February 5, 2020: General Meeting

by | Dec 14, 2024 | Meeting Agendas and Minutes

February Regularly Scheduled Meeting; February 5, 2020

  1. Call to Order and Welcome

Starting at 6:30pm committee meetings were conducted for 30 minutes. A 42 minute presentation and Q&A session followed featuring Carson Letot, Agriculture Teacher and FFA Advisor from Michigan and Dr. Filiberto Penados, Professor and Founder of Study Abroad Programs, C.E.L.A. in Belize. The regular meeting of Global Connections was called to order at 7:42pm by Melanie Miller Foster, President. A quorum was noted as present with 16 members and 3 guests in attendance. Secretary, Sarah Knorr, was present and recorded meeting minutes. A door prize was awarded to a present member after a random ticket drawing.

  1. Reading and Approval of Minutes

The December Minutes were presented to the membership in writing and were approved with no corrections and are to be filed for audit. President Miller Foster noted only committees met in January 2020  were treated as a work session only; a business meeting was not held.

  1. Reports of Officers and Standing Committees

Officer Reports were provided:

  • President Miller Foster: no report
  • Vice President Persiko: oral report, encouraged members and guests to communicate to the local international community to participate in upcoming 2020 census and to reach out to Global Connections for census resources; announced he wrote a piece for ‘This I Believe’ titled Immigrants Make America Great which will air in near future on NPR
  • Secretary Knorr: oral report, the Global Connections website is being updated to highlight the organization’s programs and activities; encouraged members and guests to forward media and information to be published on website and social media platforms
  • Treasurer Truitt: oral report, notified the membership that the annual budget is drafted and will be sent to Executive Committee; financial statements can be available upon request
  • Public Relations Officer UB Bakker: oral report, pictures of past events and activities are uploaded to Facebook
  • Past President Steinberg: not present

Standing Committees:

  • Membership Committee Chair D. Foster: D. Foster was not present at meeting, membership committee member Paige Castellanos provided oral report, organization met goal for recruitment; current membership stands at 79 members and membership committee has new goal of 100 members by April. Other goals include: (1) increase attendance by recruiting through advertisements, listserves, and social media, and (2) maintain membership retention through door prizes and personalized name tags
  • Finance Committee Chair B. Truitt: oral report, announced draft of 2020 budget which will be presented to Executive Committee to discuss, adopt, and amend as needed. Provided members and guests with handout copy of budget. Stated if any committee had monetary overages outside of allotted expenditures, provide Bruce with receipts and member will be reimbursed. Motion was put forth to approve budget as presented; motion passed unanimously
  • Cultural Luncheon Committee Chair S. Kamerow: absent for committee reports
  • Activities Committee Chair B. Persiko: oral report, announced Global Connections t-shirts are available at Webster’s Bookstore & Café priced at $20. The International Poetry Night was held on Monday, February 10th at 7pm. There were 14 poetry presenters from 10 different countries. President Miller Foster announced a new, upcoming event: Global Connections Member Social on February 17th at 6:30pm at Little Szechuan in downtown State College. Global Connections will be hosting Penn State sophomore, Sihan Liu to share information about the food traditions of China. A signup sheet was provided for 5 open spaces (out of 12 total reserved spots) and members were encouraged to attend for dinner and discussion
  • Book Groups Sub Committee Chair S. Steinberg: S. Steinberg was not present; Book Group member Deb Leo provided oral report, book groups are up and running with lively discussion; committee will provide information for book groups to be advertised on social media.
  1. Reports of Special Committees 

No Special Committee reports.

 

  1. Special Orders

No Special Orders reports.

 

  1. Unfinished Business and General Orders

 

No Unfinished Business and General Orders

 

  1. New Business

No New Business

  1. Announcements
  • The next meeting is on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 7:00pm. Committee meetings will begin at 6:30pm.
  • Penn State Global Programs is seeking volunteers to help with assisting Penn State international students/scholars through the Annual Tax Workshop; those interested can contact Wenjie Fu at [email protected]
  • The next Global Connections Cultural Luncheon will be Friday, March 27 from 12-1pm at the Mounty Nittany Methodist Church

 

  1. Adjournment
  • The meeting was adjourned at 8:26 p.m.