Agenda and Minutes Fall 2003

Minutes

Minutes, Board Meeting, Saturday 8 November 2003

All Star II Conference

The Current and Past Chairs of All Star II convened in the Morgan Suite of the Whalers Inn in Mystic, Connecticut at 3:30 p.m. Lori Heninger presided. There was an overflowing attendance, definitely a quorum.

1. General thanks to Rodney and Sally for the excellent 2003 conference.

2. Tim and Irene Flint, chairs for 2004, were welcomed to the group.

3. Lori reminded us of the decision making process that was ratified at the July 2003 meeting: we can make decisions at the fall meeting. Such decisions will become effective immediately, but will also need to be ratified at the next July meeting.

4. Registration fees. What to do about registration fees was the principal topic for discussion at this meeting. Copies of Phil’s preliminary treasurer’s report were handed around, and much lively discussion about the state of the All Star II finances ensued before the main topic could be discussed. The conference seems to have $1,600 in the bank from non-refunded hotel registration fees. Margy Levine Young eventually moved that we direct Suzanne May to communicate our dilemma to the Star Island Corporation (SIC) Board (of which she is a member) and to ask them to propose what should be done with the money. Until the issue is resolved, the conference will hold on to the money. We agreed that the $1600 should not belong to us. The motion carried. Phil’s preliminary treasurer’s report showed a $228 shortfall for the 2003 conference. With the removal of the $1600 and the $3374 from the 2003 Art Auction (see next paragraph) the shortfall is actually $5202. We agreed that the 2004 conference should be expected to have a shortfall, but no figure was agreed upon.

5. More on Registration fees. Once that issue was out of the way, discussion turned to the main topic of the day. After much more lively discussion, Margy moved that (1) we raise the rates now by an amount to be determined by the current chairs, (2) that we put the proceeds from the 2003 Art Auction into the Ginny Levine Fund, and (3) that we form a Financial Planning Committee, to consist of Bernie May, John Levine, and Michael Ellis. The motion carried. The Flints recommended that we use All Star I’s rates for this year: $55 for adults, $40 for children, with a family maximum of $190 (our rates last year were $45, $30, and $150, respectively). There was a consensus on these rates.

6. Report from the Council of Conferences. Sue, Rodney, and Roger reported on the Council of Conferences. Items addressed were financial access to the conferences, physical access to the island, the calendar, and mid-course adjustment of Vision 2000.

a) The Council of Conferences is still feeling its way; it may transform into an Association of Conferences to meet in the morning before the Star Island Corporation meetings.

b) The calendar for the summer conferences is driven by Labor Day. All Star I is unhappy because they no longer have the 4th of July in their week. We lacked sympathy.

c) Financial viability—one possibility that may be proposed by SIC is to make each conference responsible for paying the hotel bill for a full conference in advance and then for attracting enough people to fill the conference. Could the SIC accept credit cards for the hotel bill? It does for contributions to the Annual Fund.

d) The Council anticipates hiring a professional facilitator to help with its next meeting in May to structure the Council or Association.

e) The Council will probably be asking each conference for some financial contribution, on the order of $50 or $100 each.

f) After it is formalized, it will need two or three people from each conference as members.

g) Margy moved that we applaud the SIC for starting the Council, and approve expenditure of up to $100 for the Council. The motion carried.

h) To put on our agenda for the July meeting: elect representatives to the Council of Conferences.

7. Report from the conference Registrar. Dave Mellen reported that the mandate for having a conference Registrar was to maintain historical continuity without having to make the decisions about who is accepted to the conference. The worst part of being Registrar was data entry, and Dave strongly recommended that we all register online. He will send us all a reminder in January of the website and the password we need to enter it. There are actually two passwords, one to enter the site and one to access your personal family data. He gave an on-the-spot demonstration of how to register online, and stressed the importance of sending in a printout of our online registrations with our checks, and not filling out the registration form in the Blue Brochure. Filling out the online form and also the paper one can lead to confusion of data.

8. Current Chairs’ Report: Irene and Tim Flint. Speakers will be Jim and Nancy McLaren, speaking on “Exploring Our Potential.” The topic is difficult to describe: it’s a mixture of literature and science. The McLarens were highly successful as LOAS speakers a few years ago. The minister of the week will be Nancy Palmer-Jones, who was the intern minister at their church.

9. Music Person. There was consensus that the music persons supplied by the island the last few years have been inadequate, and we discussed hiring our own music person. Scott Ward might be willing to do it if it were a paid staff position. Irene and Tim will try to hire Scott, and will also convey to Paul Jennings why we are doing this.

10. Insurance. This subject was not brought up, due to a shortage of time and the imminence of cocktail hour.

Respectfully submitted, Lee Blue, Recording Secretary