VERMONT  HONDURAS PARTNERS OF THE AMERICAS

VERMONT CHAPTER BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING MINUTES

November 13, 2001

6:30-9:00PM

Bio Research Laboratory, Spear St.

 

Present:  Lyn Carew, Michele Cranwell, Chigee Cloninger, Bill Kelly, Kevin Rogers, Fred Schmidt

Meeting called to order at 6:30 by President, Bill Kelly

1. Approval of Minutes

Bill Kelly made a motion to approve the minutes for the Board of Trustees Meetings on 8/19/01.  This motion was seconded to approve as distributed. 

2. Treasurer’s Report

The Treasurer’s Report was distributed, which is attached to the official minutes.

3. Announcements and Information Sharing

A.     Malcolm Butler announced the appointment of the following staff members to vice president positions:

a.       Pablo Paz Y Milo, CFO and VP for Finance and Administration

b.      Anabella Bruch, VP for Programs

c.       Richard Lamporte, VP for New Programs and Resource Development

d.      Barbara Bloch, Interim VP for Partnership Development

B.     The Partnership Development Committee recommended the following actions that were approved by the Board:

a.       The 10 day travel rule:  after reviewing information on the current travel requirements of a 10-day visit to a counterpart chapter, the Board confirms that the rule will continue as is with the exception that, when allowed by a particular grant, the 10 days can include travel time.  The staff will continue reviewing exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

                                                               i.      Kevin Rogers proposes to write a letter of appeal to POA about the 10 day travel minimum due to people's work restrictions.

b.      March 15 is now the official deadline for payment of dues from all Committees (chapters), starting with March 2002, regardless of whether there is an annual meeting or rechartering process pending.  Staff will withhold resources from Partnerships until the Chapters - N and S - are in compliance with dues payment.

C.     A travel request for a woman to help with the next Honduran Girls Educational Project workshop was denied because, while she used to live in VT and worked on the project, her current address in CA.  We appealed to no avail.

D.     Tom Plum sent an email to Bill Kelly.  107 computers were brought to Honduras through the Rotary Club, 10 of which will go to the Honduran Girls Project. 

E.      Vicki Torsch stated that the World Library Partnership is doing some work in Honduras and passed this information on to Kevin Rogers and Chigee Cloninger for the education committee.

4. Business Items

1. The Trustees approved of the travel expenses for Chigee Cloninger to attend the Project Honduras Meeting in Washington, DC.

2. Jesus Mejia will be visiting VT from November 18-26, 2001. 

3. The Honduran Girls project brochure needs updating.  We need to make a contact with schools to do a presentation and give them brochures to have local schools sponsor a girl or a workshop.  A motion was made and seconded to allocate $1,000 to the Honduran Girls brochure development.

4. We need to establish a procedure to get newsletter materials to Kevin Rogers.  This newsletter should be published on the POA VT Chapter Website.

5. Reports

A.  Farmer to Farmer

• Several FTF trips were postponed due to terrorist activity, including the Coffee project and Karen Schneider's food preservation trip.  However Dave Kestembaum's went on his trip for his project on Rural Tourism.

• Christina Hernandez left the FTF program in Honduras.

• Future FTF projects will probably work through the Honduran Conservation Corp.

• The South Burlington High School group build a library in Honduras on their July trip and they will visit with the US Ambassador to Honduras when he visited in September 2001.  They are interested in taking a new trip in June or July 2002 let by three teachers.

• We are interested in library projects, specifically projects that get computers into libraries and train Hondurans on how to use them. 

• Tom Hudspeth may take a possible trip in the near future

• Dan Baker and Fred Schmidt are initiating a preparation course for a two week trip to Honduras in May 2002.

 

B.  Chigee's visit to DC for Project Honduras

Chigee Cloninger discussed her upcoming conference  to DC for the Project Honduras Annual Conference.  There will be 75-100 people representing 25 different grassroots organizations working in Honduras.  The Conference is on health and education in Honduras and there will be 5 different panels with a discussion and question/answer session.  She mentioned two areas to possibly support our projects:  a library project in Honduras and an architect from Minnesota who designed schools with Honduran communities.

 

C.  Update on VT Chapter Newsletter - Kevin Rogers

• Kevin Rogers agreed to be the editor for the VT Chapter newsletter and would like to look at previous newsletters for a model.  Bill Kelly mentioned that there are old copies in his basement.  Kevin will send out an email to the Chapter members to write stories for the newsletter.

• Vicki Torsch sent a message about N-Net a list of all Vermont Newspapers available at http://www.n-net.com/vt.htm

Next Board meeting:  Bill Kelly will send an email out to schedule the next board meeting.

 

Adjournment:  The Board of Trustees meeting was adjourned at 9:00pm.