January 12, 2022: Global Connections Executive Committee Meeting
January 12, 2022, Global Connections Executive Committee Meeting
Minutes
Members in Attendance:
Bob Persiko, Melanie Miller Foster, Bruce Truitt, Rita Graef, Maryam Barzegar, Wenjie Fu
Call to order at 7:00 pm by President Persiko. November minutes were approved with no correction.
Reports of officers:
President – Bob shared that he has been conducting outreach and developing project ideas and speculated that members may not have signed up for the activity at Makery due to Covid concerns. The continuing pandemic makes it difficult to plan indoor in-person events. He suggested to have outdoor activities in spring or summer.
Vice President – Kieran was unable to attend, therefore there is no vice president report.
Parliamentarian – Daniel was unable to attend. No report
Treasurer – Bruce indicated that the current First Commonwealth checking account balance was $5,673.25, an amount that reflected most of the material operating expenses for the 2022 Fiscal Year – Wild Apricot, AffiniPay, and QuickBooks – with the exception of property and liability insurance. He added that the First Commonwealth Money Market account holds $30,701.94. He further stated that Global Connections funds held by the Centre Foundation total roughly $67,000. Thus, our financial position is solid and remains generally stable at the levels of the previous fiscal cycle.
Past president – Melanie- No report
Secretary – Maryam shared that she has been conducting outreach to the manager of Sower’s Harvest Café for organizing the Poetry Night event. The possibility of working with the Iranian Students Association on their Nowruz planning was also discussed.
Public relations, website and social media – Sabrina was unable to attend. No report
Global Programs – Wenjie Fu shared information about the upcoming Tax Workshops by Community Engagement Programs and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA).
Reports from the standing committees:
Cultural luncheons committee (Shannon)-Not present
Rita talked about membership and mentioned that GC has already 98 members of which 49 members are active and 42 have paid their dues for 2022s the membership committee will meet on January 20. In the ensuing discussion, concern was raised about duplication names in Wild Apricot and how payments are synchronized with Affinipay. It was agreed that it would be good to hold a separate EC meeting for the members to tackle this. Bob will set one up.
Program of activities committee (Kieran)-No report
Unfinished business:
Bylaws changes – Daniel will provide an update message to the EC members.
New business:
- Whether when and how to hold the next general membership meeting. The consensus was to wait until we have something to tell the members such as planned programs. Also, it would be good to wait for warmer weather and then hold the meeting outdoors.
- Project planning – Bob referred to his email of Dec. 21, 2021, describing several initiatives that are in the planning stage. Covid may have an impact on their implementation. An alternative model of the cultural luncheon could be a take-out meal where people can hear live music when they pick up the food (e.g., Brazilian theme and Bruce playing/singing.) Or wait until the event can be held outside.
- Bob to propose a special EC meeting to review how Wild Apricots manages membership and payment issues.
- The topic of whether or not to have GC represented at the June meeting of the Community Diversity Group was tabled until next time.
Action item: Bob to set up an EC meeting to discuss synching membership and payment issues in Wild Apricots.
Adjournment at 7:55.