Board of Directors

Regular Meeting -- February 17, 2013

The Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting at 2007 Bert Avenue, Austin, TX 78704, starting at 2:30 pm. The following directors (constituting a quorum of the full board) were present at the meeting: President Kathy Lee, Vice President Tamara Vogt, Secretary Pam Chambers, and Laine Morales. The following directors were absent: Treasurer Penny Chambers. Robert McGarey (Executive Director), JoAnn Kennedy and Fritz Vogt were also present at the meeting.

Reading of Mission Statement and Approval of Minutes

The Mission Statement was read aloud at the beginning of the meeting. Minutes from the previous meeting were read aloud and approved as read.

Executive Director's Report

Fundraising. Bob introduces Joann to the board. She talks about fundraising. She is a professional fundraiser and hates it, but loves it when she gets money. She puts forth the idea of asking for money for the Center. If each one of us calls and talks to at least one friend, then you have one $600 computer right there.

Personal contacts are much better than a donation letter in the mail. She goes on to educate us about fundraising. Very interesting.

Bob submitted a fund raising request last year to the Christopher Reeve Foundation. He received a $3,000 check for batteries for GoodwheelChairs a few days ago. The money can be used only for batteries. An account has to be set up for the money.

Volunteers. We had a Temporary Transitional Employment (TTE) volunteer come in for 25 hours a week for a few weeks. He is paid by his previous employer to volunteer here. He got to a lot of things done that Bob has been trying to get to for years. A very good thing.

ITT Tech wants to put 3 people in the center for volunteer for 25 hours a week. They will also pay them to volunteer. They found us on VolunteerMatch.

Then there are the practicum students from the St. Ed's Masters of Arts in Counseling program who are starting to work here. Samantha has been great. She is going to make a really good counselor. Bob needs to interview some more of them.

The brain trust happens every Tuesday at 5:30. Bob invites all board members.

Renters. Since there were bad renters in the past, Bob now checks the criminal history and past references. The new renter Kyle will move in the first of March; we're excited to have him here because he seems very interested in and connected with the Center.

Since there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at around 4:32 pm.

Minutes submitted by Pam Chambers, Secretary, February 17, 2013.