Pleasant Hill Branch 146
Minutes of the Branch Executive Committee Meeting
July 9, 2009

I. Call to Order, Opening Remarks and Introduction of Guests

Big Sir Stu Somerville called the meeting to order at 10:00 am.
He had no opening remarks and there were no guests.

II. Members in Attendance

Officers and Directors:
Somerville, Hallett, Gates, Binder, Darius, Fuchs, de Golia, Hockel, Mitchell, and Rettew
Committee Chairmen and others:
Nunn, Spellman, Hertweck, Hanford, Ahlf, Lyman, Calloway, Obera, Kaprielian, Gorman, Richter and Wilson.

III. Secretary’s Report

Gates stated that the Minutes of the last BEC Meeting on, June 11, 2009, had been distributed to BEC. He called for comments and corrections. The Minutes were approved without change.
He said that that the Branch Rules had been updated to reflect the changes to BR 27 which were made at the last meeting.

IV. Treasurer’s Report

de Golia reported that for June, we had Receipts of $6802.44 and Expenditures of $5384.94,for a Net Gain of $1417.50. The Ending Bank Balance was $8343.36, most of which is available cash. We almost broke even on the luncheon.
He also reviewed the report covering the first 6 months of 2009. That report showed total Receipts of $54,644.24, Expenditures of $46,597.19 for a Net Gain of $6,047.05.
Voluntary Donations have been received from 203 members to date. Based upon a member count of 258, that amounts to 79%. There are 55 members who have yet to contribute.
The BEC accepted the June and January-June Reports.

There was a discussion about making these Financial Reports available to the general membership. It was decided to approach our Webmaster to see if it would be appropriate to put the reports, in some form, up on the Web. If not that won’t work, a monthly summary will be published in the SirCall.

V. Little Sir’s Report

Hallett reported that today’s speaker is Gary C. Smith, who will speak about the history of bowling as a sport and his personal experiences on the Pro Bowling Tour.
The August speaker will be Charles Mead-Executive Director of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Contra Costa County. He will speak on the history of CASA, an organization which watches over and advocates a volunteer program dealing with abused and neglected children.

VI. Committee Reports Needing Approval

Member Recruitment and Retention Committee
First up for discussion was Callaway’s report summarizing the first 6 months of the year. In that period, we inducted 8 new members but because we lost 15, there was a net reduction in the Branch membership from 265 to 258. The goal is to bring in about 10% of our membership, 27 men, for the year. We are behind. Our secondary goal is to replace all the losses to stay even.
Of the 15 losses, there 8 were resignations, 2 deaths, 3 transfers to inactive and 2 transfers to other Branches. During the first 5 months, we had 11 guests and 8 joined the Branch. In June, there were 11 guests and so far we have received 5 applications. Six new members will be inducted today.
He reviewed several of the new recruiting initiatives and encouraged all to “Be a Friend-Bring a Friend”
There was lengthy discussion weighing the pros and cons of some sort of outreach to those who have not made the Voluntary Contribution. Somerville and others on the BEC would like to know their reasons for not contributing, particularly if it is because they are dissatisfied with the Branch for some reason. Somerville agreed to take the matter under advisement; meanwhile, Calloway agreed to address this in some way in his planned Survey of the membership which he is developing.
It was agreed that a reminder be put in the upcoming SirCall. Hallett suggested that we publish a list of fixed expenses for the Branch so that our members can better understand our need for these voluntary donations. There was broad agreement.
Calloway’s Retention Report was then discussed, these three organizational alternatives, in particular:

1. Leave everything as is with a New Member Relations Committee looking after members during the first six months. The MR&R Committee would be concerned with things like member surveys, morale, reasons why members leave the Branch, etc.
2. Fold New Member Relations function into the MR&R Committee. This might require an increase of 1 or 2 members to the Committee.
3. Split the Recruiting and Retention Functions with Retention absorbing New Member Relations. A new Chairman would be required for one of the Committees.

The consensus was to leave things as they are, alternative #1.

Gates reminded the group that we need to tell our new inductees that there is a voluntary donation, why, how much and how to pay it. It was agreed to do this at the welcome gathering after each luncheon.

Dinner Dance
Rettew reported that the planning for the October Dinner Dance is moving ahead on the basis that we will go for the bigger space and dance floor. He is now calling it a Dinner Party rather than Dance to make it more attractive to those members who don’t dance. It will be held at Zio Fraedos on the 1st Wednesday in October and will be advertised in the upcoming SirCall.

Travel
Spellman requested approval for a Theater Group outing to see “Witness for the Prosecution” at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek on November 5th.
His request was approved by the BEC. The SIR Form 53 for the outing is on file.

Membership
Hertweck reported that there are to be 6 men to be inducted this month. They are: Charles Schreiber (Chuck), Edmund Malboeuf (Ed), Welby Bigelow, Bill Rash, Dennis Dale, and Fred Thompson. In addition, there are these additional changes:
Three members have passed away; Richard Johnson, Bill Root and Ray Nordstrom. Arno Marra moved from inactive to active.
The net result of these changes will be an increase 4 members to 261, including 4 HLM’s.
The BEC passed a motion to approve these membership changes.
There are no men on our Applicant List.

Newsletter
Ahlf reported Asst. Editor Bob Darius will do the next SirCall. He also stated that our account with the Post Office was down to about $72 and need a new infusion of cash. He requested approval of an expenditure of $200 for this purpose. The BEC approved this expenditure.

Luncheon
Lyman reported that he is expecting 200 people (191 members, 6 inductees, 2 guests and the speaker) at the luncheon. He guaranteed 184 to CourseCo.

VII. New Business

At the last luncheon, several members (one whole table included) had to take the fish entrée because CourseCo did not have enough meat entrées for them. Reportedly, one person got up and left. The CourseCo server did not handle the problem tactfully resulting in some upset members. Fuchs explained that we give CourseCo an estimated ratio of fish and meat entrees. Unfortunately, that is a moving target. In response, a new ratio of 55% fish and 45% meat was set for this luncheon (was 60% fish).
Fuchs said that CourseCo’s solution was to have only the exact amount of fish and meat tickets at the sign-in desk. Apparently there is little or no room for an error in our estimate. He did not support that because he would rather not give more responsibilities to the volunteers at the check-in desk and that, for the most part, the system has been working.
It appears that our current contract does not provide for flexibility when it comes to how many and what types of meals they are willing to provide versus what we “guarantee”.
After considerable discussion, it was decided that Somerville, Binder, Fuchs and Lyman should meet with Kirsten Knauer to try to work out a mutually acceptable solution.

The Agenda item “Luncheon Support Group piano, flag, audio, seating, etc.” was deferred until the next BEC meeting.

VIII. Adjournment

There being no further business, Somerville called for a motion to adjourn. Motion passed, meeting was adjourned at 10:02 am.
Pete Gates,
Secretary

Final: July 15, 2009