TRUSTEE BOARD MEETING MINUTES
February 22, 2007
1) Call to Order: Jessica called the meeting to order at 3:45pm. Trustees present were: Annette Jarvie, Jessica Grinberg, Dave Gross, Tom Hudson, Deirdre Lamb, Pamela Graham, Erich Schmid, Wendy Roberts and Carolyn Carleton. Also present was Ray Alarcon.
2) Minutes: (MSC Tom, Dave) to approve the minutes of 1/25/07) All ayes on the vote.
3) Financial Report: Sara Spring, a fifth-generation Mendocinoan, parent of a MUSD kindergartner and an employee in Kathleen Zeplinski’s accounting office, has offered to do our financial statements and accounts. Michelle is willing to continue writing checks and paying bills so they could share co-treasurer position. Sara will need to be voted in as a Board Trustee and will attend our March meeting. Michelle was not in attendance so no financial statement was presented.
4) Correspondence: The Mendocino Music Festival’s $1200 check forwarded to MUSE last month for the 2005 & 2006 Children’s Matinees’ concessions sales that MUSE split with Ft. Bragg Schools Music Program prompted a discussion of maximizing a fundraising relationship with the Music Festival. Suggestions included the possibility of selling concessions for an evening Music Festival concert but declining an offer to produce a Cotton Auditorium with the Music Festival and Ft. Bragg Schools because of the 3 way split of proceeds, Carolyn will write a thank you to the Music Festival Board noting that the funds will be used specifically to fund music programs for MUSD’s K-12.
An e-mail from Deena was addressed requesting a $1548 grant for instruments for Chris Kinyon, the band teacher instead of the $1600 for a culinary arts program for the elementary students we granted this fall. After discussion, (MSC Annette, Carolyn) to authorize the grant of $1548 for ORF instruments to replace the $1600 culinary arts program for the K-8 2006-7 grants. All ayes in the vote.
Jessica met with Anne Birdsell, previous MUSE treasurer, Michelle and Sara Spring about MUSE financial books. Suggestions were made for a better system for accountability, i.e., purchase orders, tracking funds, creating budgets. Tom will meet with Michelle and Sara to develop a better financial system.
5) Committee Reports:
(a) Ledford House Dinner: Jessica, Wendy, and Peggy Merrill sent 500 invitations out this Tuesday with much help from Mendo Realty staff. Deena is producing a flyer to go home with K-8 students that saves additional postage to those families. The contract with Ledford House has been negotiated, menu finalized and 3cases of wine donated for the tables with portion of bar sales coming to MUSE as well. $35 of the $55 ticket price is our profit. Jessica checks the mail and will forward ticket requests to Cheri Singman. Kim Bratton is bringing singers and Chris Kinyon band students to perform at the dinner. Wendy will submit a short press release to the paper about the dinner and the opportunity for Endowment Fund contributions in Peggy Merrill’s honor for the March 1st paper and Pamela will conduct an interview piece on Peggy for the March 8th paper. Wendy made up a MUSE Project Assignments and Update Sheet to help with tracking event in-process progress to help divide tasks and track timing status.
(b) Cinco de Mayo: Friday, May 4th will be the dinner/dance with Pura Vida playing at the Caspar Community Center. More details at the March meeting.
c) Endowment Fund: The Community Foundation of Mendocino County Board must vote on accepting MUSE’s Endowment Fund (EF) and not until March 6th so we cannot announce the new management of the EF before the March 11th honoree dinner. Wendy handed out copies of the Agency Fund Agreement from the Community Foundation for the EF. (See attached) Discussion followed on Article #2: Charitable Purpose of Fund for the need to designate a contingent beneficiary if MUSE should dissolve in the future. (MSC Erich, Pamela) to approve changes in wording on Article 2 as written in attached Agreement and authorize Jessica to sign the agreement on behalf of the MUSE Board of Trustees. All ayes in the vote. Wendy clarified that even when our funds are in a permanent endowment with the Community Foundation, if we should find it necessary to change fund managers, we could pull our principal without penalty if the intent is to continue with an endowment. Endowment gifts may be payable to MUSE or Community Foundation on our behalf. As it is in our interest to have our donors acknowledged in the Community Foundation’s annual report list of donors, we need to request permission from donors for public notification of gifts.
(d) Car Raffle: Wendy reported that a Harley would be possible to raffle but it would be important to research prices from different dealers. Mike Slaughter of Sport Jeep Dodge in Ft. Bragg suggests a 250 HP Dodge SUV or a 4 door Jeep Wrangler. Jessica suggested an Obvio, a U.S. street legal version of the “Smart Car” that seats 3 and has excellent gas mileage. We will revisit the choices in March and must decide before our Cinco de Mayo event to kick off the raffle drive.
(e) Digging Dog garden tour: Sunday, June 24th is finalized with food demonstrations by Margaret Fox and others being sought like Scharffenberger.
(f) By-Laws Revisions: Additions to By-laws that had been approved by the Board in September 2006 had not been listed in our website by-laws. Carolyn forwarded the revisions for Mina to add and she handed out current copies of the current by-laws. Now the subcommittee will meet again next week to address the additions about new member selection and officer responsibilities.
(g) Rummage Sale: March 17th is the next sale. Demolition of the Recreation Center’s portables is expected as early as this summer as part of the Measure AA retrofit of the Rec Center so we will need to move or eliminate 2 portables’ worth of our rummage stuff. Soon.
6) 2006-07 Fundraising Events: Deferred to March meeting due to time constraints.
7) MUSE Board contact update: Museinfo@mcn.org is now our e-mail contact with the password for access on Jessica’s computer. Jessica will forward the password to Carolyn as well for Secretary as well as President access. Jessica found that it would be better to hook up a new phone line to her Mendocino office rather than move the existing line from Iana Porter’s. She is looking into getting 937-MUSE with the phone company, which isn’t currently in use. A discussion followed about the need for Board D & N insurance to prevent financial liability for individual board members. Ray Alarcon estimated a cost of $700-$800 annually. (MSC Erich, Tom) to approve the purchase of D & N Board insurance. All ayes in the vote.
Items deferred for the next meeting agenda:
a) Fall fundraising events for 2007.
b) By-laws revisions for new member selection and officer responsibilities
c) Cinco de Mayo dinner/dance planning
Next Meeting: March 22, 2007 3:40 PM MMS Library.
Meeting adjourned at 5:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted: Carolyn Carleton, Secretary