Humanist Society of Santa Barbara

Minutes of the Board Meeting May 14^th, 2019

Home of Mary Wilk      Host:  Nan

 

Board members present:  Mary Wilk, Roger Schlueter, Diane Krohn, Wayne Beckman, Neal Faught, Colin Gordon, Nan Cisney, David Echols, and Clover Brodhead Gowing.

 

Board members absent: Judy Flattery

 

Visitors:  Anne Rojas

 

1. Call to Order: Roger called the meeting to order at 5:29 p.m.

 

2. Secretary’s Report: Diane Krohn
   • The April 2019 Minutes were approved.
   • Diane will be absent in June and someone needs to fill in as Secretary for the June Board meeting.

 

3. Treasurer’s Report: Neal Faught
   • Review of finances: Colin had a question about Expenses for the whole year, under “Programs.”  Neal will check on that to see if it needs a correction.
   • Clover suggested that we offer a $50 honorarium to every speaker. There was some further discussion about honorariums; perhaps $100 plus transportation, one meal and overnight accommodations. We currently already pay for transportation, meal and accommodations. Most of our speakers are local and don’t request an honorarium.  Roger felt that since it is very dependent on each speaker, we should not have a set honorarium number. We will leave it up to the Program Committee.

 

4. Programs: Roger Schlueter
   • No report.

 

5. Publicity: Echols
   • No report.

 

6. Activities: Anne Rojas
   • Solstice Party: The party is Saturday, June 15^th, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Anne suggested 1 ½ hours for games, then serving food at 1 p.m. The set-up time will be at 10 a.m. Cody’s Café will be the caterer.  They will also provide chips and salsa (Committee to check on that) and dessert (chocolate cake). Members will be asked to bring appetizers, and desserts if they wish to.  Prizes will be gift cards.  David will bring drinks.  Anne will buy tablecloths and those doing the set-up will get the tables ready. Wayne suggested bringing zip lock bags and foil for taking leftovers.
     • Cost: No cost to members or guests, but reservations must be made in advance. The cut-off date for reservations will be Sunday, June 9. Cody’s needs the head count on Monday, June 10.
     • Colin to work with Anne to make a flyer that can be put in the Constant Contact email and will be included in the newsletter for June. To be sent out on the 1^st or 2^nd of June.

 

7. Membership: Mary Wilk
   • Member comment: Mary got a comment from a member that he has been disappointed in the meetings.  She has been trying to get in contact with him to describe why he has been disappointed but has not gotten any responses from him. 

 

8. Newsletter: Judy Flattery (Judy was absent but emailed a summary)
   • Summary: 174 emails sent; 6 new email subscribers we picked up on “Ask an Atheist Day”; 30 hardcopies mailed; for 204 total. One of the new email subscribers asked to be removed from the list.
   • A new location was added for posting in addition to Goleta Coffee, Natural Café and Java Station. Sondra Wilkmon posted at Rancho Franciscan Senior Apartments.
   • Posted the May talk on our Facebook page.
   • Four members will assist at the Science Salon: Suzanne, Nan, Judy Flattery and Judy Fontana.

 

9. Webmaster: Wayne Beckman
   • No report.

 

10. President: Roger Schlueter
    • Roger was contacted by someone who was interested in coming to meetings and she lives near De La Vina and State. Roger will let Wayne know if she wants to come and Wayne and Diane will give her a ride to the shuttle for the meeting.

 

11. Old Business
    • Science Salon: Roger: The Salon takes place on Sunday, May 19, at the Unitarian Society. Roger felt that it was going to be competition with our HSSB meetings because it is the Sunday following our Saturday meeting, but he felt that we should see how it goes.  Action Item: Discuss at our June meeting the outcome of the May Science Salon and our reactions to the Salon.

 

12. New Business:
    • Election: Roger:
      • Who will be on the ballot for next year? Mary, Nan, Clover, David, Wayne, Diane, Neal, Judy: yes. Roger and Colin: no.
      • We only have one person left on the Program Committee (Clover) and we need more people on that. Roger suggested that we have the Board act as the Program Committee in the interim.  There was extensive discussion regarding filling in Board members and recruitment of Board members.
      • Action item for all Board members:  Roger will schedule an interim meeting at the end of the month for further discussion and potential solutions. 
      • Action Item: Roger to check with the FFRF about becoming an affiliation.

 

13. Adjournment
    • The meeting was adjourned at 7:01 p.m.
    • The next meeting will be on Tuesday, June 11^th, 2019 at 5:30 p.m. at Mary’s house.
    • The host will be Potluck

 

Respectfully submitted,

Diane Krohn

May 31, 2019