Board of Directors

Regular Meeting -- November 20, 2011

The Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 2:45 pm. The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the meeting: Vice President Tamara Vogt, Secretary Pam Chambers, Penny Chambers (by phone), Ann Carson (by phone) and Laine Morales. The following directors were absent: President and Treasurer Kathy Lee. Robert McGarey (Executive Director) and Fritz Vogt were also present at the meeting.

Reading of Mission Statement and Approval of Minutes

The Mission Statement was read aloud at the beginning of the meeting. Minutes from the September meeting were read aloud and approved as read.

Executive Director's Report

Mortgage Refinancing. Bob is trying to get co-signers to help with refinancing the mortgage, and currently he is checking with his siblings.

Finances. Bob distributed the Profit and Loss sheet for October and said that this summer was really challenging financially, but that it was better in October because we got some unexpected income when our current renter for the Garage Apartment, Courtney, broke her lease, which means that she forfeited her security deposit and last months rent. Courtney's ad in Craig's List brought Sabrina here to look at the garage apt, and she just moved in on last Friday. She looks good and we are happy she's here.

Online Classes. Bob held his first online assertiveness workshop this month. There were no paid attendees, so the tech support people at UMass Boston took it instead. They gave him good pointers on how to make it better. Since technologically it was set up like a classroom, it was hard for anyone to interrupt and cross-talk, so it was a difficult venue for Bob to feel comfortable with. He'll keep trying!

Fundraising. Last year we sent out a great fundraising letter by email. We got nothing from it. So this time we are going to send out a physical letter via the US postal service. Bob programmed it to individually phrase the request based on what the person has given in the past.

Board retreat. The idea came up again, and everyone thought it is a good idea. Pam suggested we could ask a friend of the Center's about using his house in the country for the retreat. Bob suggested that we wait to see when Penny can visit Austin and set it up according to her availability, and the board agreed.

Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at around 5 pm.