Veterans for Peace 2017 Board Meeting Minutes
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Veterans For Peace 2017 Board Meeting Minutes • January (Albuquerque, New Mexico) • February (Conference Call) • March (Conference Call) • April (St. Louis, MO) • June (Conference Call) • July (Conference Call) • August o August 6 (Conference Call) o August 9 (Chicago) o August 12 (Chicago) • September (Conference Call) • October (St. Paul) • November • December (No Meeting) Veterans For Peace 1 Veterans For Peace National Board of Directors Meeting Albuquerque, NM, USA Friday, January 27, 2017 Board members present at the meeting: Barry Ladendorf, President Gerry Condon, Vice President Michael McPhearson, Executive Director Mark Foreman, Treasurer Kourtney Andar, Secretary Brian Trautman Tarak Kauff Patrick McCann Dan Shea Monique Salhab Members and guests present at the meeting: Willard Hunter, VFP Member, Albuquerque Chapter Sally-Alice Thompson, VFP Member, Albuquerque Chapter Motions and votes in bold. ______________________________________________________________________________ Barry chairs the meeting. Barry convenes the meeting at 9:20 AM MST Kourtney records the minutes Executive Director Report – 9:22 AM MST - Michael briefs the meeting on his report as provided in print; Christine Assafe hired as Administrative Assistant in the national office; accountant has to finish up December numbers; in February third week, we will have our reviewer/accountant review our books; the numbers from last year will change based on adjustments to be made; we raised over $850k last year total; further briefing of the report as provided in writing o Barry: what are the projections based on? o Michael: based on what we can do - Michael: will have to work hard to increase major donors; we’ve never gotten a hundred grand in major donors before, unless it’s been a bequest; we need to make sure we get that this year; if we get Craigslist donation again, we’ll be halfway there; correction – Craigslist is a grant, it comes to us as a donation from Craigslist organization o Mark: is it safe to assume we’ll keep getting the Craigslist donation o Michael: we should reach out to him, but no we shouldn’t assume, but take action; work hard to get it; never assume that you will get a grant, because Veterans For Peace 2 foundations change their focus and you can’t rely too much on that grantor; Magic Pebbles grant has been received o Patrick: with Trump’s election, we ought to craft something that can use his election to increase membership; everyone on the Board should be a recurring donor so we can model that behavior to our members o Barry: agreed, no matter the amount; tell Doug Zachary that we want to donate every month o Patrick: brief comments on chapter members who are not paying national dues; we should pay attention and re-up that conversation with our chapters o Brian: what about using the term “sustainer” rather than “recurring.” o Barry: term helps distinguish that you are helping to sustain the organization o Michael: we need to re-look at some category names that we already have; Michael presents the membership level names according to list on national website; these levels have been around even before I came to VFP; we can redesign these levels to be more current; when a person renews membership and they want to give more and have a title attached to that gift; we should probably publish these people’s names with the titles o Further discussion on membership levels and redesign o Patrick: we should encourage chapters to get their members to pay national dues; we should refer this discussion to the development committee o Michael: eTapestry system used to handle donations, we have to get them to make the changes and they charge us; we are looking to move away from eTapestry, shouldn’t take moving away from donor database lightly o Mark: possible to get rid of the term “recurring” and just use “sustaining,” could be confusing - Michael: briefing on membership number changes according to report in print o Gerry: discussions on dues, keeping lapsed members on rolls, in membership committee o Michael: payment to organization is a measure of commitment; some lapsed members just forget, but after so many years, they just don’t have the commitment o Patrick: recommit to IVAW, they have good leadership right now; have organized with IVAW in last few months; be more conscious of working with them - Michael: briefing on 2017 budget proposal as provided in print; GR does do fundraising, but it’s not a systemic effort; the GR should send out mailings and monthly appeals online; we should follow up those paper appeals with email appeals; it’s a way to spur and remind people to send in the donation when they receive the email appeal; Program Associate can help make those things happen; still looking for candidates o Mark: possible to change name to Program Coordinator? o Michael: Helen Jaccard is the current GR Coordinator, the new position would not be coordinating many activities; we can discuss - Michael: in the past, we have a base salary for staff, and then I asked them what the ACA would cost them, and we would put that on top of their base; we wouldn’t call it for healthcare, they can use it for whatever they want; Program Associate is full-time, Veterans For Peace 3 would rather they reside in St. Louis but we can consider work ethic in that regard; considerations regarding how VCI campaign went; consider closer supervision for coordination; would like to work closely with person on day-to-day basis o Barry: inquiry into VCI campaign coordination based on rest of grant left over o Michael: coordination and field workers will change, need to get more structure with it and fundraise for more funds for campaign; we should have brought in IVAW much earlier; find places to work together; work closer with local VFP chapters and hire their leaders as their leadership capabilities emerge; further comments on how to engage more chapters in campaign; have new staff member cultivate the work of the chapters; reach out to signers of VCI statement and cultivate their action, tie those veterans closer to VFP; see if there are some of those people close to each other to work together, or work closer with Muslim communities in their areas; reconstitute the Islamophobia committee o Patrick: has anything been done with VCI since the NY event last fall? o Michael: yes, they continued to do outreach o Brian: working with Vets Vs Hate and Common Defense o Monique: there is still a lot of VVH and VCI actions going on; not at the same level of 2016, but still a lot going on o Michael: considerations on working relationships between IVAW, Common Defense, and Beyond The Choir; a lot of stuff going on; we’re not all working together because of competing directions and funding o Gerry: we have a new bylaw passed by the membership requiring that we ensure that we aren’t seeking or taking funds from sources inconsistent with our principles and unity; Soros controversial; afraid that we will ignore that bylaw change considering new grant proposals o Brian: is Program Associate a one-year contract position? Will it then be optioned to continue with new funds? o Michael: yes, tell them we have funding for one year, and continue if we get the funding; unless the Board decides that the funds we currently have would go towards position for two years, but continue to fundraise to make up the difference; the GR half of the funds would suggest that we want to continue to do that into the following year o Mark: from what Gerry brought up, real concern; Board needs to make a decision regarding taking more Soros funding o Michael: not asking the Board to go after OSF funding; just looking at funds we have; going forward, we should have that discussion; but right now for this position is money we already have o Tarak: potential candidate for position is great writer, progressive, currently looking for work, would love to work with VFP - Michael: further briefing on report as provided in print; take half of the OSF grant left, use for travel and programming for VCI; would want that person to travel to California to meet face-to-face with Helen and tour the GR boat Veterans For Peace 4 o Tarak: met with Ralph Nader aid and he’s excited to help with outreach to WWII and Korean War veterans - Michael: have different levels of recognition regarding Howard Zinn Peace & Justice Builders; motivate people to attain levels of giving; Barry to draft letter to send to associate members for Memorial Day o Barry: ask members to report on why they decided to reactivate dues and get quotes from them to share o Brian: very good to see those on social media - Michael: many chapters have tabling events and they get names to sign, but those names don’t always get input into database; have them mail those names to us; added money to budget to have someone come in and take those lists and input into database, and then send back to chapters; we can use them to reach out to people who signed; figure out how to get donations from that process back to chapters o Barry: clarify on engaging store customers who are not members o Michael: reach out to them; Casey is doing a good job increasing products and sales from the store; have more product that is appealing to non-members; if they buy something from us, get them to donate to us also; reach out to artists and pay them to create designs for us; one design is related to Banksy style street art; take that style and have civilians painting the VFP logo, put it on a tee shirt and sell it to supporters of VFP o Further discussion on design ideas, potential