Minutes of Subud PNW Conference Call Board Meeting, October 11, 2017
Members Present: Aaron Mann, Chairman PNW, Sherwin O’Bar, Treasurer, Elisha Gullixson and Isidora Roth, Regional Helper Liaisons, Camille Hofvendahl, Chairperson Subud Portland, Honora Hildreth, Subud Seattle, Michael DuBois, Skagit Valley, Lydia Tedrow, Recording Secretary. The minutes of the last meeting, September 13, 2017, are not available at this time.
Treasurer’s Report: Sherwin sent an email today to which a PDF document containing information through September 2017 was attached. The summary is that the income so far through September is $21,029 and the expenses are $33,188. That means that expenses exceed the revenue by $12,159. That is all due to the prepayments we have made to Menucha to rent the facility. We have made two prepayments totaling $12,263 and we should get that back. We should receive a sufficient amount of money from Menucha to satisfy the $12,000 shortfall year to date. Within that email body, various cash balances, in total, were somewhere either in the $94,000 or $97,000. That’s the financial information.
Center Reports: Seattle: Honora reported that Seattle has its Fall celebration coming up on the 14th. Lorraine, Hadiyah and Debbie planned the food and drinks and honor those who have volunteered to work for Greater Seattle Subud in the past year. Honora also noted that Seattle’s committee meetings and dewan latihans will now be taking place on the same day; they had been occurring on separate days. Those meetings have been scheduled for the next three months. It will be easier for people to commit and to show up. Seattle had its general meeting in September. Some members had questions about deficits in the budget but Sherwin was there and able to answer questions. There were good discussions. They also discussed Menucha, how everybody should register because it was really important to everybody. There was a reminder to everybody that the World Congress is coming up next July and Honora will be looking into some kind of funding for the recently opened youth to go to that. Seattle also confirmed there would be a Regional Helper visit to Seattle on December 9th.
Portland: Camille reported she just found out the National Congress will be taking place in Vancouver, Washington, probably Memorial Day weekend. She was just letting everyone know. She noted that every other month Portland has a circle meeting and every other month they have a business meeting. A couple of weeks ago, Marius Harold put on an amazing event; a fund raiser for the youth in Cuba to attend the Cuban Youth Get-Together in December, because a lot of those people are too poor to even travel within their country. He raised $2200 and money is still coming in. Various local musicians, Emil and Brenna played, and Morris played and Marius’s daughter, Hermina, played and sang. Then Ben Wuamett played a couple of tunes and Leana read poetry. Marius’s family came and donated very generously. Camille announced that Portland just bought 100 chairs. She had not wanted to buy them because of the repairs needed on the roof but Maria got a “deal”. The chairs are $28 a piece as opposed to their original estimate of $50 a piece. The chairs are really nice – a lot of chairs to try to find room for but Camille has a plan. So now Portland has a large seating capacity for the building, plus the pews. They were getting feedback from their renters that they wanted more comfortable chairs. Portland’s rental manager has sold their old chairs except they are going to keep some, the brown ones, because they are in good shape. Camille reported there is a problem with the bank. Maria resigned as Treasurer many months ago and Jasminah has offered to be their bookkeeper but they have not been able to transfer Maria’s authority to Jasminah. Apparently the bank is a Credit Union and there is some type of federal law restricting them. The house is owned by the Region, so the Regional Committee apparently needs to be there to sign off; Aaron and probably Sherwin, the officers of the Region, are required to appear in person at their Credit Union in order to change this. Jasminah thinks this is incorrect, that it may be some kind of misunderstanding so she wants to consult a not-for-profit attorney to see what they can do. Camille felt the Region should pay the attorney fee for this consult so she is asking for approval on that. Sherwin stated he had had a conversation with Jasminah; it seems that if she presents herself at a U.S. Bank branch in Portland and Sherwin presents himself at a U.S. Bank branch in the Seattle area, an account can be opened at a U.S. Bank in Portland with the Subud Portland name on the account – they did not discuss anything to do with the Credit Union, just U.S. Bank. According to information they independently confirmed, U.S. Bank will start a business account – he thinks that 1800 transactions a year are free and, after that, it’s $0.25 a transaction. That is 150 transactions a month and Jasminah didn’t think there would be anywhere near 150 transactions a month. After some discussion, it was decided to get it taken care of when they meet at Menucha. Aaron stated he didn’t like the idea of hiring an attorney. Camille felt that U.S. Bank might be a better option and Sherwin stated Subud Seattle and PNW all use U.S. Bank. Camille stated she would email both Sherwin and Aaron.
Skagit Valley: Michael had a bad phone connection so he called back to give his report. The connection was a little better. He reported their gutter work was all done. People working on the windows had run into a glitch; they have to remove the asbestos from the siding of the house so they are working on that right now. They will probably get one window done in the Fall and finish the rest in the Spring when the remainder of the group gets back. Aaron stated he had a question about the asbestos siding. Michael said there were asbestos shakes on the outside, that they would do it themselves, pop them off, legally dispose of them, and save money. Aaron stated that, since there is no airborne asbestos unless they start cutting them, it should be safe. Michael said he had a good mask from when he worked in fiberglass. The group had a minor meeting the other day. They will be testing about whether or not they will be doing the bird walk. Some of them are burning out on that. Regarding their cats, one of the wild feral cats had a litter of kittens and they were able to catch all four of the kittens. They set a trap but have not yet caught the Mom; they want to catch her and have her spayed. She will probably come back to the house. A kejiwaan day is coming up in November. The group plans on doing some testing with the National Helpers when they visit in January. Michael asked Sherwin how to contact National people and the National office. Camille mentioned the new directory is out and has that information. And apparently, a National newsletter came out on line and she thought he could use that address to email Mary.
Helpers Report: Isadora reported the helpers didn’t have much news this month. As Honora reported, they are going to Seattle in December for a day and they have been getting ready for Menucha. There will be an opening circle on Friday, a kejiwaan on Saturday with a shorter circle to announce workshops, and a closing circle on Sunday. Then they also want to do some testing about bringing the latihan into our daily lives. They had a weekend retreat on that in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. Elijah had something to add. The regional helpers got some information from the group in California who did that testing and they are not planning to do a carbon copy of it but got some very useful information so they would like to test with as many people as would like to participate along those lines, about having the latihan in your daily life. Then he mentioned the Regional phone latihans. They have been very regular recently. The women seem to have around 7 on average and the men maybe have 4, on average. Some very faithful caller-inners. He stated it sounds like a small group but he feels like the people who need it are getting it.
New Business: Camille had something for new business – she just remembered that there is interest in the Portland group in starting a women’s latihan on Tuesday at 1:00 pm and it looks like it will begin to happen soon. Aaron gave an update on the Menucha registration. He contacted Alexandra and, right now, 37 people were registered for Menucha. They may have some work to do. All the information for Menucha is on line. Information for Menucha has been in the weekly newsletter for about three weeks now. It contains the link to the Registration. It is also on the PNW website. It’s there if people want to register. Camille felt that a separate announcement would get more attention. A one-subject announcement. Aaron stated he had a discussion today with Alexandra. They came up with a solution for management of the Gift Shop. People who are requesting financial assistance apparently will get the assistance but will have to put in an hour or two in the Gift Shop. There was no new business to discuss. A motion was made to adjourn the meeting, seconded and all were in favor and the meeting was adjourned.
Signed by the Recording Secretary, Lydia Tedrow.