Romo, a Spanish teacher for 3 ½ yrs at Wilkes.  Joel would like to receive the Warren Hardy Teacher Certification at the school in San Miguel Allende.  The total cost including tuition, room & board would be approximately $1500 USD.  The next class starts in 2009.

Reba and Vivianne left and the board discussed the request and decided to table it and discuss it at another planning session.

The Minutes of the July Board Meeting were amended to state that Membership Fees be prorated on a quarterly basis for the CURRENT year (delete REMAINDER) as long as they purchase a full membership for the following year.
Moved by Rick Feldman to approve the minutes as corrected and seconded by Richard Bailey.  Motion Approved
It was also discussed that the minutes of the board meeting will not be posted to the website until any additions or corrections are approved by the board.

FINANCIAL REPORT
The financial report was presented by Scott Casbeer and copies distributed to all members.
Total income for the month was $180,692.50 pesos (4% decrease from 7/07)
Total expenses for the month were 159,576.48 pesos (2.2% increase from 7/07)
Net income for the month is $21,116.02
The following points were noted on income:

• Membership fees are down 4%
• Video rental are down 22.8%
• Directory income is up 6.8%

The following points were noted on expenses:

• Building & Grounds up 37.7%
• Merchandise purchases are down 10.8%
• Supplies & Copies up 18%
• Wages are up 43.6%
• Part time wages are down 17.8%

Scott also passed out reports on the July Fiesta
Pre-Ticket Sales-$30,700 Last Year - 36,000 (50p each)
Gate tickets-$ 9,000 Last Year - $10,000 (100p each)
Even though we sold only 704 tickets and last year we sold 820 tickets
We made more money!
Gross income $137,376.14 pesos- Last Year- 130,923
Expenses 22,598 pesos- Last year-20,995
Net income- $114,777.52 pesos - Last year- $109,928
An increase of $4849.52 over last year’s event.

Moved by Mary Alice Sargent and seconded by Rick Feldmann to approve the Financial Report.  Motion Approved

Rick Feldmann discussed the “Panic Button” research that Cruz Roja has agreed to do for the next LIFE Task Force meeting in late August.

Rick Feldmann also discussed receipts and record keeping procedures of ads in the directory.  He will request a spreadsheet from Scott of the names of all the businesses that still owe advertising money to LCS for their directory ads. 
A preliminary estimate shows $257,000 pesos left to collect on the 2008 directory.  New procedures were discussed including pulling ads from the 2009 directory that are not paid in full prior to printing the directory.

Nancy Creevan announced the new date for David Truly’s lecture at LCS to be Aug 22nd . (It was postponed due to Dr. Truly’s ankle surgery.)  The title of his talk is “International Retirement Migration to Mexico: A Questionable Future”. Previous ticket holders have priority for new tickets and should sign up in the office.

David also proposed a survey that he would like filled out by the ex-pat community and offered to donate 5 pesos per completed survey toward the LCS Student Aid Fund. This would be up to a maximum of 1000 USD, the limit of his research grant. We will have physical copies on LCS grounds and post a link on the LCS website.
Moved by Rick Feldmann and seconded by Richard Bailey to approve Dr. Truly’s proposal.

Nancy Creevan discussed a bus proposal from Tlaquepaque whereby they would provide a bus in Ajijic to go to Tlaq. for special events Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  As an example the bus would pick up people at 2:00pm and return after fireworks at 9:30pm.  We don’t know about the cost and will request more information.

Nancy reported that Richard and Christie Prine volunteered to run a “Country Fair” Fundraiser on the LCS grounds on Sat. Oct. 25th.   There will be music, food, entertainment and contests. Committees are being formed and more information will be forthcoming.

Meeting adjourned at 1:40pm.

Respectfully submitted by
Mary Ann Waite
LCS Secretary