RBA Board of Trustees Minutes
Monday November 8th, 2021
Meeting Opened at 7:08pm
Opened with the Serenity Prayer and AA Traditions One and Two. Our mission is to manage the property, finances and 501C3 for the RBA.
1. Members Present:
Norton L., Joe R., Roger B., Bill M., Cherisse K., Trunette S., Rik L., Dana Jo F.
Jerry Z., Maintenance, Will S., Bookkeeper, Timothy C., guest
2. Building & Maintenance Report (Jerry Z.):
Jerry completed some substantial maintenance projects since the last board meeting. He installed a downspout on the back wall of the building to prevent water runoff from the roof from pooling by the back door. Jerry also repaired many cracks in the asphalt and placed boards under the dumpster castors to prevent further damage to the parking lot. He then installed a threshold in the front door frame to make this more accessible for wheelchair users. Jerry reinstalled the third urinal in our men’s bathroom. He cleared many leaves from the porch area. Jerry plans to focus on pest extermination and kitchen cabinet repairs in coming weeks. The board asked about creating a shelter in the smoking area in the rear of the building, and this will be considered in future board meetings.
3. Financial Report:
The board approved the financials for October. No significant unexpected expenses were incurred during the month. With October being the first month of the pledge year, a significant increase in donations were received compared to prior months in 2021. It’s worth noting that RBA received at least $1,000 in additional pledges during October of 2021 compared to October 2020. Our bookkeeper noted that over $2,000 in online donations were received during the 2020-2021 fiscal year. The parking lot LOC balance is very close to being paid off, and we hope to begin calendar 2022 debt free.
4. Old Business:
The minutes from the October board meeting were reviewed and approved. Last month the board discussed the quality of the coffee served during meetings, so board members have since worked together to ensure this was remedied. Members are encouraged to use the appropriate amount of coffee when brewing based on the size of each batch. A sign will be posted detailing the number of coffee bags needed for each batch size. Other items that carried over from the October meeting such as fellowship events and board elections will be noted in the following section of these meeting minutes.
5. New Business:
Timothy C. joined the board meeting as our guest to discuss taking over the Dry Sheet Coordinator position for RBA. He attends both AA and Al-Anon meetings and plans to encourage members of each to contribute articles to the monthly publication. Timothy will submit all content to the rbaalano@gmail.com around the 20th of each month for publication on our rbaaa.com website. The board approved this unanimously and we thanked him for volunteering.
Officer elections were held for the new 2021-2022 fiscal year. The board elected Norton L. to be our President, Roger B. as our Vice President, Jeff S. to the Treasure role, and Joe R. as Secretary. All four officers will transition off the board in 2022, so the remaining members should feel encouraged to learn the responsibilities for each position if they are interested in taking over next year.
Fellowship events were discussed. Bill M. and Cherisse K. provided a detailed accounting of the revenues and expenses from the annual picnic that was held during the summer of 2021. The Monday Night meeting attendees did a fantastic job of raising funds to cover the expenses and enough to kick off the event in the summer of 2022. The BBGH meeting also agreed to contribute some of the proceeds from the raffle to pay down the line of credit on the parking lot. Members liked having the picnic on a Saturday rather than on Sunday as was the tradition prior to 2021. Dana Jo then provided a recap of the Fall Festival; our members enjoyed the food, weather, and fellowship. The children’s Christmas party will be held outside again in 2021 due to health concerns.
Jim Barnes, our librarian, is interested in transitioning away from this position in coming weeks. For this reason, the board approved Doug R. taking over as librarian. Doug will work with Jim to learn our suppliers and the other details of the job. The board also agreed to assume oversight of the library and merge the bank account into our general fund. Doug will partner with our treasurer going forward to pay for inventory and account for the funds submitted to our library donation box. Board members expressed interest in expanding the variety of our library inventory, and they were encouraged to work with Doug to make this happen. We also plan to provide envelopes in the library to ensure club members are noting the purpose of their contributions to the library fund; this will help the librarian track and order inventory. The board then discussed asking the new librarian to take charge of adding members to the honorary mention plaque hanging on the wall by the library.
The Quale family’s donation of $1,000 was discussed. Rod and Lori generously offered to fund RBA’s hospitality suite at the Gopher State Roundup. This event was cancelled, and most of our expenditures were refunded to the club. Rod has given us permission to repurpose the funds towards paying off the parking lot, and we are grateful to him and his family for this!
The meeting was closed with The Lord’s Prayer at 8:16pm