CALL TO ORDER: The regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Parkinson’s Support Group of Sonoma County was called to order by Chair/President Kathy Osbun at 10:15 a.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes of the Board meeting of May 16, 2012, were approved as read.
The Board also unanimously elected Arlene to serve as Vice Chairperson/Program Coordinator to replace Co-Vice Chairs Suzanne deKozan and Karen Lovvorn, who stepped down from that position because personal commitments didn’t allow them the time required for the job; both Suzanne and Karen will continue as board members, however.
Art Rosenblum was unanimously elected to serve as Board Secretary, to replace George Irizary, who will fill the newly created position of Correspondence Secretary.
TULIP PIN FUNDRAISER: Treasurer Sandy Grant reported on the status of the sale of tulip emblem pins, which sell for $5.00 each. About 110 pins need to be sold to break even on the wholesale purchase price of the pins, which are designed to become a national symbol for finding a cause and cure of Parkinson’s Disease. Fifty pins have been sold as of the end of May. The full $5.00 price of the pins will be retained by PSGSC as profit when the 110-pin benchmark is reached.
TREASURER’S REPORT: Regarding PSGSC finances, Sandy said, “It looks like we’re doing really well,” and she presented a printout of budget expectations through December of 2012. Because of the positive outlook, it appears that it may not be necessary to dip into savings or a certificate of deposit. Part of the reason for that is the revenue from the donation jar passed around at meetings ($132.00 in May); $229.00 from a Mary’s Pizza fundraiser; and $590 received from donations in memory of the late Donald Stiling, a former board member and longtime fundraiser for PSGSC. Donald’s wife, Barbara, continues to serve on the Board. Expenses in May included $18.42 for meeting supplies and $160.67 to print 15 copies of the Practical Ploys booklet edited by Joe Hootman.
MASTER COPY: Dana May Casperson offered to scan and transfer to a computer disk the printed manuscript of Practical Ploys for Parkinson’s People: Tools and Techniques to Help Manage the Disease, edited by Joe Hootman. The disk would serve as a master copy of the booklet.
REDWOOD CAREGIVER RESOURCE CENTER: Arlene Irizary reported that funding for the Redwood Caregiver center is in jeopardy, awaiting a decision by the Governor to save the organization’s funding or put it on the chopping block.
FUNDRAISING: Kathy Osbun reported that $200.00 was donated by S.H.E. women’s apparel, Santa Rosa, representing ten percent of profits from a fashion show benefiting PSGSC. Also discussed were opportunities to sell the Parkinson’s-symbolic tulip pin to persons outside the core PSGSC membership. The wholesale price of the pins was $1.84 each, with about a $3.15 profit when sold for $5.00 each. Another fundraiser
will be October 10, 2012, at Mary’s Pizza on Summerfield Road in Santa Rosa. Arlene Irizary suggested that we routinely inform members about expenses, including rent for the meeting place, storage, speaker stipends and other costs.
AWARE IN CARE OUTREACH COMMITTEE: Suzanne deKozan reported that Sonoma State University master’s degree student Ryan Roberts is developing a power point presentation aimed at nursing staff personnel on issues such as why timing is critical when dispensing medications to people with Parkinson’s. The hope is that eventually nurses viewing the power point will receive professional education credits, which will be an incentive for them to study medical issues of Parkinson’s patients.
LONG RANGE PLANNING COMMITTEE: There was discussion about approaching U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson concerning Medicare reimbursements that are withheld from Sonoma County because Sonoma County is categorized as “rural.”
NEXT GENERAL MEETING: It was emphasized to note that the next general meeting of the PSGSC will be on the SECOND SATURDAY, August 11th, instead of the usual first Saturday of the month. That is because the church building meeting place is reserved on the first Saturday for the church’s annual rummage sale. PSGSC does not conduct general meetings during the months of July and September.
MEETING ADJOURNED: The meeting was adjourned at 11:40 a.m. by Kathy Osbun. The next meeting of the Board of Directors will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 18, 2012, at Brush Creek Senior Living off Hwy. 12 east of Brush Creek Road. The above minutes are subject to approval at the July Board meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
George Irizary, Correspondence Secretary