The meeting was called to order at 6:38 p.m. by Zelda. Present were Zelda, Mary, Gretchen, Rebecca, Mark, Robert, Allan, Trampes and Shereen. Our guest was Mickey Teubner.
President’s Report
There will be no board meeting in December. We will be having more committee meetings. Zelda would like all the board members to be on at least one committee. Zelda spoke to Carmen Suminski about the Braille Trail. Carmen stated that she would be willing to help.
Secretary’s Report
Sympathy cards were sent to Renae Huseby on the death of her brother and to the family of Dick Veal.
Email decision made since the previous meeting are as follows:
Approval of October 4 board minutes, 10-9
Approval of financial institution for new checking account 10-30
Treasurer’s Report
The board welcomed Rebecca as the new treasurer of NDAB. A new account was set up at 1st International Bank and Trust. NDAB also has a mailbox set up at the West Fargo post office.
Development Director Report
If we are going to order T-shirts for the 2019 Giving Hearts Day, they need to be ordered by the end of November. Marketing plans need to be in the end of December. Matching funds need to be in the end of January. Larger match is the better. This will be mentioned in Lions’ letters and charitable gaming letters that will be mailed later this month.
Anthony Stevens, ACB Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs is leaving his position by November 14th. His replacement is not yet known.
Membership Report
The board approved one member application, Greg Falde of West Fargo. Mary will receive the 2019 renewal forms and dues and will deposit the checks at the 1st International Bank and Trust in Minot. We currently have 227 active members.
Web Director
Zelda, Rebecca, Gretchen, Mary and Robert all have NDAB Gmail e-mail accounts set up. The sender can send the message either to the office the person holds or their name @ndab.org. For example, to e-mail Zelda, the sender would type her address as zelda@ndab.org OR president@ndab.org. Robert will also be setting up a Gmail account for Allan.
Membership application form was completely rebuilt. This was because some parts were brittle and broke the destination for the form data was changed, and because there was a critical security vulnerability that needed fixing. Email from website, which has always been flakey now working properly. No longer relying on GoDaddy to route our mail. Going directly to our own services in Google. All the password protected areas that were made and never used have been removed. This is because the plugins it relied upon had not been updated in over 2 years and constituted a security threat. All these pages (no real content), and the password plugin have been removed. The *contact us’ page has been updated with ndab.org email addresses – so check your emails! New PO Box on contact us page and in the How to Pay Annual Membership section of membership confirmation page. November Promoter is up. Still have board meeting minutes to do.
Douglas Tschetter has started work on the website. He is doing the foundation work.
We need to get serious about what bits we want to rewrite.
Legislative Report
Legislative Training November 7, 8 and 9. Disability Legislative Seminar is scheduled for Feb. 24, 25 and 26, 2019. Trampes made a motion to approve funds for a 3rd person to attend. Shereen seconded. MSC.
2019 State Convention
Everything is moving forward. There was discussion whether we should have another statewide raffle. Trampes will do research on obtaining a license. Will be addressed at a later date.
Sports and Rec
Cole Roberts went to the NDSB to help with recreation during a junior high week. Everyone involved enjoyed it. We have had some issues with our dartboard. It has had to be repaired a couple of times. There have been no charges for the repairs or shipping. Hopefully, the issue is only loose wires which have now been resoldered. Cole has inquired about reaching out to the universities in the state about offering a class in goalball or in combination with other adaptive sports and recreation. Cole has done research about UC-Berkley. They offer a goalball class not for credit but as more of an enrichment class. Cole would like to explore the possibility further and incorporate education and advocacy.
Unfinished Business
Allan attended the Lions State Convention. NDAB had a booth at the event.
Gretchen reported that by the time paperwork got turned in to the Optometric Association, they had no more openings for their convention. They will keep us on the list for next year.
Philmore voice mail can have information in different boxes recorded via phone or downloaded MP3 files. We need a volunteer who would be interested in helping get it set up. Doug Stip is willing to read the material. The Communication committee will decide what is on the different boxes. The program is on a month to month basis, so we can start when we have decided on the content.
New Business
2018 Review Report
The list of assets needs to be updated. Allan made a motion to list anything valued over $100. Rebecca amended the motion to include the year it was acquired. Robert 2nd. MSC.
Insurance Policy Review
Currently our general liability policy is through Starion. They have several different insurance companies they work with. Our policy is with Auto Owners. We have a general liability with employee dishonesty clause. Gretchen had her agent look at the policy. He felt everything was covered and said that it was up to the organization if we took any coverage out for board members or other individuals who are traveling. Allan and Zelda are also having agents review our policy to make sure we have coverage sufficient to protect our assets.
E-mail Decision Policy
Zelda recommended we consider a policy for making board decisions by e-mail between board meetings. The proposal was as follows:
Step 1: Call to action or issue is presented by member of executive board.
Step 2: Discussion period lasting 3 days begins.
Step 3: On day 3, a written motion is to be made and seconded or issue is dropped. If motion is seconded, a voting period begins and lasts at least 3 days or until all board members have voted.
Step 4: Announcement of results is made by the president and the secretary records the motion and the results of the vote so it will appear within the minutes of the next meeting
Mary made a motion to accept the policy, Robert 2nd. MSC.
Approval of Treasurer’s Manual Revision
A copy of the revised treasurer’s manual was sent out to the board for approval. Mary made a motion to approve the manual. Allan 2nd. MSC.
Code of Conduct Review
A copy of the code of conduct was sent to the board to review. No changes have been made. Mark made a motion to approve the code of conduct as written. Mary 2nd. MSC.
Volunteer Hours
Previously the board had discussed members keeping track of their volunteer hours. Gretchen has done some research on programs that we can use. She will send information out to the board. This will be on the January meeting agenda.
Digital Picture Board
The board had also discussed acquiring a means of displaying digital pictures at NDAB displays and presentations. Gretchen has done research on this and will be sending the information to the board before the January board meeting to be considered at that time.
Booth at Kirkwood Mall
In past years Genie and Gretchen have had informational booths at Kirkwood Mall during state basketball tournaments. Gretchen asked the board if we are interested in doing this again in 2019. She will find out more information from the mall as to cost and the board will consider this at our next meeting.
Announcements:
Just Talking is on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. The next one will be Tuesday, Nov. 20th at 7 PM. The topic is Giving Thanks. Who or what are you thankful for?
Does an attitude of gratitude make you happier?
Disability Awareness Day hosted by the North Dakota Disabilities Advocacy Consortium is scheduled for Thursday, January 31 from 9-3 at the Capitol.
Next board meeting will be January 6th, 2019 at 6:30 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Gretchen Campbell, Secretary