February 18, 2015
Members Present:
Kathy Osbun, Art Rosenblum, Sandy Grant, Marc Alexander, John Hamilton, Marie Kay Hansen, Ed Brautman, Davida Brautman, Gloria Stubbs, Nancy Wilson, Ann Walker and Barbara France
Members Absent:
David Getzoff, Suzanne deKozan and Dana May Casperson
Call to Order:
The meeting of the Board of Directors of the Parkinson’s Support Group of Sonoma County (PSGSC) was called to order by Chair, Kathy Osbun at 10:00 a.m.
Approval of Minutes:
In the Minutes of the Annual Meeting, Marc Alexander, Vice Chair/Program Coordinator should be included in the list of elected Officers of PSGSC for the 2015 year.
In the regular business meeting under Mark Morris Dance classes, it should be noted that Torri Campbell is the correct spelling of her name.
Treasurer’s Report:
Sandy reported that there was little activity in January since there was no general meeting. There were $525 contributions in the name of Mike LeMole and .57 in interest. There were no expenses for the month.
Art verified that all statements match bank statements.
Sandy said that the year end reports are complete and Art and David will do the audit. She is preparing the budget for the upcoming year and asks that anyone with requests for budget items get them to her so that she can have a prepared budget ready for the March Board meeting.
Kathy brought up the PANC donation. At the end of last year we had decided to make a donation to PANC and then add a $500 to the 2015 budget. She asked for a motion to include $500 in the budget for a PANC donation. Sandy so moved and Gloria seconded the motion which was passed with a unanimous voice vote.
Kathy has been contacted by Nancy Kretz from PANC informing her of PANC’s plans for the future. There has been no formal/legal relationship that defines PANC. A recent audit of PANC recommended that they clarify the relationships with their groups to satisfy IRS and its view of their non-profit status. Our group is one of only 3 in the North Bay that has a non-profit status and she was amazed at our size and activity. In order to formalize the relationship between PANC and the Support Groups they have developed a Memorandum of Understanding. Kathy and Sandy have both reviewed this and feel that this is a good step for PANC and there is nothing in it that should cause problems for PSGSC but that it would be best if we had our attorney, Don Winkle, review the document. Kathy told (PANC person) that we would have it reviewed and return it to her. Kathy passed out the Memorandum for members to review. Sandy made the motion that we approve up to $400 for Don Winkle, our attorney, to review and advise the Board on the PANC Memorandum of Understanding. John seconded the motion which was passed on a unanimous voice vote.
Programs:
August General Meeting:
Kathy said that our August Meeting had always been on the second, rather than the first, Saturday of the month in order to accommodate the Church which holds their Annual Rummage Sale on the first Saturday. They have now decided that they want to change the Rummage Sale date to the second Saturday and that they will need the room on the first Saturday for storage of items to prepare for the Rummage Sale. Kathy reminded them that we have had a long standing arrangement and many people depend on our calendar which is published long in advance of the date. The Church representative said that she would discuss it with the Rummage Committee and get back to her. The consensus of the Board is that we need to have a meeting in August because we do not meet either in July or September and that if necessary, we change to the third Saturday in the month. There is time to remind everyone several times that there will be a change and we do not as yet have a speaker in place for August so that is not a problem.
Walk-a-thon:
Davida thanked the Board for allowing her daughter to have materials at the January meeting. She passed out fliers, rather than selling magnets, supporting their group who will participate in the NPF walk on April 15 in San Francisco. Their group has already made a $91 contribution to NPF.
Kathy said that a representative of the Sunnyvale Parkinson’s group, who is also sponsoring a walk-a-thon, the week before the walk in San Francisco, will not come to speak to the group about supporting their walk after Kathy explained that we have our own fund raising efforts in April and we have members walking in the San Francisco walk. Kathy did agree to announce the Sunnyvale walk. Funds from the Sunnyvale Parkinson’s Group go to their group and not to the National Parkinson’s Foundation.
Break-out group facilitators:
February break-out groups worked out well. John said that the group discussions are rarely influenced by the speakers topic and that suggests that the break-out groups are important to members as there is a need to discuss their own issues. There was agreement that this is generally true in the care givers break-out group as well.
Care Givers group:
Marie Kay said that the new caregivers group is still small but that the discussion is good and appreciated by the participants.
March meeting:
There will be no Library or break-out groups as the entire time will be taken up by showing the movie, “Capturing Grace,” refreshments and then a dance class participation demonstration with Torri Campbell.
Fundraising:
Mary’s Pizza is set for April 8th. “Riding With Larry” will be April 18.
Johnny Garlic’s
It was agreed that another fundraiser at Johnny Garlic’s would be good and Kathy will try to arrange a May date in the week after our monthly meeting.
Round Table Pizza: We will revisit a date for Round Table Pizza fundraiser for later in the year.
Oliver”s Community Card:
Kathy said that she had seen an Oliver’s ad that encouraged people to use their Community Card so that up to 3% of your purchase would go to your designated non-profit. It was agreed that we should look into signing up to be a listed non-profit recipient. Sandy said that she would investigate the possibility and report at the April meeting.
Publicity:
Marc suggested that we advertise “Awareness Month” by placing materials in Libraries, Council on Aging, and other public places. We might also try to get something in the Press Democrat. He said that NPF has posters and brochures that we could obtain for placement. He will contact NPF to get these materials. A committee of Marc, Nancy and Dana May will pursue publicity possibilities.
Nancy said that Torri Campbell had told her that the San Rafael group had the biggest influx of new participants after they had an article in the Marin Independent Journal so Nancy is looking to arrange an article in the Press Democrat about our dance class and she will include mention of the two films: “Capturing Grace” and “Riding With Larry” as part of April Awareness Month.
Mark Morris Dance Classes:
The classes will begin on March 12 and the second will be March 26. The class will meet every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. The class will be from 1:30 to 2:30 with a 15 minutes period both before and after. This will give people time to arrive and get ready for the class to begin at 1:30 and then to spend some social time at the end. The class will be at the Odd Fellows Hall at 545 Pacific Avenue, Santa Rosa.
The Hall has given a discount as we are a non-profit so the rent will be $136 per month and $300 for the teacher, assistant and pianist. Torri said that the San Rafael classes requires people to sign a responsibility waiver before they begin the classes but when Nancy talked to (?PANC ins. person) she said that that was the reason we had insurance and we would not need a signed waiver. PANC insures the dance class based on a given number of people attending the classes not on the specific individual
Nancy also talked to the manager of the Cameo Theatre in St. Helena and they came up with a fundraising idea for showing “Capturing Grace” The movie will be shown on Wednesday, April 15 at 5:45 p.m.. The tickets will be $20 and all proceeds would come to PSGSC for benefit of the Mark Morris dance classes.
There will be a panel discussion after the movie along with light refreshments. People will be able to get tickets online and instructions will be made available through announcements at regular meetings and email.
Brochures:
Ann reported that we have about 90 brochures left, Kathy and Gloria have a number as well, but it is time to begin thinking about having new ones printed. Kathy said she preferred to wait a bit to do that because she would like to have the dance class as well as the singing group underway so that they could be included in the new brochure.
Data Base:
Gloria said there were 97 people at the February meeting, 10 of which were new.
Singing Group:
Jamie Blumenthal from the North Bay Music Therapy Services: Family Music Connection, spoke to the Board about her music therapy training and her 30 years of working with many and varied groups. She answered questions from the Board and discussed her venue and fees. After discussion, it was agreed that we would start a 6 month period of singing classes with Jamie.
The classes will take place at 1615 Cleveland Avenue in Santa Rosa starting Friday, March 20. The classes will then be on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month from 10 to 11 a.m. There will be a suggested donation of $5 per class.
Davida made the motion to create a singing class that will meet on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month beginning March 20. There will be a review of the program after 6 months. Jamie will be paid $90 for each class session which will take place at 1614 Cleveland Avenue, Santa Rosa. PSGSC will cover the cost of the classes if donations are less than the agreed upon fee. John seconded this motion which was passed unanimously on a voice vote.
Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m. by Chair, Kathy Osbun. The next Board meeting will be Wednesday, April 15, 2015, at Brush Creek Senior Living.
Respectfully submitted, Barbara France, Recording Secretary