MINUTES – BOARD MEETING
FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 2005
PENN STATE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION GREATER JACKSONVILLE CHAPTER

PRESENT: Josiah Pritchard, President, Jodie Davis, Vice President/Social Chair, Danielle Howard, Secretary, Bob Streightiff, Treasurer, Richard Holtz, Athletic Events Chair, Judie Crabb, Volunteer Chair and Bill Dusack, Immediate Past President.

ALSO PRESENT: Megan Davis, future Penn Stater

The meeting was called to order at 6:08 pm by Josiah Pritchard, President.

The meeting commenced with a tour of the Glen Kernan Golf and Country club, prospective site for the Spring Banquet.

The minutes of the November 3rd meeting were approved electronically 7-0.

President’s Report – Josiah brought up the spring banquet. The board looked over the menus provided by Glen Kernan and general discussion ensued. Bob remarked that he would not be able to make the banquet on the 12th and that it would be the third one he missed. It was decided to see if Glen Kernan had March 19th available. The board decided to limit the cost to a $30 buffet including tax and tip. It was agreed that the chapter would pick up the cost of a bartender and/or server/carver and not pass that onto the membership. Glen Kernan does not charge a room rental fee or a fee for the podium and mike. It was discussed promoting the banquet as a first come first serve event due to limited space (Glen Kernan can seat 50 – 60 in the dining room comfortably which should be good for our size group.) It was discussed offering members who pay their dues early, at the Spring Banquet, an opportunity to win a special chance in a raffle. Members who are already paid in advance will also get a chance in the raffle to be fair. Discussion turned to getting a speaker for the Spring Banquet. Josiah said he was working on a speaker and that he would talk to Walter Conti who’s son is the manager of the Nittany Lion Inn.

Vice President’s Report – Jodie reported she updated the dining with the lions on the web site.

Volunteer Chair Report – A canned food drive was mentioned. Bill brought up that canned food drives are old hat and not effective. Rich brought up the PBS auction as a possible volunteer program. Josiah mentioned that we should solicit the membership for ideas on how they want to volunteer. The board will endeavor to come up with a list of volunteer options and present them to the membership at the spring meeting. We will put a survey out on the tables and on the web-site to allow all active members to vote on how they would like to participate.

Secretary’s Report – Danielle brought up it is time for another newsletter. In order to get the mailing out before the Spring Banquet the newsletter will need to be mailed no later than March 1st. February 21st was set as the deadline for articles for the newsletter. Danielle will also look into putting a hit counter on the web-site.

Social Chair Report– Jodie reported that for our dining with the lions series this winter we will be spelling out B-BALL and the restaurants will have an international theme. She reported that we had to postpone the bowling due the Steelers’ playoff game and that we would try to reschedule it for sometime in the summer. Judie brought up trying to do one of the dinners at MacKenzie’s. Jodie also reported that Gary has been assigned to Detroit and they will be leaving sometime in the summer.

Treasurer’s Report – Bob reported that the chapter has $3,982.76 in our account as of December 31, 2004.

Athletics Chair – Rich reported that all is quiet on the athletics front now. He reported he attended the women’s gymnastics meet in Gainesville and there were some Penn State fans there. He reported that he worked three college fairs this year and that several students recruited at the fairs applied to Penn State. He reported that there are 12 students from the area enrolled at Penn State.

New Business – Officer and Chair vacancies and succession planning. This is an important issue especially since our VP and Social Chair will be leaving in the summer. We need to get more people to at least serve on committees or the current board will become overburdened and the entire chapter will suffer. Danielle mentioned that she was willing to restructure some of her duties, etc. She would be willing to take on the web-site if a new Secretary to do the minutes was found, etc. Danielle will do an article in the Newsletter to this extent. The chapter will look at adding check boxes to the membership application form. We should also look at putting a piece of paper with open officer and chair positions at each seat at the Spring Banquet.

The next board meeting was set for February 21st at 6:30 PM at Josiah’s house. An agenda will be sent closer to the meeting date.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:00 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Danielle C. Howard Secretary