October 9, 2007

The meeting was called to order at 5:40 p.m. by President, Don Holznagel.

Present were: Don Holznagel, Sue Lydic, Kena Jacobs, Bruce Conrad, Jeanette Hopkins, Cathy Lauer, William Smith, Sandi Whiteman, Sandy Sterling, Lyleth Winther, Jan Robinson, Rex Bosse, and Gerry Lenzen

Minutes of the previous meeting were presented. Lyleth moved that the minutes be accepted, 2nd by Sue. Motion carried.

Treasurer’s Report – Jeanette reported that the market has been good for our investments; however our cash fund is very low and we need to do an annual appeal. Figures for the Fall Seminar are not in yet and a final accounting will be in the next report. She also reported that we lost almost $2700 this year. Motion was made by Lyleth, 2nd by Sandi to accept. Motion carried.

Audit of the Treasurer’s books will be completed by Saturday.

OLD BUSINESS

Bylaws - Don will read the proposed changes at the monthly meeting on Saturday. He anticipates that the written report will be four (4) sheets of 2-sided paper. The report will have to be printed and dated and sent out to each member, to be returned to GFO within 21 days. If we use the same format as the Officer Elections mailing, we will need to have some volunteers to help with the folding and taping of the papers. Motion was made by Lyleth, 2nd by Rex that we precede with that plan. Motion carried.

Seminar debriefing - Only 85 registered for the Seminar. The Ethnic focus may have been reason for not attending. Gerry reported that all of the GFO officers made contributions to the seminar in some way and he thanked all of us for our participation. There were a few problems with snacks and drinks. Most persons like the HQ Research Library vendor. They were much more professional than the Spring vendor.

Income from the Seminar was $5591.00 and expenses were $3636.51 (subject to corrections) with a net total of $1954.49.

A big “Thank You” to Gerry and Connie Lenzen for their donation of book display racks. The surplus books were displayed quite nicely on them.

Strategies for GFO Editorial and Marketing Responsibilities - Jan will be responsible for finding members to fill the spots of Marketing Director, Editorial Director, and Web Site Assistant. Don has approach Larry, Peggy Baldwin, and Tom O’Brien to search for and find persons who may be willing to help with these responsibilities.

NEW BUSINESS

Donations - Don reported that Free Geek has programs for non-profit organizations and has given us four (4) reconditioned computers to use in the Reading Room of the library. Free Geek is a non-profit computer and accessories recycler, located at 1731 SE 10th Ave.

Membership policy – Sandy needs clarification of how to determine the due date for renewals. The Consensus of the board is that we use a true year, with grace period of 30 days. Two notices are sent out - 1st notice is an advance notice; the 2nd notice is for a late notice.

Discussion on funding – Don drew up an outline of ways in which our society is funded, which includes dues, product sales, donations, education classes, endowment funds, annual appeal, among others. He will send out his listing by email to the officers. He is asking each of us to contribute more ideas to discuss at the next Board meeting.

The meeting was adjourned 8:10 p.m.

Submitted by
Cathy Lauer
GFO Secretary

November 13, 2007

The Meeting was called to order at 5:40 p.m. by President, Don Holznagel.

Present were: Don Holznagel, Sue Lydic, Kena Jacobs, Cathy Lauer, William Smith, Marj Enneking, Loretta Welsh, Sandi Whiteman, Sandy Sterling, Jan Robinson, Larry Sullivan

Minutes were presented and there were no corrections. Kena moved to accept the minutes, 2nd by Sandy. Motion carried.

Treasurer’s Report – The Balance of Accounts and Profit and Loss totals were submitted. Loretta moved to accept the report, 2nd by Sandy. Carried.

OLD BUSINESS

Building Lease – Don has had initial discussions with the building management. Negotiations will begin soon. The current lease agreement is for 5205 square feet of space. Actual measurements are closer to 5800 square feet. The Board would like for Don to negotiate for another 5 year lease in order to have time to put other options in place. We can expect a 3% per year increase in our rent.

Membership & dues structure – The Board discussed adding additional categories to the dues statements. Loretta made a motion that we initiate a new membership fee structure starting 1 July 2008. Sandy 2nd the motion. The following was adopted:

Possible Rewards for increasing the member type discussed were (1) Name in newsletter; (2) certificate; (3) Name on plaque; (4) Distinctive Member card.

The Board discussed Life memberships and the Endowment Fund. It was suggested that we set up new funds for Capital Expense and Operating Expense using a portion of the Life Membership fees. More discussion will follow.

Bylaws - A member of the organization questioned the omission of our non-profit status in the newly revised bylaws. It was suggested that we call the State or to talk with a lawyer regarding the legal status of inclusion or omission of the statement.

NEW BUSINESS

Leslie Lawson has suggested that we take part in the Partner Program for the Oregon Sesquicentennial to be held in 2009. This would be an opportunity to contribute and get some recognition of our presence and our resources. The Board is in favor of participating, and Jan will form a committee to explore ideas of how we can contribute.

Members website – Do we want to have a website exclusively for GFO members? There was a show of hands to determine how many were in favor. All present were in favor of the idea. Larry told us that we would need to have several projects in reserve before it would be feasible to implement the website. More discussion will take place to choose the direction we would like to see it go.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m.

Submitted by
Cathy Lauer
Secretary

December 11, 2007

The meeting was called to order at 5:40 by President, Don Holznagel.

Present were: Don Holznagel, Kena Jacobs, Bruce Conrad, Jeanette Hopkins, Cathy Lauer, William Smith, Loretta Welsh, Sandi Whiteman, Sandy Sterling, Lyleth Winther, Jan Robinson, Larry Sullivan, Gerry Lenzen, and Roger Ostrom.

Minutes of the previous meeting were presented. There were no corrections or additions. A motion to accept the minutes was made by Sandy Sterling, 2nd by William. Motion carried.

Treasurer’s Report – Jeanette submitted her Balance of Accounts and Profit and Loss Reports to the Board via email prior to the meeting. There were no corrections to the figures. Lyleth made a motion, 2nd by Sandy Sterling to accept the report. Carried

Jeanette submitted a request to amend the budget for $175 to repair one of the three tabletop copiers that we have. The copier issue was tabled for further research and discussion. It is unclear which copiers need repair until Jeanette can review the situation with her husband, Don Hopkins. It was requested that one copier be placed in the GFO office for ease of use by officers, etc.

OLD BUSINESS

Capital Improvement Fund – Discussion was carried over from the previous meeting regarding using a portion of future Life membership dues to build a fund for capital improvements or expenses. We talked about the inability to get to Foundation money, and a fund is needed to plan for future building or relocation of our library. Jeanette told us that we already have a fund designated for Capital Improvement. We need to redefine what he want the new fund to include. Loretta made a motion that we create a fund called “Relocation Fund” for a future move. Motion was 2nd by William. Motion carried.

Don proposed that we start planning financially for what we need and what the costs will be. He will appoint a committee to project the needs and costs. Jeanette and Bruce have agreed to be on the committee… who else?

Lease – Don has been meeting with Redside and a new carpet and additional parking spaces were discussed. They will install a new carpet, but we would have to pay for the carpet over a five year period. Regarding the parking spaces, the Redside person will talk with other tenants in the building to see if we can park in their spaces after 4:30 p.m., but there will be no additional spaces for GFO. A termination clause of 9 months has been discussed.

NEW BUSINESS

Roger Ostrom – President of Roots/Master Genealogist User Group, and a GFO member, visited the Board Meeting, and expressed his appreciation for allowing his group to meet at our facility. He told us about the group, stating that the Portland User Group is much smaller than the east coast group. Most of the members are also GFO members. They have a small dues fee which covers their expenses. He asked if his group would be allowed to use our video equipment, and if so, they would be willing to donate their older equipment to GFO to be used as a white elephant item. A motion was made by Lyleth and 2nd by Sandy that permission to use our equipment be granted, following the required training. Motion carried. Roger presented a check to our Treasurer as a donation to GFO in appreciation for the use of our facilities.

World Vital Records – The GFO has been offered a chance to become affiliated with World Vital Records, a subscription based database site. Members that take out a subscription through our website will get a 15% discount on their 1st year price, plus GFO would also receive a 15% rebate for each person that signs up. The database would be offered free on our library computers. Board members will have a free trial period beginning 12/11/07 and ending 12/17//07 to explore the site. Don has asked us to spend some time reading it and to enter into a email discussion during this trial period to evaluate the information.

FHC Microfilm Readers – Don has received an offer from the Family History Center at 30th & SE Harrison to receive some microfilm readers as a donation. Jim Morrow, our Facilities Manager, should be in charge of making that decision

The meeting was adjourned at 7:20 p.m.

Submitted by
Cathy Lauer
Secretary GFO

Addendum to December 2007 minutes: - In an email to the Board Members, President, Don Holznagel reported on the results of the By-Law Revision vote that was taken in November 2007.

Colleagues: This afternoon, William, Pat and I opened the ballots from the by-laws election, and the ballot count was verified by Sandy Whiteman. The vote was as follows: Approve changes 222; Reject changes 5. There were 5 additional ballots on which neither choice was marked. This means that about a third of the members replied, a good return I think. On three ballots, a comment like "Good Job" was written.