Time: Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 6:30pm

Place: Krantz & Berman – 747 Third Avenue (46 – 47^th St) 32^nd Floor

In attendance: Marjorie Berman, Acting President, Mary Nealon, secretary, Tim Stoenner, treasurer, Amanda Baden, Lily Cardlin, Deb Levine, Ross Lewis, Mark Maas, Barry Radick, Ruth Mullen, Culture Day Chair.

Absent: Dorothy Crenshaw, Hollee McGinnis, Mary Sellner

GENERAL BUSINESS

Treasurer’s Report: Robert Murphy, P.C., Certified Public Accountants completed the audit for the fiscal year that ended October 31, 2007 in accordance with IRS requirements for not-for-profit 501(c)3 organizations. The final audit will be available on FCCNY’s website this month. In accordance with generally accepted practices, Robert Murphy, P.C also examined the organization’s internal controls making the following recommendations for improvement.

To better improve fiscal controls, Murphy, P.C. recommended that FCCNY make certain changes in the distribution of financial duties among board members and the outside bookkeeper. Because FCCNY is a fully volunteer organization, financial duties customarily performed by multiple paid personnel in other entities are performed largely by one board member, FCCNY’s treasurer. This year with the addition of recent board members, FCCNY will be able to better segregate the duties among different board members, improving our system of checks and balances..

FCCNY currently solicits donations allowing donors to specify a project in which to allocate their donation. The written brochure indicates that donations will go where needed most and if possible to the donor selected program. Murphy, P.C. recommended that this same disclaimer should also appear on any web solicitations, which we will do going forward.

Murphy, P.C. made recommendations for improving oversight and accounting for expenditures by regions. At the upcoming regional coordinator’s event, FCCNY’s treasurer will discuss what is needed going forward. The FCCNY Board has full confidence that the regions will be able to provide what’s needed, as they have consistently fulfilled requests in the past.

The FCCNY Board of Directors greatly appreciates the recommendations made by Robert Murphy, P.C. and will endeavor to implement the suggested changes, in order to continue to improve the business operation of the organization.

Orphanage Assistance 2008 Fundraising Appeal: The treasurer reported that so far, almost $95,000 has been raised in response to the 2008 Orphanage Assistance Appeal that was sent via mail and email in December 2008. Contributions continue to arrive and are most appreciated.

Board recruitment: We received applications from five candidates. The deadline for submission was December 31, 2007. Board member Mark Maas, will coordinate setting up interviews with the applicants. Marjorie Berman, Mary Nealon, Amanda Baden and Barry Radick also volunteered to participate in the interviews. We would like present new board to the membership at the Annual Meeting on March 2, 2008.

FCCNY’s Annual Board Meeting will occur on Sunday, March 2^nd 2008 from noon-3pm. It will be open to the public. Details will be posted on the website and emailed to the list serve. All are welcome.

EVENTS UPDATES

Lunar New Year’s Festivities: Board member, Ross Lewis, is coordinating with MoCA and event organizers for FCCNY to have a table at the Flower Market in Chinatown, which takes place from February 2-4, 2008. FCC-NY is excited to have a presence at Chinatown’s Flower Market as part of our outreach initiative to Chinese communities and organizations in the Greater New York area. To commemorate the Year of the Rat, t-shirts, tote bags and aprons with artwork by Ross Lewis and design by Peter Herbert, both FCC parents, will be available at the Flower Market. This year’s playful Year of the Rat design is the fifth in the Chinese zodiac series by Ross and Peter on behalf of FCC. Ross will send out an email to members asking for volunteers to help run the table. Net proceeds will go to FCCNY Orphanage Assistance fundraising effort.

FCC regional holiday parties are thriving in Westchester, Long Island and elsewhere thanks to the hard work of volunteers in those chapters. Board member, Deb Levine, announced that the Brooklyn Lunar New Year banquet is back! Details will be posted on the website and emailed to the list serve.

The 2^nd FCC Travel Fair and Forum took place on Saturday, January 5^th, 2008 at St. John’s University in Manhattan, and was a huge success. More than 200 persons attended – an increase from last year. Again this year, attendees heard from parents who recently visited China with their children and some of the travel agencies offering a variety of packages for travel. In addition, this year’s program included a screening of the new documentary “Found in China”, a workshop with Dr, Jane Aronson, and a panel discussion titled “Resources to help your child grow and thrive in their new home.”

Regional Coordinators Event will take place on Sunday, January 27^th at Packer Collegiate School in Brooklyn, at the same time as the Jane Brown playshops. Twenty-three people have registered to date. The program will include a smartboard presentation on the many resources available on the FCCNY and FCCGNY websites, fundraising (use of FCCNY’s tax identification status), regional accounting and insurance procedures for regional events. Ruth Mullen will talk about ways FCCNY can facilitate regional volunteer participation and attendance at Culture Day. FCCNY Board member, Amanda Baden, will also facilitate a talk about how FCCNY can better partner with regions to create programs that are relevant and meaningful to the complicated issues of race, adoption and identity that our children face, as well as the challenges of parenting that we encounter.

CULTURE DAY 2008 will take place May 17, 2008 at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ. SAVE-THE DATE! Questions? Want to help? Contact Ruth Mullen at ramullen@optonline.net. Ruth Mullen, Chair of Culture Day, and the Board discussed plans for this year’s upcoming event. The Board reiterated its commitment to the importance of this event as the largest regional gathering of the Greater New York members and all that it offers our families. An on-line survey of our members about Culture Day largely confirmed that the venue, Liberty State Park, is a good place for the event. It is accessible via public transportation and via cars, as well as being accessible for the disabled. For those members who were unable to attend, the June date was one of the more reported reasons for lack of attendance, hence the selection of May 17^th as the date for this year’s event. The Board discussed the costs of this event and reaffirmed that we do not seek to make money for FCCNY through Culture Day. Given the location and magnitude of the event, it is costly. We have never lost money on Culture Day and so long as we continue to break even, the vast benefits of Culture Day continue to outweigh its expense.

For the last few years, Acting President, Marjorie Berman, has chaired the Sponsorship Committee of Culture Day. This committee has coordinated the raffle sales and gift donations, vendors, table sponsors and program advertising. Given her many increased responsibilities as acting President, Marjorie is unable to chair this year’s Sponsorship committee. The board discussed ways to involve new volunteers in this work, which is a wonderful way to get to know FCCNY, and the many people and organization that support us. Anyone interested in talking with Marjorie about volunteering for this committee can email Marjorie at mbermanlaw@aol.com.

Chinese Adoptees Link (CAL) Grant: Tim Stoenner talked with the Board about the work of this new organization, launched by Jennifer Bao Yu “Precious Jade” Jue-Steuck. Jennifer is a young adult adoptee and U.C. Berkeley PhD student., who created this organization to create links among Chinese adoptees around the world via a pen pal program among tweens/teens. Jennifer spoke at last year’s Culture Day where 21 of our teen/tweens signed up for the CAL Pen Pal program. CAL submitted a proposal to the FCCNY Board seeking a grant of $500.00 towards program operational costs of more than $2,000 (in photocopies, letters, postage, travel to sites for interviews – which are necessary for everyone’s safety and security – as well as long distance phone charges). Participation in the program is free. Tim Stoenner made a motion to approve the $500,00 grant second by Marjorie Berman. The motion was unanimously approved, in support of this worthy new organization and program.

FCCNY Newsletter update: Marjorie Berman briefly updated the Board with regard to the timeline of the newsletter. With Mary Child’s recent departure to Hong Kong, Jana Karam volunteered to be the new editor. The next issue will focus on foster care. Jana and her small group of volunteers are working to get the newsletter out. Certain personal matters have prevented the newsletter from maintaining its production schedule and it is hoped that as soon as these pass the newsletter will be back on track.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:50pm.