On August 7, 2010, the NoVES Board met at the home of President, Mary Ellen Stanton. All Board members and Leader Jone Johnson Lewis were present at the meeting. Prior to the meeting the Board approved, by email, the minutes of the June 12, 2010, Board Meeting. Board members also responded To Do list indicating, among other things, that 1- most Board members had joined NoVES's Meetup website, 2- Marv Friedlander, Mary Bellamy and Andy Stanton met with former Treasurer, Sven Sinclair, to learn to use the Quickbooks software, 3- Marv wrote a newsletter article about NoVES committees, and 4- Andy made arrangements with the bank for Mary and Mary Ellen to be authorized to sign checks and set up NoVES to be an Amazon affiliate, under which NoVES will get a percentage of orders from Amazon made through our website.
The Board agreed with Mary Ellen that it is very important, when decisions are made, to consider who needs to be informed of them. The Board also agreed to create a policy manual that will contain all of the Society's policies that have been passed by the Board and the membership. In her president's report, Mary Ellen noted that weddings are picking up and donations are steady. She also noted that Karen Blinder has resigned from the Society. The Board approved Richard Heffern's application for membership.
In Jone’s Leader's report, she asked whether we should recognize 9-11 when we open on September 12. The Board agreed to a moment of silence. Jone has had contact with some members over the summer doing pastoral work. She will be conducting various activities such as classes and platforms in keeping with the Ethical Culture Leaders' agreement to focus on economic justice this year. Jone will be working with her nonviolent communication groups. She will be sending out reminders to NoVES members of her interest in conducting birthday meetings.
In her treasurer's report, Mary stated that, thus far during the new fiscal year, our expenses have been $15,626.91 and our income $14,396.38. As of August 6, 2010, we had a total of $25,261.13 in the bank.
On fundraising, the Board discussed ideas for the auction and using the internet, including the Amazon affiliate program and I-Give. The Board discussed some ideas on how to make the pledge campaign more effective. The pledge campaign will be dealt with at every Board meeting. The Board reaffirmed the NoVES policy that an applicant for membership receives two visits – one from the Leader and one from a Board member, and the Board member discusses pledging. At least one of these visits takes place before the Board votes on the application. On the Board’s response to the Focus Group meetings, Mary Ellen noted that Board members met three times over the summer to discuss the focus group results. Marv wrote up meeting summaries with Andy's help. The Board agreed that, once it’s comfortable with the language, it will communicate with committees and then to membership. The Board discussed a policy on sexual harassment, which our insurance company requires. Hank Gassner gave an update on arrangements for the Ziskind memorial weekend, which includes the McGowan workshop and Platform. A discussion was had on the functions and leadership of the membership committee. Jone volunteered to act as co-chair of the committee during the time she's not on sabbatical. The Board discussed the idea of cluster groups – groups of members getting together based on common interests or a common location. The Board approved Jone as co-chair of the committee and agreed to the idea of cluster groups.
Board members agreed to be liaisons to different committees: Mary – finance, publicity, children's books; Marv – newsletter; Hank – membership, memorials, Ziskind Memorial, speakers; Marianne Moerman – ethical action, festivals; Karen Raymond-Hart– caring, web team, audio; Helene Shore – retreat, spaghetti dinner; Andy – auction, setup/cleanup; Mary Ellen – adult growth and learning, leadership, Sunday School, member support.
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