Hi everyone,
I talked to Mandy and she told me to go ahead and post the minutes from May and we'll be talking about emailing minutes to members at the next meeting. Joni

 

MAY BUSINESS MEETING MINUTES:
 
MIP MAY MINUTES:
 
Chair opened with the Serenity Prayer,
 
1st on agenda was Secretary report: Due to a member stepping down as group secretary, Chair presented the Minutes from the April 6, 2008 Business meeting which were approved as written.

 

Next item discussed was the Secretary position: Mandy123 informed those present that a member, whom had been elected to fill the secretary position at the April meeting, had informed her she was unable to fulfill that commitment.

 

Chair opened the floor to nominations for a replacement.

 

Jonibaloni21 was nominated, accepted the nomination and was voted in by the group.

 

op_present gave a description of what a secretaries typical duties might include in addition to keeping the minutes for the business meetings. Those duties included: chairing business meetings in the absence of the chairperson, informing the group of group related activities, meeting/schedule changes, participating in organization of special events.

 

Next item discussed was treasurers report.

The treasurer was unable to get into the meeting to give the report.

 

Mandy asked op_present if he could give an update as to the groups financial status.

 

op_present stated that in the last 4 months the group had only received one $20 donation.

He informed the group that anyone wishing to make a donation to help with the costs associated with running the MIP website could make donations via Paypal, by sending a voluntary contribution to mip@12stepforums.net. John emphasized that this is strictly a voluntary action (giving a donation) and that he is not soliciting funds.

 

A member asked if there was an easier (less technical) way of donating, for instance a mailing address that a check could be mailed to.

 

At this point op_present explained why the links to make donations from the web site had been removed. He explained that the North Carolina dept of treasury had contacted him informing him that they had been told that he was soliciting funds from the "general public" with a license or certificate to do so. Op_present explained to the DOT that he was not targeting the general public, but specifically group members, who voluntarily support their own group without a license or certificate to do so. To keep within the guidelines of this states laws, op_present removed the links, and is discussing how to make sure that only those affiliated with MIP are able to make contributions... so someone doesn't think its just an open market for contribution freebies here

 

A member asked what the operating expenses were for MIP.

 

A member also agreed it would be nice to have an easier way to make contributions..perhaps a P.O. Box. If John doesnt have one, perhaps MIP could pay to get him one out of operating budget.

 

Op_present stated the general expenses of this room, the groups message board, and other mip related features are about 60.00 per month, any surplus of funds, would be allocated to the WSO... keeping only a 2-3 month purdent reserve for future month expenses.

 

In regards to the P.O. Box suggestion, op_present said he would look into one soon.

 

A member asked about getting a non-profit group status for MIP.

 

op_present replied the costs associated with getting this done was not economically viable for the group.

 

Next on agenda was addressing Saya and Channelkeeper's presence in the room:
Chair dispelled rumors that the room was in danger of being shut down due to op_present not being in the room for 28 days. In speaking with Saya, who is an administrator of the server the chat room resides on, she was informed that only the groups registration was in danger of lapsing, this would not cause the room to be unavailable however.

 

op_present was asked to comment on the presence of Saya in the room..his opinion was that it was a good thing. That as an administrator of the server, they could help to protect the room from disruptive persons at a level beyond the ability of himself or room ops. He stated that the relationship with Saya and Channelkeeper should be nurtured.

 

New Item of Business: op_present mentioned that by posting the minutes from the business meetings on the bulletin board where it was viewable by the general public that we were compromising the groups confidentiality.

 

op_present offered to show the groups secretary how to send out a mass email to all 4000+ registered members of the group so that the meeting minutes could be emailed to each registered member rather that posted on the board for the general public to view.

 

A member reminded the group that the decision to post the minutes on the board was made by a prior group consciousness decision and would require another such decision to stop this process and utilize the mass mailing idea exclusively. It was suggested this be put on next months meeting agenda.

 

With time expiring for the meeting, Mandy closed the meeting with the Al-Anon Declaration.

 

Next meeting: June 1, 2008

These minutes were taken by David62 and sent to jonibaloni21 who is grateful to David62 for volunteering to take them this month.
 

-- Edited by tea2 at 15:24, 2008-05-29