GPUS Steering Committee Minutes
Sunday, November 6, 2016 – 8:00 p.m. ET
I. CALL SETUP & BACKGROUND
a) Facilitator: Charles Ostdiek
b) To listen: 712-451-0019, access code 926334, ref #14
c) Present: Brian Bittner, Chris Blankenhorn, Darlene Elias (joined very late), Sanda Everette, Jan Martell, Darryl Moch, Tamar Yager, Bahram Zandi. Absent: Andrea Merida (she is at Standing Rock). Observers: Starlene Rankin, Jeff Turner
d) Agenda revisions – the budget discussion was moved to the end of the agenda.
II. OLD BUSINESS
None
III. STANDING BUSINESS
a) Treasurer’s Report – Brian has sent out reimbursement checks, let him know of any other outstanding. He will begin filing regular cash reports soon. Dan Robinson, landlord in Tacoma Park says there is a possibility of expanding into 2 more offices there, or possibly losing our space to another business taking over all the first floor. There is a possibility of space available at the old DC location in same price range. Brian recommends waiting to see how the options sift out in Jan. or Feb. and how new hires affect our space needs – meanwhile we can have a month-to-month lease.
b) Fundraising Report – Tamar has been having tech issues w/ internet & mail. Last 2 e-blasts did only okay, paid for themselves plus some. Next e-blasts will be to sustainers to ask them to increase. Last mailing brought in $13K so far, & more not entered yet, so doing about average.
c) Personnel WG Report – Met a few days ago, but Andrea was not able to attend. Still working on job descriptions to post to Idealist. Next call on Wednesday.
VOTING QUEUE
In the queue: none
Received for the queue: Approval of Frank Young for GPUS Finance Committee – Jan said she had received necessary state approval and bio back in July and sent it on to Fincom, but did not bring it to the next meeting (July 24) after which with the SC changes and convention, this reappointment was forgotten. There were no findings, and members agreed by consensus to expedite the schedule. Chris will be Floor Manager with some help from Jan. Jeff noted that he needed to get reappointed also, and would start the process ASAP.
IV. NEW BUSINESS
None
V. EXECUTIVE SESSION
None
d) Budget discussion – Brian requested Jeff participate as he was leaning on Jeff’s experience in the budget process. Jeff made changes to Draft 7 on the fly as discussion proceeded and decisions were made. Efforts were directed toward finding places to trim this draft where possible to keep it within reasonable bounds. Some line items were reduced with the understanding that down the road they could be increased according to need. Most members were reluctant to reduce fundraising budget, as this affects income.
Consensus items – Requests for caucus budgets were reduced to $1K per caucus, as Fiscal Policy requires caucuses to do much of their own fundraising. SC face-to-face retreat, a critical part of strategic planning, reduced to $10K. Reducing printed materials on line 75 to $5K.
Some line items more contentious were passed by vote: decision to cut freelance writer budget by $5K, to cut outreach budget by $10K, and employee salary budget down $10K to $210K for 5.5 FTEs.
Jeff will post the new version – next we need to look at descriptions.
TOTAL TIME: 162 minutes
Jan Martell Secretary