Families with Children from China – Greater NY
Board Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Meeting
was conducted via conference call, convening at 6:30pm.
Board
members present: Marjorie Berman, Mary
Nealon, Tim Stoenner, Lily Cardlin, Judy Fiorini, Nicki Genovese, Deb Levine,
Ross Lewis, Mary Sellner
Others
present: FCC Advisory Council member
Barry Radick, Ruth Mullen
Absent:
Amanda Baden, Mark Maas, Timothy Helck
Opening business: Part-time Administrative Position Announced
- Board members feel that their available time for FCC business is increasingly
spent on administrative tasks. In
response, the Board is re-instituting the part-time paid administrative
position that had previously been filled by Cara Blouin. The job will include sitting in on Board
meetings, taking notes and distributing minutes once approved by the Board,
handling FCC email and voicemail, and drafting responses. This move will free board members to
concentrate on more substantive issues and the needs of the organization. The position was offered to Ruth Mullen who
accepted and is now serving in the position.
Upcoming Annual Board Meeting – The meeting will take place on Tuesday, March 31,
2009. The Board is still seeking a suitable
space. One possible option is at the
office of board member, Judy Fiorini, located in down by the South Street
Seaport, which may be inconvenient for FCC members interested in attending the
meting. It was agreed to issue a
Save-the-Date notice for the annual meeting now, with the location TBD, and inform
the membership of the location when one is secured. As in previous years, the general membership
will vote on Board members, the Board will then select its own officers from
among its members.
FCC Newsletter/Magazine -- FCC is moving forward on the combined FCCNY-FCCNE
newsletter. Mary Child will be editing
the newsletter, and recently posted requests on the listserv asking for book reviews
and other input from FCC parents. A
March deadline has been given for articles.
Miley Cyrus – Thanks to Board member Deb Levine for taking on
the task of coordinating FCCNY’s response to the Miley Cyrus “Chinese eyes” controversy. Deb’s personal letter-to-the-editor in the
Huffington Post received significant positive feedback. Deb also drafted a letter to Disney’s
Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations and to Ms. Cyrus’s agent at
PMK/HBH, which was approved via email and signed by the Board of
Directors. FCCNY will post the letter to
the listserv. The San Francisco branch
of FCC has asked if there is sentiment in favor of taking a stronger stance
against Disney. It is felt by the Board
that its letter was a suitable response and no further action is
necessary. Mary Nealon suggested the
Board follow up the letter with a phone call to the Disney Corporation. Although Disney does not usually respond to
these sorts of issues, board members feel an acknowledgement of some kind is appropriate. Any response on the part of Disney will be
posted to the listserv.
Reposting of FCC member emails – FCCNY does not have a formal policy regarding
whether members are allowed to forward listserv emails to others outside the
FCC community. Such a policy would be
difficult to enforce. However, it was
agreed to gently remind members to use care and good judgment when forwarding
listserv emails, with the understanding that other FCC members may not want
their views shared outside the organization.
Those submitting emails to the FCCNY listserv should also be aware that
any postings are in the public domain.
FCC Long Island – Recently the Long Island regional chapter of FCC
requested a rebate of a portion of their membership fees. After extensive board discussion of this
request, Marjorie Berman responded in writing to FCCLI. As of today’s board
meeting, we have not heard back from FCCLI. It was noted that FCCLI cancelled
their scheduled Lunar New Year event due to insufficient registration. Tim Stoenner, FCCNY Board Treasurer noted
that the event was budgeted at $7,000, but only $3,500 worth of tickets were
sold at the time FCCLI decided to cancel.
This decline in event activity is consistent with the decline in
membership renewals that FCCNY has seen, which may in part be due to overall
economic difficulties.
FCCNY Lunar New Year Celebration at
Queens Crossing - FCCNY had been
approached by the management of the Queens Crossing mall in Flushing offering
to host a Lunar New Year event for our membership. The event turned out to be a very successful
first collaboration for both FCCNY and Queens Crossing. Special thanks to Tim Stoenner, Kathy Urbina
and Nicki Genovese for their hard work. FCCNY had no financial liability as the
food and entertainment were provided by Queens Crossing.
Implementation
of Foreign Adoption Registration Legislation in New York State – The FCC
community is indebted to Tracy Schneider for her hard work regarding this
important legislation. Marjorie Berman has
additionally provided, via the listserv, appropriate links to the various
courts and forms involved.
China Sprout/FCCNY Sport Event -- Nicki Genovese reported that FCC has paired with China
Sprout to promote the Evening of Chinese Culture at the March 8th
New Jersey Nets home game, welcoming the new addition to the Nets team, Chinese
forward Yi JianLian. This looks like a
fun event and FCCNY hopes for good attendance.
Culture Day – A few people expressed some interest in
coordinating Culture Day 2009 in response to the email that was sent by the
Board. In discussing prospects for Culture Day this year, the Board decided that,
even though it might be possible to find an event leader, it was apparent that
FCCNY does not currently have the sufficient infrastructure of committee heads
and volunteers required to successfully bring about this labor-intensive event. At this point, FCCNY is anticipating reduced
membership and must plan accordingly. An
event such as Culture Day requires contractual financial commitments well in
advance of knowing how many will actually attend. The Board is aware that various regional
Lunar New Year events have been struggling with attendance. For these reasons, the Board has determined
that FCCNY will not be able to have Culture Day 2009. However, the door is open to holding a
Culture Day in 2010.
Chinese Culture camps – The possibility was raised of substituting a
culture camp experience for Culture Day.
Culture camps are typically held over weekends, and are fun family
experiences that are popular with FCC members.
FCC Dutchess County is already planning a culture camp. FCCNY will investigate the possibility of
supporting and contributing cultural resources to that event.
The Asian-American Legal Defense Fund
gala – Mary Sellner requested the
Board place in an ad in the organization’s gala program journal. It is the 35th anniversary of the
founding of the Asian-American Legal Defense Fund. Last year there were 1,000 people in
attendance at the gala. Marjorie Berman
made a motion that FCC place a $50 ad in the journal, the motion was seconded
and unanimously approved by the Board.
Membership Tiers for Regional FCC
branches -- The Central New York FCC
regional chapter is interested in benefiting from some limited aspects of
membership in FCCNY, such as event insurance, bookkeeping, and tax filings;
however, its local members for the most part are currently not part of FCCNY
and currently do not join and pay membership dues as they are too far away
geographically to take advantage of our member events. They are in a similar position to Rochester
FCC, which separated and formed its own 501C3 entity a few years ago. It might make sense to offer a secondary
membership to geographically distant regions, where we provide event insurance,
bookkeeping, tax filing and legal reporting as required by the Federal
government, and in exchange, receive a flat per-family fee from 100% of their
regional membership, and acquire their chapter’s membership data to add to our
database. Mary Nealon made a motion that
we offer a fractional membership for one year. Marjorie Berman seconded the
motion, adding that we offer this as a one-year temporary solution, April 2009
to April 2010, to be revisited next year.
This would give both FCCNY and Central NY FCC time to think through the
ramifications and determine whether this is an equitable and beneficial
solution. The motion was unanimously approved by the Board. It was noted that
permanent institution of such a tiered membership structure will require
amending the current by-laws.
The Regional Coordinators Packet has been amended to specify the terms under which a
region can request event-specific liability insurance, specifically that “a
majority of the FCC members at the event must be currently paid members of
FCCNY.”
On
a related note, some FCC members have proposed creating a lower-rate membership
category for those who have moved away from the New York area but still want to
stay connected, support FCC NY, and tap into our rich resource database. Tim Stoenner offered to prepare a list of
members who live outside the tri-state area, offering them a “subscription
membership” that would include the newsletter and access to listerv
emails. It was suggested that this issue
be discussed further at the annual meeting.
Approval of Minutes: Mary Nealon made a motion for the
approval of the following sets of board meeting minutes, which was seconded and
unanimously approved: Last year’s annual meeting on March 2, 2008, the November
11, 2008 board meeting and the December 16, 2008 board meeting. All three sets of minutes will be posted to
the FCCNY listserv and website.
The meeting adjourned at 8:40pm.
Respectfully
submitted by Mary Nealon, FCCNY Board Secretary
Families with Children from China of Greater New York
(FCCNY) connects,
sustains and celebrates families with children adopted from