May 10, 2023: Global Connections Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

by | Dec 15, 2024 | Meeting Agendas and Minutes

May 10, 2023: Global Connections Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

Members in Attendance:
Voting members: Bob Persiko, Kieran Holland, Bruce Truitt, Marco Damasceno, Anna Borisova de Valdez, Deb Leo, Shannon Holliday.

Call to order at 7:10 PM. April minutes were accepted as submitted.

Reports of officers:

President – Bob

Bob reported:

  1. Discussion group (members + families and friends) held a picnic and went hiking on Saturday, May 6, at Stone Valley Recreation Area/ Lake Perez; around 30 people attended the event. Marco will post pictures in GC’s social media after the Centre Gives campaign ends.
  2. Bob is regularly receiving and responding to emails with requests for help with translating and other services.
  3. There was a meeting of the ad hoc committee (Bob, Bruce, and Kieran) working on archiving inactive members in Wild Apricot. WA:188 contacts, 96 members with 91 active members. They have been emailing many of them, asking them to renew or let the GC know that their membership can lapse. Then, as the committee gets their answers, decides their status. Some remain active, some stay non-member contacts, another 100 or so are archived, and others have been deleted altogether. The committee is still defining criteria for these categories and is working on recruiting a person to help monitor members’ status as their circumstances change.
  4. In the summer, GC EC meetings will be in June and August.

 

Vice President – Kieran

Treasurer – Bruce

Bruce reported:

  1. GC’s current balance on the checking account is around $4,600.
  2. Saudi Arabian Cultural Luncheon resulted in a $530 loss.
  3. “Central Gives” $260 (6 donors) – as of that moment.

Public relations, website, and social media – Marco

  1. Marco launched an advertising campaign for “Centre Gives” and will reinforce it before the end of it.
  2. Sabrina posted a newsletter with the information “CG.”
  3. Bob passed the Penn State Global newsletter to Marco.

 

Penn State Global  – Wenjie Fu – absent

Cultural Luncheons Committee – Shannon Holiday

  1. Shannon met with new GC member (Ciara Halloran), who expressed an interest in being on the committee and assisting with organizing future cultural luncheons.
  2. After the Saudi Arabian Cultural Luncheon, GC needs to reconsider the parameters of the next luncheons (additional discussion is pending!)
  3. Cheaper venue (work on cost efficiency in general; think about Borough Building as a venue)
  4. Time (evenings?)
  5. Day (weekends?)
  6. Advanced advertising/marketing budget. Kieran offered to print flyers for luncheons (2 weeks prior) to distribute at Ten Thousand Villages.
  7. Separate payment of membership and payment of attending the luncheon at the luncheon itself (see new business).
  8. Themes being considered for next luncheons:
  9. Scotland
  10. Japan (Shannon is exploring the basement of United Methodist Church)
  11. Iran

Membership – Rita– absent

Small Groups – Debbie Leo

  1. The book groups (advanced and intermediate level) will have a summer break.
  2. Number of members this year increased.
  3. Bob said the discussion group and English class will meet periodically in June and August and likely take a break during July.

Unfinished business:

Centre Gives (see discussion above)

New Business

Proposal:  Increase the price of membership for 2024 (January 1st of 2024) from $10 to $20 per regular member.

Reasoning: economic situation, inflation, insufficient revenue from other sources, etc.

Motion: Bob

Seconded: Kieran

Discussions: none

The motion passed unanimously.

 

Discussion on incentives and discounts related to GC activities was tabled to a future meeting.

 

There’s a State College Spikes baseball home game on June 21. Bob will write the note for the May newsletter, website and social media posting.

Meeting adjournment: 8:02

Prepared and submitted by Anna Borisova de Valdez 05/12/2023 with edits by Bob Persiko, 5/14/23