Families with Children from
Board Meeting
Present:
Marjorie Berman, Mary Nealon, Tim Stoenner, Lily Cardlin, Judith Fiorini, Nicki
Genovese, Timothy Helck, Deb Levine, Mark Maas, Mary Sellner
Absent:
Amanda Baden, Ross Lewis
Opening
Business: Dorothy
Crenshaw submitted an email to Marjorie Berman, FCCNY Board President, offering
her resignation as a board member. The
Board of Directors, effective today, accepted Dorothy’s resignation.
Events:
Regional Coordinator’s Event scheduled for
Marjorie
Berman suggested that we should establish a calendar of events now for 2008-09
for some of the ongoing events sponsored by FCC-NY such as the Travel Fair,
Culture Day and regional coordinator get-togethers.
Culture Day scheduled for
A
question was raised from a few members about whether FCCNY has a position on
the Beijing Olympics and the situation in
Based on a discussion among board members present at this meeting,
there was a general feeling that we are not a political organization and not in
a position to take positions on political issues unrelated to adoption.
Treasurer’s update:
Culture
Day income to-date – vendor sponsorships are about two thirds of what they were
last year at this time. Also, attendance
sales are slightly less than last year so far because membership has been down
about 20% of where we were last year at this time. We are estimating a net loss of about $20,000
on Culture Day this year. In the best of
years, we’ve made a maximum of $10,000 on CD.
This event is costly to produce and while we do not do it with the
intention of making money ideally we’d like to break even. However attendance at CD is tied to membership
income and this year’s annual memberships are also down by 20% at this time of
the year, compared to last year.
At
CD, FCCNY had had a booth each year selling books & other adoption-related
resources to our membership. In the
past, a book vendor, Baker & Taylor has provided the books on
consignment. Apparently they have a cap
on the books we may return on consignment, which we may have exceeded. Therefore, we may need to limit the amount
of books we order this year.
While
we are encountering some financial and logistical problems, the board continued
its commitment to CD this year as those members who responded to last year’s
survey were overwhelmingly positive about continuing CD as a signature event.
The
following ideas were discussed as ways to encourage greater attendance at CD:
A current member may bring a child’s friend (both under 17) who is not
a member of FCC for free. The board
voted unanimously in favor of this proposal.
Senior (> 65 yr) discount – bring a grandparent
to CD, still under consideration
Good news: A delegation on
non-governmental officials from
Newsletter update: Mary Child was editor of
FCCNY’s newsletter for the last 5 to 6 years.
Mary Child resigned from this position because she and her family
relocated to
The
Board discussed the possibility that we may need to outsource the newsletter
because it is a critical communication vehicle with our membership. A professional editor who produces
newsletters for other not-for-profits looked at our newsletters and was blown
away by the detail, content and quality.
He is recommending other professional colleagues who will hopefully have
availability and whose fees are more affordable for FCCNY.
Board
members also suggested posting a notice to the list serve to see if there
anyone else with newsletter production skills is interested in taking this on
and that a small stipend may be available.
Chapter formation; Does FCCNY’S charter allow
us to do educational work such as to establishing a school and delivering
ongoing services? Board member, Judith
Fiorini, who is an attorney, offered to check this in FCCNY’s by-laws.
Any
group of people within a region can request to form a chapter if they have a
minimum of ten members in that region with specific zip codes who want to join
together, provided there is not already an existing chapter whose membership
includes those zip codes.
The
question came up from a chapter member, what can a member within a chapter do
if he/she has a need or idea that others in the chapter do not want to pursue?
Like any group of individuals, adoptive families within chapters vary greatly on their interests and needs. One such example is that members within chapter differ about outreach to and relations with other Chinese-American communities and organizations. Chapters vary on their thinking about this, as do individual members.
Kristine Kerchiara of Westchester FCC conducted a survey of its
membership, posing the question “Should FCC forge relations with the
FCCNY does not take a position about the degree to
which chapters should or should not forge relationships with other
organizations or entities. Such
decisions are within the province of a chapter.
FCCNY does not have authority to force regions unless they are doing
something contrary to the mission statement.
Membership Communication: FCCNY will try to send out a
monthly communication from the board president, as another way to maintain
communication with our members. In those
communications, we can communicate information about the questions that come
from members of FCCNY as well as from our regional chapters. Some topics might include information about
how chapters are formed, policies and procedures for hosting events, policies
about advocacy related to adoption and fostering relationships with other
constituencies.
Meeting
adjourned at
Next
meeting is scheduled for