Minutes of the Meetings -- May 18, 2006
Members Present:
Rev. David Ridge (DR) present
Kay Johnsen (KJ) present
Clarence Johnsen (CJ) present
Patrick Sanders (PS) present
Pam Denny (PD) present
Jeff Graef (JG) present
Checking in.
The meeting was called to order by PD at 6:38 p.m.
Opening prayer by PD.
JG made a motion that we forgo formal reading of the minutes. Seconded by PD, all approved. Review of minutes of the last Board Meeting by those present. Motion to approve as amended by DR, seconded by CJ. Motion passed. JG agreed to make the revisions and additions.
Operating Statement & AUC Financial Report presented by DR. Motion to approve by CJ, second by DR. Motion passed.
Bo Lozoff concert and public relations were discussed. Kay summarized the PR meeting. Three publicity areas were discussed: movies, classes, concerts, with the addition of general church PR. KJ, DR, JG, Erin Gamble, and Joe Eaglesfether attended but Carol Gifford could not attend. Kay will ask Carol if she will take charge of the PR efforts. Kay will also check with Erin if she will do the spiritual cinema PR. The upcoming concerts are the June 17th and 24th -- Bo Lozoff and Anton Mizerak concerts respectively.
Credit card acceptance. The company in Penrose does processing for a fixed fee with equipments fees $450, 1.9% and $0.27, and $19 per month processing minimum. The Sams club startup fee is $575 plus transaction fees of $19 minimum fee plus credit card processing 2.1% plus $0.29. With additional fees from either program for Internet of about $100 plus $12 per month plus 0.21% or 2.3% plus $0.10 per transaction. DR came to the conclusion that it was too much out of pocket for the incremental benefit. JG suggested we look into just getting the minimum imprint hand machine.
Church directory progress. PS asked what (the extent of) the email coverage of people at the church is. DR said about 40% to 50%. PS said we will need permission from congregants if we list them. There was some discussion if it would be a “yellow pages” or a business ad directory. There was some discussion of the distribution. There was discussion of adding photographs. PS will bring a draft to DR.
Raising More Money. DR said that we would need a publicly identifiable hook to make people recognize us and want to donate to us. There was some additional discussion.
Outreach
The brochure. DR has received a number of contrary feedback messages on the brochure. We will ask the PR committee or head to work on this. DR pointed out that promotion (is defined as) is paid advertising.
There were approximately 90 stuffed animals and they will be distributed to Family Tree woman’s shelter.
We are averaging 35 visitors per day on the web site and 85 page downloads per day (not counting the last page they visit or the time on the last page).
Newsletter
DR said that he received positive responses to the thank you letters he passed out during service.
DR explained the basic services provided by Sendoutcard.com. A $25 initial fee provides 10 cards or 20 postcards to be mailed out from their online site. For further cards it costs $0.98 per card plus current postage rate ($0.39). They have about 5,000 cards available and you can add personal comments, your signature and photos. Custom promotional cards for businesses are also available. $356 to get involved as a distrubutor. Retail sales for the church cannot exceed 15%. David would tithe the profits back to the church. Dan and Jocelyne have volunteered to do the training and return the $100 training fee back to the church. As a distributor, you get 5% commission, anything sold below them, they get 2% commission, lower tier distributors to seven levels the original distributor gets 2% of the sales below. When you move to a second group, commissions go to 5%. The board discussed the program and the general comments of the board were that it would be ok for DR to promote it as an individual but would not be appropriate for the LWU board to take it on as a fund raising project.
Tithe recipients and amounts are Family Tree and Unity Institute $605 and $409 respectively for a total of $1,009.
PS made a motion to adjourn and PD seconded it. All approved. A prayer concluded the meeting.