Meeting Minutes

November 15, 2001 Alumni Council Meeting

Recorded by Catherine Cohen Topp

In Attendance:
Jackie Keveson, Bob Solomon, Lou Simon, Jeffrey Paul Bobrick, Catherine Cohen Topp, Lisa Wanderman, Eric Weiss
Participating via phone:
Roger Bailey, Juliet Ross, Dan Seiden, Marc Ritcher, Charlie Ledley, Nat Budin, Laura Kasper, Stephanie Segal Hartman, David Grausman, Erica Blumberg

Jeffrey: In the interest of time, since there are a few important issues that must be addressed, we will be curtailing the discussion of non-pertinent items. Issues that arise during the meeting that can be discussed at a later date will be tabled. Thank you to everyone in advance for your understanding. We always want to address everyone’s concerns and hear new ideas; the enthusiasm of those involved is what keeps us moving forward.

Jeffrey: Why don’t we take a minute for everyone to introduce themselves and say where there interest lies or what brought them to the organization.

Introductions commence.

Dan Seiden: I apologize, I didn’t realize the meeting was going to be long and I have to go to a rehearsal. I just want to reiterate, that I am excited to participate and would like to be involved in performing at the proposed concert. Please e-mail me with upcoming dates so I can plan to join future discussions.

Jeffrey: Dan, I’m very happy you feel that way, and we certainly will keep you in the loop.

I will forgo the Executive Director’s report for this evening to make room for other issues such as the concert.

Charlie: I too will table the Scholarship Fund report for this evening. On the business side everything is set up with paypal and Bob, Eric, Jeffrey and I will discuss bank accounts once the IRS has granted our non-profit status.

Jeffrey: Next is Legal.

Eric: The IRS application is about 90% done. I am waiting on a portion from Charlie and just have to review the portion Lisa handed to me. Once the application is complete I will Fed Ex it to the IRS.

Jeffrey: Fundraising.

Stephanie: We are planning a direct mail/e-mail campaign for 2002. We will be sending out a letter in a testimonial style- a story from a former Buck’s Rocker. We are choosing to do this kind of a letter over a generic letter about the organization, because it is much more personal and tends to be more effective. The reader will relate to the writer’s experience and think back on his/her experience.

Our target donation is $50 for a 300 person list. To keep printing costs down we will e-mail the letter to some people and mail to others.

Jeffrey: Mickey has a various lists, including a list from Ernst’s Memorial he has offered to us, but at present he has not entered the current information into a database. We are hoping that will occur soon and we will be able to increase our list to approximately 800 people.

Stephanie: Is there a way for Nat to merge any current information we have with Mickey’s list and weed out duplications?

Jeffrey: Yes.

Stephanie: All checks that we receive will be made out to Friends of Buck’s Rock and will be sent to Eric for the time being. Until we have a bookkeeping system set up, which will be determined by Jeffrey, Charlie, the treasurer, Nat, Eric and myself, Eric will continue to photocopy checks and we will keep track of donations that way.

There will have to be some manual input of donor information for checks received in the mail. Donations made online we may be able to merge a report from the information we are sent from paypal.

Jeffrey/Charlie: We are in some real need of seed money. If you know of anyone who would be interested in giving, please do not hesitate to ask.

Juliet: What if it is someone who I think would potentially give a large amount of money and I am not comfortable approaching?

Charlie: If there is anyone, alumni or alumni parent, who you think would potentially be a large donor, send me the information and either myself or Jeffrey or Lisa will determine the best way to approach this person and contact them accordingly.

Jeffrey: Lou, would you be willing to help with this effort?

Lou: I would be happy to help.

Stephanie: That is about it for now, since we are going to be talking about the concert later in the agenda.

Jeffrey: Next was to be the Publicity report from Alex Saltzman, but Alex is not feeling well and could not attend. However, Alex put together a little blurb about Friends of Buck’s Rock for the Camp newsletter and he and Catherine have worked on our introductory letter to get people to register with the organization.

So, now we will move on the Newsletter and Logo design, Jackie.

Jackie: I would like to have input from everyone on the logo. 5 or 10 words, associations, images you have of the camp/your experience. Please email me your thoughts, but please don’t cc anyone. I want to see if there are common threads or if we are all over the map.

Stephanie: We are not using any abbreviations for the organization, correct?

Jeffrey: At this point, the general consensus has been not to use abbreviations such as FOBR.

Jackie: Concerning the newsletter, nothing is happening yet. I have some ideas, but we will have to see whether the newsletter is online or in print. We need to determine if and what the fee will be for the newsletter.

Stephanie: There is a question on the membership form that asks, “Would you be interested in receiving the newsletter at a nominal cost?”

?: What will be the content

Jackie: I would like it to be different from the website. I am thinking along the lines of a booklet with different literary works/art works.

Charlie: As opposed to just news and information, you suggest more “artwork.”

?: Could this be posted on the website?

Nat: pdf is easy to print and send.

Juliet: We need to determine the audience first.

Lisa: We need to differentiate what belongs on the website and what belong in the newsletter.

David Grausman: I found in planning my high school reunion that a few people were not on the web. I was very surprised.

Stephanie: David did you find it correlated to the person’s profession?

David: I am not sure?

Jeffrey: David since you have dealt with this sort of thing in great detail, would you consider working with Catherine on membership?

David: Sure.

Jeffrey: Thank you. Okay, let’s move on to Web Site. Nat.

Nat: The site is half up and running. People can post their own information. There will be chat rooms, online information about the camp, the organization, Ernst, a section for alumni works and more.

Several of the areas the information can only be posted by members of the alumni council, such as information about the organization. Other areas, members have access to and can post their own information, but these areas need to be monitored.

Jeffrey: There will be a disclaimer on all these areas stating something to the effect of, “the ideas are the individuals and do not necessarily represent the organization”, but we still will need people to check these areas on a weekly basis.

Juliet: How time consuming would these monitoring be and have we determined whether or not we would be editing people literary work or would we just be checking for inappropriate material?

Jeffrey: We may have a section in which people ask us edit their work, but in general we want to stay clear of this and just be checking for inappropriate language, such as hate language.

We also do have to remember that minors will be visiting this site.

Jackie: There will be a disclaimer for artwork as well?

Jeffrey: Yes.

Lisa: Could we put up a message board for Executive Committee members, so that people can post information and no one will be left off the email, which has happened in the past?

Juliet: How would we know when something is posted on the executive committee board?

Nat: It can be set up through e-mail, if people want.

Jeffrey: It is possible but our time is limited tonight and, if you all don’t mind, I’d like to talk about this another time.

Group: That’s fine.

Jeffrey: So, Membership, Catherine.

Catherine: I am going to read the letter that Alex and I drafted, since I don’t think everyone has a copy. This letter will be sent out very soon to all the names we currently have and any additional ones we can get from Mickey’s database.

The purpose is to encourage people to visit the web site and join the organization.

The letter was read and the group agreed it was fine.

Jeffrey: Don’t we need a “p.s.” at the end that tells people that we are the official organization and that if they are registered on the other alumni web site they are not a member of Friends of Buck’s Rock?

Group: Yes, this is necessary.

Catherine: I will add that before it is sent out.

The only other membership issue I have is my concern over the database.

Charlie: Catherine, you and I and Nat and other concerned parties, such as Stephanie and Lisa will all get together via phone or some other method to discuss all the issues. They are important, but let’s not discuss them now since it is getting late and we still need to discuss the concert.

Catherine: Sure.

Jeffrey: Events Outreach, Lisa.

Lisa: I just wanted to talk about the possibility of having different membership levels. At present we do not have a fee for membership, but if we had a nominal fee that covered our overhead, we wouldn’t have to be concerned with raising funds to cover these costs. Additionally, we could have different levels that included such things like the newsletter, perhaps a hat, a t-shirt, etc.

Many organizations choose to have a membership fee and perhaps it is something we should explore.

Eric: This is very interesting, but this is not something you could change at present. At least not until we have IRS approval.

Lisa: We can certainly explore this more and discuss it at executive committee and see where it goes.

Jeffrey: Okay, now, let’s talk about the concert. I know a lot of us are very excited about this event, which will not only raise money for the Scholarship Fund but also be a fantastic launch for the organization. Juliet has looked into some venues. Would you please tell the group what you found out?

Juliet: I looked at a few places that varied in cost: Expensive to reasonable, public space verse private space. We could certainly find a venue for several hundred dollars, if cost is the main issue. Although I was happy to look into things, this is not really my main interest and I would like to pass this off to someone else.

Jeffrey: Certainly, thank you for your research. I know Marc that you were interested in the concert, along with Brett Kizner. Erica, would you be interested in helping out?

Erica: I would, but I don’t know how much time I could devote.

Charlie: Also, Sam Kusnetz, Myq and Ivan were interested.

Jeffrey: That’s wonderful. Of course, Lisa, Stephanie and Catherine will be helping out as well. We need to find a venue that could potentially hold 500 people or more.

Charlie/Stephanie: I think that is a bit ambitious. Having too many people should be our worst problem. A venue for around 300 people is probably more appropriate.

Lisa: There needs to be a budget.

Jeffrey: Would you help with that?

Lisa: Yes.

Stephanie: We need to remember this is a fundraiser. Timing is important. If we are going to use these funds to send a scholarship recipient to camp this summer then the concert can be no later than the first week of April.

Jeffrey: We also do not want it to be on top of the 60th reunion. Okay, so the committee needs to meet and get some of these issues addressed.

Okay, so now what about the reunion? Mickey has asked us to help out with the 60th reunion. How does everyone feel about this?

Group: When and Where is important. To partner with the camp and co-host would be great as long as Mickey knows we cannot contribute financially on this.

Lisa: I think people would enjoy going while camp is in session and the shops are open as opposed to before camp.

Jackie: The 55th was held during change over.

Jeffrey: Charlie, Lisa and I will be in touch with Mickey about this.

Let’s pick dates for our next two meeting before we adjourn.

How about Jan. 10th at 7 p.m. for alumni council and Feb. 7th at 7 p.m. for executive committee.

Group: Great.

Meeting Adjourned.