<p>Palisades Village Board Meeting Minutes, June 16, 2016</p><p>Presiding: Phil Potter Present: Janet Bullinger, George Farr, Arne Paulson, Lizzie Schueler, Carol Lynn Halal, Gerry Slater, Judy Watson, Andrea Saccoccia, John Stiner (notetaker), Ted Chacones Absent: Sue Albright, Margret Lewis, Arne Paulson, Char Mollison, Ellen Myerberg Observers: None Approval of the Minutes – Phil Potter Phil opened the meeting at 6 p.m. The board approved the minutes from April 21, 2016. Minutes will be available on website. Lizzie will train Erica Blanton. House Tour – John Stiner (JS) Status: Event will occur on October 15th. Seven houses have been secured. Co-chairs: J Stiner, M Bronczek and L Benson. Real estate agents are being contacted and several have agreed to sponsor homes. Ad solicitation is underway. JS hopes to cut expenses and increase net proceeds. Events– Andrea Saccoccia (AS) AS summarized the list of upcoming events (website has most of the events listed). Wine and Cheese event was well received (35% of respondents all had positive comments). Accessibility remains an issue for some members. We discussed opening the events to non-members and AS has begun to reach out to the broader public through Listservs and other networks. We discussed July 4th parade and AS will reach out to volunteers and others to see if anyone is interested in participating and holding our banner. We may not have a table this year, since it does not seem to be of value. Member Services – Sue Elliott (SE) SE summarized efforts to motivate neighborhood captains to solicit feedback from neighbors on what types of social interaction they want. There has been no progress. Liz asked whether we should be trying to create social activities in neighborhoods. SE thinks it will develop trust and lead to a stronger foundation for providing more services (e.g., medical note taking). Liz suggested captains could get us more members. Judy thinks there are too many calls to be made. Liz suggested we get more members and/or volunteers involved to make calls. Andrea and Sue will get together to move this project along and report at next board meeting in September. Health Care – J Stiner JS reported that Sibley and MGUH are moving very slowly, but the effort is leading to developing more contacts and visibility. The Capital Region is looking at the issues related to discharge and support for seniors in their homes. AS and JS have met with the heads of Georgetown Home Care and Potomac Home Health Care to explore collaboration and cross referrals. Gerry suggested that JS get someone to lead the effort. Liz may reach out to a local physician who might be a board candidate and who could lead the health care services efforts. Medical Notetaking – AS AS explained that some PV members have been trained on medical notetaking. We discussed liability concerns. Ted raised the concern generally and specifically regarding errors in notetaking. JS mentioned that we are not liable under HIPAA and Phil explained that our insurance offers some coverage and that under the “good Samaritan” laws we are protected. We agreed that before we provide the service we should check with our insurance carrier and ensure that we are covered. Volunteer Training – AS AS referred to medical notetaking and the training performed, the need for more tech support in the office and the possibility of an intern to assist. AS reported that Safety Assessments may be covered under Medicare and other insurance and she will identify physical therapists who can perform these services. We discussed the need to recognize our volunteer and donors, perhaps with an event. Carol Lyn and AS will develop ideas, criteria and other information and propose options. JS suggested we revisit the Mollison Award memo developed in 2015 that discussed this topic. We discussed how to track volunteer hours and the need to use software in the future. Capital Campaign – Liz Schueler (LS) LS reported that her discussions and presentations with about 6 individuals went very well. One person indicated that a $5K pledge was possible. Ellen has set up an account for endowment donations. We discussed the Rowland bequest and the need to clarify what contributions should go into restricted and unrestricted accounts and what our flexibility is in moving unrestricted funds to operating needs. Ted voiced concern that we need operating funds. Liz advocates the endowment as a means to provide future and ongoing funds, with a target of $1M endowment to generate about $50K per year for operations. Liz also views fundraising efforts as irresponsible if we use funds to cover operations, as opposed to the board managing the budget. Phil, Sue George and Ted discussed the options for using the $20K bequest from B Rowland. Financial Report – Phil Potter Phil summarized the budget and projections as per the handout, with an emphasis on certain expense cuts and projected shortfalls due to diminished grants, flat or lower membership rates, uncertainty regarding proceeds from “salons” etc. Phil and others will review the numbers related to the mass mailing last year and expected savings. There were some questions about the reliability of those figures (Lines: #52 - #55). As of now, there is a projected shortfall of $5K - $6K. Phil reiterated that this is not a “serious” problem given our cash position and efforts underway to reduce expenses and raise net revenue. We discussed our main revenue sources: memberships, grants, house tour and Annual Report and Progress Report. We plan to re-think the PR and reduce costs. Liz pointed out that we should try to cover OVHD in grant requests. We returned to the discussion about the use of bequests and donations for operations. Phil indicated that we might use the Rowland gift, or some portion, for operations. Liz advocated having a policy re a target percentage in a contingency fund. Ted and others tacitly agreed that a one-year of operating budget would be a good target. The Finance Committee will take up these issues and report back to the board. We discussed what to do about recruiting new members. Recent efforts have been unsuccessful. Sue suggested a garden tour. Arne and MaryAnn Griffin identified over 30 neighbors and have organized an event to pitch PV membership, but the response has been unsuccessful. JS has written over 20 letters mailed by AS to neighbors with one positive response so far. JS suggested that our Recruitment Committee has a plan based on our Strategic Plan. Despite concerns about membership, Phil and AS reported that our numbers are about the same as last year. George clarified that we are not making any decisions about the budget at this point. Phil agreed and said he would explain the issues above in a future report. We again discussed having a broader event to recognize volunteers. [Note: after the meeting, Liz and JS agreed to eliminate the “new brochure” and save about $1,500 for 2016.] Other business: None discussed. </p><p>The meeting adjourned 8 p.m.</p>