Sons in Retirement Branch 146 Walnut Creek Area Devoted to the promotion of Independence and the Dignity of Retirement

Minutes of the Branch Executive Committee Meeting
August 12, 2010

CALL TO ORDER
Big Sir Dennis Hallett called the meeting to order promptly at 9:30 a.m. There were no guests in attendance. [See attachment for visitors in attendance]

BEC ROLL CALL/QUORUM
Asst. Secretary Jim Meehan, filling in for vacationing Secretary Jim Burk announced that a quorum was present. 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Asst. Secretary Jim Meehan indicated that the minutes from the July 8, 2010 meeting as he recorded were distributed electronically by Secretary Jim Burk to all members of the BEC.  He asked if there were any changes to the minutes. There being none, the minutes were approved.

BIG SIR REPORT
Website Enhancement- Big Sir Hallett indicated that this activity made up a significant portion of our annual budget and asked Terry Marchione, who is co-leading this effort with Jeff Baily, to provide an update. Terry defined the following as our initial objectives:

• Have all pages in the same format (background/fonts etc.) – this is mostly completed.
• Develop additional web pages.
• Update the site promptly for all new developments
• Provide password protection – if used for roster updates.
• Develop interactive activity web pages for automated sign ups – most work on this activity still needed to be done.

Hallett observed that this was an enormous task for just two people and suggested it was extremely important to recruit additional manpower. He also indicated that Jim Burk would lead an in-depth discussion of the SIR CALL, including the Membership Directory, in September (this should also include Terry and Jeff as well as Rich Alf, and to the extent we can garner it input from other branches).  We should aim to have the issue resolved for the Directory mailing in December.

Member Voluntary Donations- Hallett reviewed our current status. He observed that 12 members had failed to make donations in each of the last two years. For the most part they have been regularly participating. They have been contacted but continue to refuse to donate. He will be contacting State for possible Branch options. In addition there were 18 members that had not yet donated this year. Our expectation is that this a timing issue and they will soon donate as they did last year.

Annual Survey – It was agree that we would do a survey again in 2010 but in a more abbreviated form than we did in 2009. Pete Gates will work with Jack Calloway to develop this year’s survey.
LITTLE SIR REPORT
Little Sir Pete Gates reported that our speaker in July will be Tony Schilling docent for the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda.  He will talk about the military history of the USS Hornet in WWII and later conflicts.

Our speaker for August will be Budd MacKenzie. Budd is the founder of “Trust in Education”, headquartered in Lafayette. TIE is a grass root, non-profit organization founded in 2003 to provide health care, education and economic programs in Afghanistan.

SECRETARY’S REPORT
 Assistant Secretary Jim Meehan had nothing further to report.

TREASURER’S REPORT
Treasurer Ron de Golia reported that our financial situation continued to be stable (See Report].  Our membership voluntary donations were at 84.5% of the membership compared to 94.0% in 2009.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
Membership  - Chair Steve Sprague requested that the BEC approve the induction to membership of Dennis Bottaro sponsored by Bob Yolland, Gerald Duarte (Jerry) sponsored by Sal Costanza, and Dick McElroy sponsored by Robert  Johnson.  MSP
Membership has now dropped to 251.  [See attached Membership Chair’s Report]

Recruiting and Retention – Chair Jack Calloway observed that our members were not bringing guests to our luncheons. Continuing at this pace will leave us short of our goals that were established at the beginning of the year.  [See attached Report]

Dinner/Dance – Chair Vince Rettew reported that plans for the fall event were proceeding and that the first announcement had gone out.

OLD BUSINESS
There were no items of old business to come before the BEC.

NEW BUSINESS
Big Sir Hallett reported on his recent attendance at the State meeting. Most of the discussion centered on golf and the membership decline.

ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned by Big Sir Hallett at 10:50 a.m.  The next meeting of the BEC is scheduled for September 9, 2010 at 9:30 a.m. in the Lakeview Room of the Clubhouse at Boundary Oak.

Jim Meehan, Asst. Secy.

Attachments:

• Attendance Roster
• Membership Chair’s report
• Attendance/Luncheon Chair’s report
• Treasurer’s report
• Membership Recruiting and Retention report