Board Minutes March 19, 2017

OREGON POETRY ASSOCIATION BOARD MEETING….Sunday, March 19, 2017

(phone conference participants: Dorothy, Tiel, Joy, Susan, Dick, Lisa, Shirley, Lynn.)

 

The board enjoyed sharing poems by email when our meeting agenda came out.

 

Student Contest: OPA did not receive approval for use of the state capitol building for the Cascadia Student Contest award ceremony. Charles Jordan Community Center in Portland is our alternate site for Saturday, April 29, 2017. Rental time is 12:30 – 3:30 pm, ceremony is from 1 – 3 pm. Invitations will go out this week. Cost to OPA is $90 rental and a $100 deposit, which is refundable.

 

Cascadia production starts soon. OPA is waiting on notification from NFSPS of any Manningham winners. Charlotte Abernathy will be asked about using her art for the cover.

 

Collins funding did not come through for the student contest. A proposal was made to utilize a portion of the Pat Banta bequest for this year’s Cascadia contest if no other funding is forthcoming. A request to the Juan Young Trust will be submitted by March 31 including funding for this year’s ceremony as a kick off for next year’s contest.

 

The Pat Banta bequest will be in the neighborhood of $15-18,000. There are small snags in settling the estate. The attorney for the estate is hoping to settle by the end of March. Delay would impact funding for the fall OPA conference and other OPA functions if no other funding is forthcoming for this year’s student contest. OPA will continue to pursue grants to fund student contests in the future.

 

Inquires will be made about investing the Pat Banta bequest. Board members felt a significant portion should be held in reserve and only the interest used for annual OPA operations. Investment and allocation ideas will be discussed at future board meetings. OPA is planning a recognition opportunity for the late Pat Banta’s generosity at the Fall OPA conference.

 

Oregon Conversation Project: Springfield Library offered to host a session on Tuesday, June 27. The presenter prefers Thursday, June 29th. Details are coming together. Josephine Community Library has agreed to host a session in July. Details to come. The libraries will help with advertising. Jason Graham, a poet, will be the speaker for all sessions. The deadline for OPA’s application to Oregon Humanities with our proposed dates is March 31, 2017.

 

The board noted that keeping track of volunteer hours is important for use as in-kind on grant applications. A trial Google tracking document has been set up. We can all access this site.

 

Susan is leaving the membership chair position. She will train her successor. Notices were to go out for those with dues past due. Confusion resulted in a mailing to all members. The dues reminder does not currently have a link in the PDF to pay dues. OPA has 200 members, approximately 100 less members than last year.

 

OPA is seeking a membership chair and someone to fill a vacant board position. We will insert a notice soliciting volunteers for these positions in the upcoming newsletter. Volunteers for the adult contest chair and book reviewer positions have been located.

 

A newsletter will be emailed out within two weeks. Bios of new board members will be included.

 

Information is being compiled about mailing targets outside OPA membership for soliciting conference workshops and conference participants.

 

Continuity planning has not been a strong point for OPA. The unfilled position of historian keeps institutional memory to assist the board. More effort is being made to use the website to record information instead of having paper records scattered across the state. Several reference documents are available on the OPA website.

 

The board briefly discussed the wisdom of maintaining a nine member board number.

 

The next meeting of the OPA board will be Saturday, April 15, 9-12 PM. Dorothy will be absent.

 

Meeting adjourned at 3:15 PM.

 

Respectfully submitted, Joy McDowell, OPA Board Secretary

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