July 10, 2024, Global Connections (GC) Executive Committee (EC) Meeting Minutes

Members in Attendance:
Voting members: Bruce Truitt, Debbie Leo, Sunny Jiang, Yagmur Turker

Non-voting members: Bob Persiko, Wenjie Fu 

Call to order at 7:04 PM.

June meeting minutes were accepted as submitted.

Reports of officers:

Acting Vice President Bob Persiko

• Bob mentioned his wife is reaching out to contacts at the Bellisario College of Communications to recruit a PR officer.

Treasurer, Bruce Truitt

• Bruce reported he is almost done with the revision of bylaws and plans to finish them soon. He will circulate the revised bylaws for review.
• Bruce reported receiving communication from the Center Foundation regarding an expected EFT transfer into our account for Centre Gives campaign, but he hasn’t seen the check yet.

• Following Bob’s question, discussing the allocation of funds for the literacy project is to be carried out after the check is received.
• Bruce shared details from discussion sessions at the Schlow Library indicating sessions are currently scheduled through August, with potential for extension based on community interest. He explained the sessions are intended to enhance English language skills through community-based discussions. Bruce suggested monitoring attendance over the summer and considering promotional efforts through social media, newsletter, and website if sessions continue into the fall. Deb expressed interest in attending but noted the evening timing might be challenging.
• Bruce mentioned a new interest in the Vice President position from the Volunteer Centre County, where Bob posted vacancies.

Secretary, Yagmur Turker

• Yagmur reported on a meeting with Marco before his departure, where he briefed her on website management responsibilities during his absence.
• Yagmur noted upcoming visa-related travel to Turkey in August and the possibility of not returning. She mentioned that October might be her family’s last time in State College due to her husband’s impending graduation.

Membership Chair, Sunny

• Sunny provided membership updates, noting a total of 81 members, with various renewal dates for active members.

• Bob discussed the new membership policy where renewal dates are staggered throughout the year based on registration date rather than a universal December deadline. He clarified the distinction between active members and contacts, noting the need to manage the contact list to stay within a 200-contact limit to avoid excessive charges.

• Sunny sought clarification on the process for handling inactive memberships. Bob explained members are moved to an archive list after one year of lapse, and he offered to review and manage the current list of lapsed members.
• Sunny proposed a potential partnership with a local senior home for conversation partners, which received positive feedback from Wenjie, who manages the Conversation Partners program. 

Small Groups – Debbie Leo

• Deb reported on the status of small groups during the summer break, noting no new developments except for uncertainties regarding Becky’s involvement.

Global Programs – Wenjie Fu

• Wenjie provided updates on the Conversation Partners program, having matched approximately 40 volunteers with international participants recently. An in-person event is scheduled for September 8th, with plans for an ice cream social at the Creamery. Additionally, Wenjie mentioned the potluck signup progress and the need to reconcile registrations from different platforms.
• Wenjie highlighted Penn State Global’s participation at the Arts Festival, setting up cultural tables for community engagement, featuring Bolivia, Peru, Philippines, and Malaysia. She discussed the event’s impact and engagement with children through cultural education.

Removal of Kieran from Presidency

• Bob raised the issue of scheduling a membership meeting to vote on removing Kieran from office, requiring 15 days’ notice and a quorum of 10 people. July 31st was proposed as the meeting date, with plans to post the notice on the website and conduct the meeting via Zoom.
• Bob agreed to draft a meeting notification for review, and Yagmur volunteered to post it on both Wild Apricot and the website.

Unfinished business

• Bruce is nearing completion of the revisions to the bylaws and standing rules, with plans to distribute them soon for executive committee review.

New Business

• Discussion of allocation of funds for literacy project at September meeting.
• Monitoring attendance at discussion sessions at Schlow Library; consider promotional activities if sessions extend into fall.
• The need to fill vacancies in the leadership team: vice president, public relations officer, and soon-to-be vacant secretary.

Action Items

• Bruce will circulate revised bylaws for review.
• Bruce will monitor the receipt of the EFT and report back.
• Bob will follow up on Vice President interest from the Volunteer Centre County.
• Bob will check on inactive members and update the archive list.
• Bob will draft a meeting notification for July 31st to vote on removing Kieran.
• Yagmur will post the meeting notification on Wild Apricot and website once reviewed.

Meeting adjournment: 7:49 PM

Minutes prepared by Yagmur Turker

 

 

 

 

June 12, 2024, Global Connections (GC) Executive Committee (EC) Meeting Minutes

Members in Attendance:
Voting members: Bruce Truitt, Debbie Leo, Marco Damasceno, Sunny Jiang, Yagmur Turker

Non-voting members: Bob Persiko

Call to order at 7:05 PM.

May meeting minutes were accepted as submitted.

Reports of officers:

Acting Vice President Bob Persiko

• Bob noted that he should be listed as a non-voting member due to his roles as past president and current interim acting president. He emphasized that he is a proposer and not a voter.
• Bob announced Kieran’s intent to resign, received via a brief message from Brazil. Details are scarce, but his letter of resignation is anticipated.

 

Treasurer, Bruce Truitt

Bruce highlighted significant financial contributions:

• A donation of $358.68 from the Center County United Way, attributed to Penn State employee deductions.
• An unexpected donation of $848.33 from a partnership involving Give Local and Kish Bank, related to credit and debit card processing fees at State College International Market. Bruce mentioned that the Give Local initiative might continue to provide similar donations annually unless there are changes in the partnerships or agreements.

• Bruce highlighted the significant financial outcomes from the recent Centre Gives campaign. There was an 80.22% increase in average per capita donations compared to the previous year. Total contributions increased by 65.2%, rising from $885 last year to $1,462 this year. The campaign also received stretch funds from the Hamer Foundation, which were distributed on a proportional basis among all participating organizations, leading to a total gift of $1,858.98 for the campaign.

• Bruce noted that these contributions broke the previous year’s record and expressed satisfaction with the results.
• Bruce mentioned that the campaign’s earnings represent between 25% to 33% of GC’s annual budget, which typically ranges from $5,000 to $7,500.
• The funds are critical for supporting the scholarships under the English Language Literacy Program.
• Bruce also informed the committee that the distribution of funds from the English Language Literacy Program set up at the Center Foundation is expected to occur in August. This timing aligns well with funding scholarships for the fall semester.

Public relations – Marco Damasceno

• Marco reported that he was finalizing the newsletter and coordinating with Bruce and Bob for content review and proofreading.
• Bob reported on the unsuccessful attempt to recruit a potential candidate for a PR position, noting that there had been no response to his efforts.
• Marco discussed another potential candidate he had considered for the position. She eventually declined the opportunity, citing inability to commit. Marco expressed his intention to remain proactive in seeking suitable candidates and to keep the recruitment process active. Consequently, the search for this position continues.
• Bruce proposed seeking an internship collaboration with Penn State’s marketing or advertising programs to attract social media and marketing volunteers.
• The committee discussed utilizing personal contacts and local educational institutions to recruit interns.

Small Groups – Debbie Leo

• Deb reported that book reading groups will have their last meeting on June 13^th before summer break.
• Bob noted that both English class and discussion group are going to have summer break, too. They will resume in August.

Unfinished business

• Bruce is nearing completion of the revisions to the bylaws and standing rules, with plans to distribute them soon for executive committee review.

New Business

• Discussion on managing the transition after Kieran’s resignation, focusing on maintaining leadership continuity and filling vacancies.
• Bob shared plans to draft an announcement for the general membership about the leadership vacancies and the process for filling them.

Action Items

• Bob will share the flyer of July 27^th
• Bruce will finalize and distribute revised bylaws for executive committee review.
• Marco will complete and share the newsletter.
• Marco will promote the July potluck event through the website and social media.
• Bob will prepare the announcement about leadership vacancies and recruitment strategy.
• GC will continue monitoring Kieran’s situation regarding his formal resignation.
• Deb will look into the possibility of a second poetry evening this year.

• The EC will further discuss a possible GC role in the July 10, 2024, Arts Festival Children and Youth Festival events five (5) different cultural performances and five (5) cultural tables from 10 am – 3 pm).

• Shannon will report back on her efforts to find a cultural event date acceptable to Ciara, Laura, Sunny, and her.
• Shannon will pursue and provide additional information on a Dominican, Iranian, and Scottish cultural event and on available dates at the Unitarian Brotherhood Church.

The next meeting was scheduled for the second Wednesday of the following month at 7 PM.

Meeting adjournment: 7:43

Minutes prepared by Yagmur Turker

 

 

June 14, 2023:  Global Connections Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

Members in Attendance:
Voting members: Bob Persiko, Bruce Truitt, Melanie Miller Foster, Anna Borisova de Valdez, Deb Leo, Shannon Holliday.

Call to order at 7:09 PM. May minutes were accepted as submitted.

Reports of officers:

President – Bob

Bob reported:

1. Kieran attended a luncheon offered by the borough in which GC was honored. Moreover, GC got a $500 donation from the Borough for its excellent work. 
2. Bob has so far not succeeded in getting an Iranian team to cook at a possible Iranian luncheon. He’ll keep trying.
3. Rita stepped down from being the membership committee chair. Bob will be looking for a replacement. There are 96 members in WA, and 91 of them are active members, 188 contacts (250 is the limit).
4. Anna is going to step down from being the secretary in August/September 2023. Bob will be looking for a replacement.

 Vice President – Kieran – absent

Treasurer – Bruce

Bruce reported:

1. GC’s current balance in the checking account is $5,009 and $31,000 in the money market.
2. Major bills of GC have been paid.

Public relations, website, and social media – Marco – absent

Penn State Global  – Wenjie Fu – absent

Cultural Luncheons Committee – Shannon Holiday

Shannon has a negotiation with Unitarian Fellowship Church to utilize their facilities for GC luncheons with a feasible discounted rate.

2-3 luncheons are planned to be organized in 2023. The dates are still to be determined.

Possible luncheons:

1. Scotland: the executive director of Hope Center County (Scottish) is willing to host, cater and provide a presentation.
2. Japan: the pastor’s wife of the United Methodist Church has agreed to host it in their facility and cater a Sushi bar.
3. Africa: working on

Small Groups – Debbie Leo

1. The book groups (beginners and intermediate/advanced level) are on summer break till the end of August.
2. Number of members this year increased, and each group will try to attain ten members.

Unfinished business:

Centre Gives: Bob proposed that GC will use the money received during the Center Gives to sponsor scholarships for English classes for immigrant family adults through the Mid State Literacy Council. GC will make those recipients members of GC. If this pilot is successful it could become an annual project.

Motion: Bob

Seconded: Shannon

Discussions: none

The Motion passes. Bob will negotiate terms with the Literacy Council and report back to EC members.

New Business

1. Bruce said that the Google Drive of GC needs to be put in order. Decisions need to be made: Who should have oversight of the site? Should we delete old documents? Should we limit what gets posted? Should we share links with EC/publish on GC Website? Bob offered to go through the documents and delete old ones. Melanie said that a previous secretary had culled a lot. Bruce said that it’s important to make one person responsible for maintenance. It could be a responsibility of the Secretary. Melanie cautioned that we not overload too much on the Secretary. Anna agreed that this could be assigned to the Secretary, but she noted that a new Secretary would not know what is important. It was decided to assign this as a secretarial responsibility. Access to all documents needs to be given to all EC members. Make the Drive a repository of all key documents. The Bylaws and Standing Rules only provide vague guidance on such responsibilities. Bob will draft a list of duties and responsibilities of the secretarial position and circulate it to the EC members for consideration. Bruce will review the Standing Rules to see how they can be amended to reflect what the Secretary should do.
2. Discussion on Membership Picnic was tabled to a future meeting.
3. State College Spikes baseball home game on June 21. Need an event reminder to be sent to all members.

Meeting adjournment: 8:15

Prepared and submitted by Anna Borisova de Valdez 06/25/2023 with edits by Bob Persiko, 6/26/23.           

 

The following GC EC meetings will be in August.

 

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 1^st 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

September 14 Global Connections Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

Members in Attendance:
Voting members: Bob Persiko, Bruce Truitt, Shannon Holliday, Melanie Miller Foster

Non-voting members: Marco Damasceno, Anna Borisova de Valdez

Call to order at 7:09 PM. September minutes were accepted as submitted.

Reports of officers:

President – Bob

Bob suggested organizing more:

1. In-person activities with members, like the picnic + hiking on October, 8.
2. Revenue-generating activities for the organization (indoor events).

Annual meeting will consist (45 min):

1. General report – Bob
2. Finance report – Bruce
3. Election
4. No cultural presentation this time

Melanie suggested to use agenda from the previous year annual meeting because that meeting was organized well.

Melanie asked to put a specific call to show members what needs are and how can people contribute. Bob suggested to ask members to join committee and committee will divide rolls.

Bob commented that small groups work very actively. There are two new members who came from English group.

 

Vice President – Kieran Holland – absent, doing the telephone duty at WPSU for fundrising

Treasurer – Bruce Truitt

Bruce reported:

1. $6 000.00 in a checking account
2. Paid annual subscription of WA – $648.00+around $5-$10 per month of transaction fees
3. Bruce asked about the disposition of several gift certificates and gift cards. There are three certificates (2017) from the Rey Azteca Mexican Restaurant, which are still valid. Two of them were presented to one member and Marco for their great help during the work at the Multicultural Unity Fair. There is one more certificate is available and 3-4 gift cards. Shannon suggested using it as a present in some ruffle.
4. Bruce announced the need of making a decision about increasing the plan of contacts in WA due to Rita’s concerns. Were decided that Rita should be present to clarify the situation. Melanie thinks that WA makes easier for volunteers doing administration work and cheaper in comparison with the salary of an employee. To make a decision it should be a quorum. Melanie noted that GC should think about to opportunity to share tools for taking responsibility and rights to some members, who want to be more active. Bob suggested arranging a meeting with Bruce and Rita to discuss some unclarities about WA and after to organize a vote with executive members, probably via E-votes between meetings.
5. Bruce submitted request: one member requested assistance with CHIP application for the child. Bob will try to ask help of
6. Membership renewal notice will go automatically to the members on WA in December and be affected on January 1st, 2023.

Secretary – Maryam – absent. Anna Borisova de Valdez

Public relations, website, and social media –Marco

Will be a post about the picnic and the hike of the discussion group. Marco will photoshop a person, who asked to not publish him on social nets. Information about candidates for election is prepared. Need to be ready before October, 25^th

Anna suggested using statistical information of contacts from WA making a post with numbers: how many men, women, nationalities, and how many languages members speak to show how GC is global. 

Bruce noted that Wenjie could provide this information about the university and Rita could clarify do we have this statistics on WA.

Penn State Global  – Wenjie Fu – absent, submitted report

Here are the updates from Penn State Global, and please let me know if you have ay questions.

1. Penn State community is invited to a conversation with Qatari energy minister on Friday, Oct. 14, 12:00 – 1:00 pm at HUB 132 Flex Theater.

2. Community Engagement Programs – Book Group Discussion (virtual) on October 19, 4-5 pm. This month’s theme is Memoirs! Bring your favorite memoir to join our virtual roundtable book group discussion.
3. Conversation Partners Program – Pumpkin Decoration and Craft on Wednesday, October 26, 4:00 – 6:00 pm at State College Borough Building, Room 201.

Decorate pumpkins and make your garlands to celebrate the fall!  Come join us to have a fun time with your assigned conversation partners and other CEP participants. Friends and family members are welcome to join too! Bring your own pumpkins! We will provide all the necessary supplies and baby pumpkins (while supplies last.

4. Global Sustainable Action: It Starts with Us!

Penn State Global is currently looking for volunteers to join our planning committee and to help on the day of the conference. The conference will be held at University Park on November 5, 2022, as part of International Education Month. If you are interested in volunteering, please fill out the form : https://forms.office.com/r/avgqHKxTik

5. Join OLLI at Penn State and Penn State Global for culture and conversations from around the world on Thursday, November 3, 1:30 – 3:00 pm at Penn State Outreach Building, room 121 G&H.

Small Groups – Deb Leo,  absent, absent, submitted report.

The intermediate/advanced Women’s Book Group that Sharon and I lead is up and running with 5 new members and new interest every week. We have begun in-person meetings on Wednesdays at noon, and the participants are so happy to meet in-person. We are still welcoming new members so please refer any interested to Susan at [email protected]

Reports from the standing committees:

Cultural luncheons Committee – Shannon Holiday –

1. Luau party

Expenditures and incomes

Revenues	$  120.00
Permit	$  (60.00)
Food	$(691.00)
Cake	$  (74.99)
Decorations/Beverages/Other Food	$(253.19)
Total	$(959.18)

 

Was received good feedback from the attendees. Anna suggested to organize payment for the next for all participants: members with discount, other – full price.

Bob will share with Shannon information from previous years events

1. Shannon asked to send her any suggestions/ideas of the cultural lunch of the next year. Bob offered to think about the organization earlier this year: to recruit more people, etc. To think again maybe to cooperate with Nittany Methodist church, to have more volunteers (not members), but who can help during the event (who will serve, who will clean).
2. There is a opportunity to take part in the Boalsburg farmers market on Tuesdays (from State College community Land trust) with no cost (indoor in winter). They provide table and chairs. GC can stand there with it’s information. Bob offered to discuss with member committee.

Anna suggested thinking strategically about the goals of the organization and from that to decide in what promotion activities GC should take part.

1. Shannon noted about opportunity to be present GC at WPSU kids fair.

Membership – Rita absent, submitted report

1. Below is an overview of our membership/contacts in the Wild Apricot system:

– current total contacts: 250

-current members: 85

-new members in last 30 days: 4

2. I am very concerned that we have too small a plan in WildApricot for our most basic needs. Comparing our numbers to the limits of our WildApricot plan I would like to ask the team to consider and approve increasing our Wild Apricot plan to allow upto 500 contacts. Pricing can be found here: https://www.wildapricot.com/pricing-na

• We have maxed out the number of contacts at 250 total contacts…no new contacts may be added to the system at this time
• recruiting and converting interest in the organization into membership necessitates keeping a larger list of contacts than actual members, so we can capture interested prospects and send them info about upcoming opportunities that have them signup and become members.
• We have the interest that would warrant a “Community” plan option and our prospects look very promising:

  . 250 contacts

  . 192 event attendees

  . 132 email opens (of 220 sent)

• Though we do have some old/expired/no longer active contacts, I am not convinced that deleting a few will [delete “not”] provide enough “space” for managing our active and potential contacts.…in other words: we need to do this and there is no short term fix

 

Unfinished business:

List or action items from the August meeting and action taken or still pending:

• Bruce to continue organizing a team for the financial review. (Still pending).
• Wenjie to submit an item for the newsletter on tax workshops, Conversation Partners, and a call for volunteers (submitted for the September newsletter)
• Shannon to recruit volunteers for the September 18 picnic; Bob to include an item in the newsletter. (completed)
• Shannon to coordinate with Rita and the membership committee on GC representation at the September Multi-Cultural Unity fair. (completed)
• Deb to submit an item on book groups for the newsletter; also work with the PR team on advertising through social media. (completed)
• Melanie to check with Daniel on temporarily suspending the limit on the presidential term and report back to the EC. Daniel Foster said that he can write a proviso with an expiration date, which can be adopted by the membership in order to allow for an extension for the next year. 8/11/22
• Bruce to craft wording to change the bylaws provision on maintaining membership records. (pending)
• Maryam to change the standing committee choices in the member registration site in Wild Apricot. (Maryam/Anna to confirm)
• Bob to draft an appeal to members for the newsletter on more active participation and new project development. (completed)

There was a brief discussion about the proposed changes in the standing rules. A motion was made by Kieran and seconded by Shannon to accept the changes. The members present voted unanimously to approve. Bob noted that this is a work in progress and can be amended any time there is a need. Bob will put the document in final and distribute it.

New Business

The members agreed on Wednesday, November 9, for the annual membership meeting and election (via Zoom). Melanie noted that the slate of officer candidates needs to be sent to the members by October 9. Bob will write an item for the September newsletter (action item).

Meeting adjournment: 8:09

Prepared and Submitted by Anna Borisova de Valdez 9/14/2022 with edits by Bob Persiko