Board of Directors Minutes
July 2008

A regular meeting of your Board of Directors was held at the Resource Center on Monday, July 14, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. Present were Sean Henderson, John Lansdale, Patrick Libert, Rob Limbaugh, Anna van Ommeren, Jeff Setaro, Jim Scheef. President Rob Limbaugh presided and Secretary Anna van Ommeren kept the record. Fran Ryan was also present. Minutes of the last meeting held June 9, 2008, were presented and approved. Jim abstained as he was not present at the June meeting.

Rob presented the Treasurer report as Charles Bovaird was absent. The report indicated cash assets of $7,155.72, consisting of total bank and postal accounts in the amount of $7,071.67 plus postage on hand of $84.05. Subtracting a liability of prepaid dues in the amount of $1,520.00 left a net equity of $5,635.72. He also reported that the current membership is at 237 - 126 of which receive the mailed Dacs.doc newsletter. It was noted that the Dacs.Doc newsletter was mailed out to the subscribers on June 24.

A head-count of the June general meeting attendees added up to 73, 46 of which were members.

The subject of the General Meeting dates for February 2009 to June 2009 was brought up, regarding the conflict with the Hospital Auditorium availability. Conducting a survey of the members for a preferred day was discussed; however it was decided to pursue more date options with Danbury Hospital.

It was noted that John Gallichotte has resigned the DACS Board to pursue personal interests. His position needs to be filled, although the Board may decide to remove this position at a future time. Flo Ferrara will be leaving her position in September, however, she is still reaching out to potential speakers, and has General Meeting presenters lined up through March 2009. A discussion ensued about the pros and cons of having two separate presenters at a single general meeting and whether the subjects should be related or contrasting. Sean felt contrasting subjects would encourage a more divergent group of members to attend the meetings.

Anna mentioned that due to a scheduling conflict she may not be able to attend Board meetings and fulfill her secretarial duties for the months Sept-Dec 2008. Sean mentioned he will ask Lisa Leifels if she is willing to act as substitute during that time.

Sean suggested that the Board consider installing restricted access functionality to selected areas of the DACS web site, such as the PDF archives and newsletters. Members will be informed by email with the log-in information, and new members will receive the passwords when they sign up. The webmasters will consider the best way to implement this, while still keeping the pages search-engine friendly.

Regarding membership dues, the option of offering a senior citizen discount was brought up. Other possible membership discounts in return for volunteering or a member having contributed in some special way were discussed. Discounts by certain companies are available, and there is a need for a volunteer to keep track of benefits the members are entitled to. It was mentioned it would be helpful for the benefits be published in the newsletter and shown on the DACS web site.

Fran Ryan mentioned she spoke to Danbury City Hall about the Summer Youth Employment Program discussed at the June Board meeting. For now this appears to be on hold. Another Federally funded program may be offered which employs as well as trains adult participants, who do not require supervision. She is looking into collaboration with DACS, but no activity is likely until September.

Patrick mentioned he and Allan Ostergren are discussing a design for a “generic” poster to announce the general meetings.

-Anna van Ommeren