Minutes: 16 January 2022

Saturday, July 16^th, 2022

The business meeting was held at Signature Lanes, Elkhart Ind. The meeting started at 4 PM and the meeting was opened in due form by President K Holmes.

President K Holmes gave the opening (and closing) prayer.

President K Holmes declared the business session open.

1. Roll call of Officers: Completed by Secretary Jeff Schrock.
2. Reading of Membership Applications: No Report(s)
3. Reading of the minutes: Secretary J Schrock read (emailed) the minutes from the last meeting, and asked if there were any corrections or amendments. Seeing none E. Dir S Holmes made a motion to accept the minutes as read. V.P. F Schlorke seconded the motion and the motion passed.
4. Treasurers Report: H/R Dir J Schrock made a motion to suspend the reading of the income/expenses. E Dir S Holmes seconded the motion, and the motion passed.
5. Bills: E Dir S Holmes made a motion to suspend the reading of the bills.  Media Coord L Zeugner seconded the motion, and the motion passed.

Unfinished Business: 1) President K Holmes brought up the fundraising dinner. Venues were brought up. Each Board Member had been asked to check on a couple and report their findings. Secretary J Schrock: Peddlers Village; pending the date we could get it. There is a possibility of renting for the cheap – a slight possibility of free. A large parking lot is there, and the hall is very big. However, there is NO kitchen. This will not suit our needs. Spohn Building; He is playing phone-tag w/their rep. No news on this facility. Another suggestion, that he had not checked on, was the Big Red Barn; They have a huge parking lot, and untold spaces available inside. He didn’t know though, if space would be donated or not and how clean the kitchen area(s) would be; as it’s been mostly vacant for some time now. Media Coord L Zeugner. Goshen Theatre; there are two (2) rooms available. 151 and 181 people respectively. Very limited parking as its downtown Goshen. Bread and Chocolate; There is NO outside catering. Elkhart Co Fairgrounds; They have a huge parking lot, a very large hall, which can be cut in half if needed. There is a small kitchen area though. Price (or donation of hall) is unknown at this time. E. Dir S Holmes. 530; Downtown Elkhart, is very nice; but it has limited parking. RV Hall of Fame; This is on the East side of Elkhart. Do we want people to travel this far? It is owned by LCI, and having Toby Crowley as a POC (point of contact), we might be able to get them to donate this. V.P. F Schlorke, Nelson’s in Wakarusa; or Del-Mar Catering (and hall) in Nappanee; these were suggestions, and no information is available at this time. 2) President K Holmes reviewed everyone’s opinions on keeping Tony Allberry as food prep, or do we want to get someone else. It was unanimously decided to keep with the people who helped get us started. 3) E. Dir S Holmes brought up a couple items for review. A) Did we get Ana Schue paid/reimbursed? Secretary J Schrock reported that Treasurer A O’Toole was supposed to stop by the VFW and drop a check off this last Monday or Tuesday. He wasn’t sure if that happened or not. B) Did Secretary J Schrock ever get his stamper back/found? No, he did not. 4) President K Holmes brought up the weekend (date for our fundraising dinner). This year it coincided with high school graduations. Do we want to change the date? It was decided to move the date next year, to Saturday, May 20^th 2023. 5) E Dir S Holmes brought up corporate sponsors. In the letter sent to them, we should ask if they plan on attending. This year, several businesses bought a table, but nobody showed up. If they don’t plan on attending, we ask very nicely, could we donate their table to others. 6) Since we’re moving the date up two (2) weeks, we need to move the mailings up two (2) weeks too. 7) E Dir S Holmes brought up our goal for this coming fundraising dinner. President K Holmes reminded the group that the Martial Arts program had been the benefactor of previous dinners, and this year it was the bike program. During a lengthy discussion, it was decided to use our “brick and mortar” building as the goal. Various types of land, amount of land, and building were discussed. It was thought that deciding on all the above, would wait until we were closer to our actual (money) goal. The goal for next year’s fundraiser was set at $10,000. 8) V.P. F Schlorke brought up underwriters for next years dinner. One of our oldest clients and supporters, had suggested that FSO shouldn’t have to lay out any money for these dinners. All costs should be paid for by sponsorship. This discussion lasted awhile.

New Business: 1) President K Holmes brought up grants. One (1) of the things they ask about is statistics on how and who we help. During the lengthy discussion, it was noted that while we perform a lot of assistance, we have been lacking on documenting it. We need to go back, and compile the data and start/maintain a file just for this purpose. 2) Secretary J Schrock brought up two (2) things. We have been offered a motorized wheelchair and a hospital bed (minus the mattress). Do we want these, do we have a place to store these, do we currently know of a vet who would need either? At this point in time, the answer to all; is no. President K Holmes mentioned Michiana Wheelchair.org as a possible donation of these. 3) President K Holmes announced that he thought we (FSO) should be using One-Drive. Its cloud based, thus all BoD’s could access anything on it, anytime from home, etc. Storage of FSO data could be uploaded from any Board Member and accessed by any Board Member (with an issued password). This would cost $5 per month, per user. Something like Board Minutes could be accessed by anyone, but individual folders could not (without the owner of said folder giving them access/password) to that folder. This was made as a motion by E Dir S Holmes. The motion was seconded by Media Coord L Zeugner. The motion passed. 4) President K Holmes asked the BoD what they thought of sponsoring a Little League team next year. FSO would get a banner and the team would get uniforms (FSO t-shirts). The cost would be $600. Everyone thought this would be a great idea. Media Coord L Zeugner made the above as a motion. E Dir S Holmes seconded the motion, and the motion passed.

Good of the Order: Media Coord L Zeugner suggested FSO contact Kevin Deary from the Goshen Boys/Girls Club. He is going to retire, and he might have suggestions on how to help FSO regarding Board Development and Strategic Planning.

Next Meeting: Saturday, 20 Aug, 3 PM, at Signature Lanes in Elkhart.

President K Holmes asked if there was any further business. Seeing none, H/R Dir J Schrock made a motion to adjourn the meeting and V.P. F Schlorke seconded the motion. The motion passed.

President K Holmes gave the closing prayer and the meeting was adjourned.

J Schrock

Secretary