VERMONT HONDURAL PARTNERS OF THE AMERICAS

VERMONT CHAPTER BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING MINUTES

November 11, 2002

4:45-6:30pm

Bio-Research Center

Present: Amanda Amend (Guest of Vicki Torsch from St. Michael’s College), Dan Baker, Lyn Carew, Michele Cranwell, Thomas Desisto, Betty Anne Dowe, Meaghan Murphy, Tom Plumb, Fred Schmidt, Vicki Torsch.

Meeting called to order at 4:45 by Vice President, Fred Schmidt

1. Introductions - The Board of Trustees introduced themselves and briefly discussed highlights of recent events related to POA. Amanda Amend was invited to the meeting by Vicki Torsch. She is a Spanish teacher at St. Michael’s College and has lived in Spain and traveled in Central America. She is interested in making a donation to the Honduran Girls Transportation Fund and learning more about POA.

2. Agenda and Minutes - Fred Schmidt passed around the agenda for the meeting. He also passed around a copy of the meeting minutes from June 2002 meeting. No one had any objections to the agenda or content of the meeting minutes as presented.

3. Treasurer’s Report - Betty-Anne Dowe distributed a treasurers report, which is attached to the official minutes. Daniel Baker has recently been elected at the Treasurer of the Vermont Chapter and he, Bill, and Betty Anne will work to transition the job over to him. The Vermont Chapter deeply thanks Betty Anne for all of her good work as Treasurer since about 1996!!

· Dan asked if $9,000 of the Money Market fund has been earmarked for Farmer to Farmer (FTF) projects. No one could answer with certainty, thus Bill Kelly will be consulted.

· Fred stated that at this meeting, there will be four proposals discussed for Vermont Chapter funding from the Money Market account. The Chapter needs to put together a policy for handling funding requests as well as a fundraising plan to rebuild the treasury over time.

4. Committee and Individual Reports

1. Honduran Poet Presentation at UVM - Bill Mieirs hosted an evening presentation by a Honduran Poet, Roberto Sosa on November 5, 2002. Helen Wag translated the Spanish poetry into English. The Vermont Chapter donated approximately $100 for reception costs. Board members reported that around 75 people attended the event and it was well done. They were not sure of media coverage as it was election day.

2. Honduran Girls Project - Carolyn Cruikshank will be traveling to Honduras in December 2002 to work on the Honduran Girls Project. She will be organizing the annual seminar/conference that the girls, teachers, and parents attend as part of the project. Several questions relating to the Honduran Girls Project were raised by Board members. The Board would like to meet with Carolyn when she returns to hear about her trip report and discuss project sustainability. These questions include:

· Should the Honduran Girls Project be moved into the Education Committee or should this remain an “affiliate” project?

· Does the project still need sponsors for girls? What is the current funding status, such as where do funds come from, how do they reach Honduras, and are they reported in the Vermont Chapter treasury? If they are not reported, do they need to be reported for accountability purposes?

· What kind of fundraising is needed? Such as the transportation fundraising initiative?

· Is there a specific Honduran Chapter representative for the Honduran Girls Project?

· What should be done for long term sustainability of the project?

Vicki Torsch and Michele Cranwell discussed that they have developed several types of fliers for raising money for the Honduran Girls Fund, earmarked for purchasing a bicycle and training on maintenance or bus passes. This would enable older students to have transportation to attend secondary schools out of their town. They would like to work with Carolyn on writing a press release when she returns from her trip.

3. Education - The Education Committee is now chaired by Vicki Torsch. We thank Chigee Cloninger for all of her great work on this committee. This committee met recently to discuss ideas for projects. Vicki would like to know more about the School Without Walls work books. The Board would like Vicki to find out who is on the Education Committee in Honduras.

4. Honduran Interest Survey - Vicki reported that she still has not received the completed Honduran Chapter Interest Surveys back yet. They were supposedly completed and sent last Spring, but she never received them. She will continue to pursue John Chater for them, but would like any upcoming travelers to Honduras who may meet with the Honduran Chapters to inquire about the surveys and possibly bring them back.

5. Outreach - Michele Cranwell reported on the Outreach Committee. She continues to maintain the Vermont Chapter website and is continuously looking to put project updates on the website. She also encourages members to work with her in conducting any media outreach for either fundraising or when returning from a trip. She has worked with Vicki to develop the fliers for the Honduran Girls Fund fundraising.

6. Rotary Club/Computer Distribution Project – Tom Plumb will be traveling to Honduras beginning this Friday and will be living in country from January to March 2003. He has traveled to 14 of the 18 departments in Honduras on various Rotarian projects and has consistently received requests for computers. He now has 75 computers that have been loaded with Windows 98 and Microsoft Office Professional with between 32 to 64 RAM. RAM will be installed in computers with lower RAM in Honduras. Specifics on the Computer Project are attached to the official minutes. Tom requested that the Vermont Chapter fund $5,835.00 to cover his costs for this project. The Executive Committee will review his request and respond by Thanksgiving.

7. Grant funding - Dan Baker noted that many small grants from POA may be available and that we should look into utilizing them.

8. Computer Project Commentary - Thomas Desisto recently went to Honduras with Meaghan Murphy, Chip Sawyer, and Thom Patterson on a UVM/POA computer training trip. He commented that computers that are going to be sent to Honduras need to be at least a Pentium quality processor. People sending them down need to make provisions for proper disposal (such as taking them back and disposing them in the US) given the environmental hazards of improper disposal methods of the computers break or die. Thomas and Meaghan will work on developing a quality protocol for computers to be sent to Honduras.

9. http://www.ProjectHondurs.com. Tom Plumb attended the third annual Project Honduras meeting this year. He briefly highlighted some workshops, but stated that the networking at this conference is the greatest benefit to attending. Networking provided a lot of the names for his upcoming computer distribution project.

10. Health – Fred passed around highlights of the Health Committee developed by Kevin Rodgers. Kevin Rodgers and Anne Geroski will be in New Mexico for the next six months, thus Janet Patterson will take over the full Chairperson position while Kevin is gone. Kevin is requesting $1500 in Vermont Chapter funds to cover the cost of shipping exam materials back to the US for testing.

11. Rural Development – Several projects were reported on.

· Coffee Fundraising Project – Meaghan Murphy reported that the coffee fundraising project was a success. 150lbs of unroasted coffee was donated by the Galvez family in Honduras. 110 lbs of this coffee was roasted and sold as a fundraiser for the “Building Sustainable Communities” South Burlington High School (SBHS) trip, led by Kendra Rickerby. Uncommon Grounds in Burlington donated the roasting of the coffee. Meaghan, Kendra, and SBHS volunteers bagged 1lb bags of coffee with labels about the fundraising that were sold at $8/lb. All of the coffee was sold out and consumers were very pleased with the quality and flavor of the coffee. The funds were distributed as follows:

o $165 to the Galvez family

o $440 to the SBHS trip

o $137 to the Honduras FTF, and

o $137 to the Vermont FTF

· Sugar Cane Project – Dan Baker reported on the Honduran Sugar Cane Project. Dan traveled to Honduras in August 2002, supported by the Honduran Sugar Cane Cooperative. From this and previous trips, they have developed a sugar cane processing system based on maple sugar technology. Many of the Cooperative members have adopted the use of this system and are now using cane by product as fuel for the fire rather than tires.

o Had has written a grant to the Honduran Ministry of Agriculture for $60,000+ for expansion of this technology model. He is looking for $11,000 in matching funds for this grant.

o Dan will be traveling in November 2002 to Honduras to plan for an upcoming Sugar trip in June 2003. Dan will be traveling to Honduras in June 2003 at no cost to POA as part of the matching funds for the grant. Dan will send Pete Perrington, a Sugar Maker in Huntington to Honduras for his technical expertise. He is requesting $1,500 from the Vermont Chapter to cover material from Pete’s trip.

· Organic Farming – Two organic farmers will be traveling to Honduras in January 2003 for POA. They are Richard Wizwald and Eric Roosendal. They are experts in the field of organic farming and business.

· Student trip - In June 2003, Dan will run a UVM student trip to Honduras to conduct a market study for Richard and Eric’s trip. They will also incorporate the findings of Jeff Decelle’s project in Honduras (another student at UVM).

· Amuprolago – Amuprolago is the planning organization for the largest lake in Honduras, Lake Yojoa. Dan is working to establish a connection between Lake Champlain and Lake Yojoa.

12. Fred announced that the Vermont Chapter was approved to send 17 partners down to Honduras this year. Other potential trips include Coffee and Water for Humanity (Dowsing).

13. John Chater has a new email address: jchater@partners.net

5. Action List (to do)

• Michele will send a “thank you” note to Bill Mieirs for hosting the Honduran Poet.
• Bill and Dan will meet with the Dowe’s to transition the Treasurer position to Dan.
• The Chapter needs to develop a strategy for handling financial requests and fundraising to build the Money Market fund.
• The Executive Committee needs to respond to the requests for funding as described in this meetings minutes by November 30, 2002. These include: Computer distribution project, the Sugar project, and the Health project. Once we understand if the Honduran Girls project needs additional funding, we may consider this as well.
• At the next Trustee meeting, Carolyn can present the outcome of her trip, and the Board can review the questions posed in the meeting minutes.
• Vicki will check into the feasibility of the Honduran Girls project becoming a part of the Education Committee with the Honduran counterparts.
• Dan Baker and other interested parties will look into the small POA grants as possible funding sources.

The next meeting has not been scheduled yet. Both an Executive Committee and Board of Trustee meeting should be held in December 2002 or January 2003 to follow up with the issues/questions/projects discussed in these minutes.

For questions or corrections to these minutes, please contact Michele Cranwell at 656-0256 or Michele.Cranwell@uvm.edu