Minutes Officer and Board Meeting - January 14, 2008

Minutes from the Westchester Alumni Association on Jan. 14, 2008

In attendance were the following:
Officers:
President, Ralph Devine ‘73; Vice President, Jamie Tharpe ‘73; Secretary, Nancy Mullikin Adamo ‘75; Treasurer, Pamela Conlan ‘73;
Board members and guest:
Chairman of the Board and Class Leadership Liason, Deal Moore ’70; Communications, Carolyn Maddon ’82; Membership, Jeff Martin ‘70; Events /Activities, Lauri White Ramsey ’77; Membership, Fran Rolon ’70; Scholarship Funding, David West ’73; and special guest Barry Abrams ‘71.

Meeting Opened at 6:30 p.m.

Introductions were led by Ralph Devine allowing all returning and new Officers and Board Members to introduce themselves and the committees which they are participating in or Leading. Everyone introduced themselves and told what year they graduated and their line of business.

Agenda Items:

Officer and Board Member expectations were addressed by Ralph Devine.

These issues are in the By-laws of the association that each board member signed and Ralph wanted to address a few of them.
· Regular attendance at meetings is expected for all Board Members and Officers. Call or Email in advance if you can not attend a meeting. Non-attendance, without excuse as stated in the By-laws, may lead to dismissal as an Officer or from the Board.
· The committee chairs have the responsibility to conduct committee activities and report those activities back to the Officers and Board on a regular basis. Committee meetings and business can be conducted and encouraged to occur outside of the one hour monthly Officer and Board Meetings.
· Officer and Board Meetings are to be used primarily for presentation of Committee results and for committees to receive authorization to conduct activities on behalf organization or make expenditures on behalf of the organization.
· The two main goals for 2008 are to 1) Build the Membership in the WAA organization and increase the Scholarship fund to allow the fund to become a self perpetuating fund. All Committee should be aware of these goals and back these goals with their activities.
· This organization is a great opportunity to help Westchester graduates with scholarships and to be able to interact with other people.
· Committee Chairs/Leaders are expected to have a written mission/purpose statement and an activities action plan ready for presentation at the February meeting of the Officers and Board.


Membership Recruiting/Scholarship donations 2008-

What do we need to do for effective fundraising? Barry Abrams, class of ’71, who is a board member of SBEF, Spring Branch Education Foundation, came to address this question and provide experience and ideas to help with our Scholarship Fund donation efforts. The SBEF Mission is to raise funds for the SBISD students, they have teacher/student scholarships, they give to the arts, field trips and they give grants to specific campus’, mentor programs and the Good Neighbor program.
This foundation may be a place to donate money for the WAA scholarships. We have to look into the public charity tax codes 501C3 and 5091. Through directing Scholarship donations through the SBEF the Westchester Alumni Association Donations would be eligible to be corporate matched, and still remain a directed gift specifically for Westchester Academy of International Studies students. For example some corporations have a 3 to 1 matching program for qualifying organization donations used for Educational Grants or Scholarships.

New Business-

· We are interested in getting in contact with the following classes who might be having a class reunion this year, ’68,’73, ’78 ‘83
· Laurie addressed how many and what kinds of events are we interested in participating in each year.
· The web site is in desperate need to be monitored and updated. We are trying to find someone who will volunteer to be our WEBMASTER at no cost…. anyone interested? Your time / dollar value of the work could possibly be a donation to the organization.


Treasury Report for January 14, 2008 Board meeting

As of December 31, 2007, we have $15,468 in cash and Certificate of Deposits in Washington Mutual Bank. This includes $5,115 in checking account, $3,095 in Wranglerette restricted funds in a CD, $1,482 in Class of 1976 restricted funds in a CD, and $5,776 in restricted Student Scholarship funds.

As of December 31, 2007, there are 10 polo shirts remaining. Over 2006 and 2007 we collected $1540 in donations for the polo shirts. Our costs were $1429. We now have a profit of $111.

For the calendar year 2007, we collected $1,970 in memberships. Expenses for 2007 included $100 advertising, $690 homecoming, $466 scholarship dinner, $100 meeting, $80 donation, $50 misc and $90 website. Net profit for 2007 = $394.
Submitted by Pamela Mudd Conlan, Treasurer



Scholarship Fund Report

A total of $11,801.50 has been collected in scholarship funds from individual alumni and the community at large from January 2005 through December 31, 2007.

$1,070 in 2005
$6,046 in 2006
$4,685 in 2007
$6,000 was awarded as scholarships in 2007

Therefore, we have $5,801 for future scholarships. Further efforts for January through March for additional donations are needed to reach our $22,000 goal for Class of 2008.
Submitted by Pamela Mudd Conlan, Treasurer


Student Scholarship Fund
WAIS Class of 2008

Challenge

The Class of 1972 raised almost $4,000 in scholarship money for the Class of 2007. Individuals from Classes 1968 to 1985 brought our total scholarship fund to over $7,000. We awarded $1,000 each to six students on April 9, 2007 from the Westchester graduating Class of 2007.

Here’s the challenge:
For the Class of 2008 we challenge each class (1968-1985 and 2004-2007) to raise the most scholarship monies for upcoming graduating class of 2008. Beginning April 1, 2007 through March 31, 2008 all scholarship donations will be tallied by class and individual and sponsor. Check with your employer for matching donations and double your contribution for your class.

Our goal is for each class to sponsor at least one $1,000 scholarship for a total of 22 graduating Westchester students in the Class of 2008.

Class by Class Scholarship Challenge Results are shown in the image below. Click on the image to enlarge.

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