Subud PNW Conference Call Board Meeting August 9, 2017 (pdf)

Members Present: Aaron Mann, Chairman PNW, Marius Hibbard, Vice Chairman PNW, Sherwin O’Bar, Treasurer, Oswald Norton, Isidora Roth, Regional Helper Liaison, Camille Hofvendahl, Chairperson Subud Portland, Honora Hildreth, Subud Seattle, Michael DuBois, Skagit Valley, Lydia Tedrow, Recording Secretary.

Reading of minutes of last meeting: The minutes of the last meeting, August 7, 2017, were distributed, read and approved.

Treasurer’s Report:

Sherwin reported that the Treasurer updates the report every quarter. The second quarterly report, year to date through June, was updated at the last meeting so the next quarterly report will be given at the October meeting.
A couple of things have been going on financially:

  1. 1)  WehavehadsomeexpensesforNationalCommittee,aNationalmeetingattendance and Helper travel. To cover those expenses, we drew $2,000 out of the Capital One General Fund Account to supplement the U.S. Bank operating account. There is still $26,000 in the Capital One General Fund Investment account.
  2. 2)  The SPNW Insurance policy for the year beginning June 1st of 2017 has come in and the way it works is the Region pays the monthly premiums, about $313 each month during the year and the various centers reimburse the Region for the expenses they have incurred paying the insurance and that is usually done twice a year, once around September or October when one half of the annual premium is forwarded to SPNW by the Centers and then again in April of the following year when the second half of the annual premium is forwarded to offset the expenses that SPNW is incurring.
  3. 3)  The third element has to do with Menucha. The initial payment of about $1,300 or $1,400 was made back in January of this year, and on August 11th, the second installment will be made –about $12,000. To cover this expense, as we have done in the past, we will pulling dollars out of the Capital One General Fund Investment account and transferring those to the U.S. Bank account to support the second installment. After the $12,000 has been withdrawn, we will be down to a $14,000 balance. This is what we have done in prior years. Then, when the dollars start coming in for the Menucha registration, we typically have used Neon in the past few years as a Subud National application. Those dollars are transferred to us so that, at the time Menucha ends or shortly thereafter and we make the final payment, in the $12,000 range, we should have money back up to the $27,000 or $28,000 – we will have way more than that – probably $30,000, and we will pay the final installment which is around $11,000 or $12,000. That will bring us back down to our mid- $20,000 balance again by the end of the year.

Since Menucha was not on the agenda, Sherman wanted to run something by everybody. The annual contract that we signed with Menucha Conference and Retreat Center back at the beginning of the year reserved the same buildings that we had last year and he understood that we may not need Ballard this year. We had until Friday, August 11th, to let Menucha know that we don’t need all of the buildings that we usually have signed up for. A discussion ensued about whether we need Ballard and it was decided that it was not needed. However, it was suggested there be a vote. A motion was made to not use Ballard. It was seconded and the motion passed. All were in favor.

Center Reports: Seattle

Honora gave the report on Seattle. Seattle talked about doing some advertising for the Great Create in their Region so that people understood when it was happening. Hariana (Chilstrom), their newsletter editor, was asked to write something up in the newsletter about the Great Create. For the Seattle House report, Honora stated Marston had started some painting outside on the railings and the woodwork on the outside of the House. He has longstanding plans for more repairs in future. He is so efficient he has plans right into 2018. She reported everything is going really well.

Seattle has some events coming up. A volunteer celebration is planned for October 15th. It started out to be a party honoring someone who has done amazing work for the greater Seattle community, and it turned into an event celebrating everybody who spent time on the Committee, everyone who spent time being a Helper – anybody who gives energy to the group.

A general meeting has also been planned for the whole Seattle area. The time has still to be determined to make sure it occurs at a time when everybody can attend. She is hoping that there can be a Regional Helper visit in the near future. The Committee and the Helpers will decide what is working for everybody and then the Regional Helpers can be invited.

Lorraine Tedrow had a lovely idea to start celebrating everybody’s birthday, one day a month, and she has started organizing that just to bring life back into their House. It came from really great testing when they all received to have lots of fun.

Honora brought in some new business to her last Committee meeting – over the past couple of years, it has worked better for the Committee to have their meetings and their Dewan latihans on separate days. Honora would like to bring those two back together and have them on the same day. She introduced the idea to her Committee but there were not many people there so it is floating in the air right now. Honora stated that Seattle did not have a Committee meeting every month and she is hoping they will begin to have one every month like most groups do.

Aaron thanked Honora for putting her report in writing it and forwarding it. There were no questions for Honora.

Portland

Camille stated that some groups don’t have meetings every month and their attendance is poor. Portland has a General meeting every other month and then they have a Circle meeting every other month. The Circle meeting is coming up soon this month.

Portland switched the men’s and women’s latihan rooms this last week and she is having a hard time with it. She stated she has been there so long – it is really disorienting for her to do latihan in the men’s room and she knows one other person feels that way. She will bring it up at the Circle meeting.

Portland got their house painted and they have to rebuild the understructure of the roof over the women’s latihan hall before they can have the building roofed. They hope to have a plan in place by the end of summer. The hall will be non-functioning for about a month. Meantime, Camille feels they can’t spend any more money on chairs, for instance; some people want to get better chairs in the house but they have no idea what it’s going to cost. Portland has a $20,000 loan from the Region and some money in their account. Hopefully that will be solidified within the next couple of months.

Portland got an invitation to buy tickets for a fundraiser they have at Menucha, which is a cocktail party, with the people going come in cocktail attire. They are trying to decide, before donating the $500 to help Menucha repair their roads, whether to buy tickets but they don’t know if anybody will go to that. She thinks Bhakti and Paul went to it last time so she will bring that up at the Circle meeting on Sunday.

There was some amusement about the cocktail party – Sherman stated he had never been to a cocktail party. Michael mentioned that it was obviously black tie. He wasn’t sure if his white tuxedo would work there but . . . Aaron thought it might not fit in.

Camille reminded Aaron that Portland was going to give $250 and the Region had voted to give a matching $250. One of their issues, because the snack bar money goes to SD and they are not going to have another Juliette’s Balcony – is that they decided it was way too much work for not enough income – but they are talking about having a silent auction at Menucha in the balcony area. That depends on what people donate. They need pretty nice items. Portland has apparently come up with $5,000 for SD for the matching fund and last year they raised $20,000 but their fundraising ability is getting thin so if they don’t have Juliette’s Balcony and they don’t have the snack bar, they will not be able to come up with $5,000. They are hoping to do a silent auction and to be able to get the snack bar back out in the dining room area. They set it up ahead of time so that their renters can also bid on items.

Skagit Valley

Michael reported that they are a small group but they have a General meeting every other month. It works very well for them. They will be having a General meeting on Sunday. He noted they use a bribery method. He tells people he is going to cook and that gets everybody to come. This Sunday will be a barbequed salmon dinner so he expects a really good turnout for it. (chuckles) They have regular kejiwaan meetings. For instance, one month they will have a kejiwaan meeting and next month they will have a general meeting.

There are several bids outstanding on the work on the south side of the house. It will cost around $2,200 to repair the frames around the windows on the south side and do some gutter work. They will have total figures on the repair on the house in the middle of next week and then they will get it done while the weather is good.

He stated that a lot of their folks go places in the summertime so they tend to have sporadic attendance at their latihans. The women’s latihans tend to be very, very full. The men either do it by themselves or only two or three of them.

Spokane

Aaron reported Spokane had a birthday party for Lydia Tedrow and Renata Robb at Renata’s house. He saw some older Subud members there he had not seen in a long time; it was good to see them. An aircraft mechanic from California, working on contract at a small airfield in Idaho, had been coming to latihan with the men in Spokane, once a week at the Yoga Center.

Helpers Report:

Isadora and Elizabeth Flanders went to Ashland this month, visited and did latihan and testing with Margarite Charney and three other women there. They are hoping to get a regular latihan going again. They stopped in Roseberg on the way back and met up with a member there and did latihan and testing.

The Regional helpers are continuing to have a regional latihan, with good attendance and are planning for a retreat for their group to plan Menucha, in September. Elizabeth and Oswald will be going to the Great Create. Oswald has been working to support the Great Create, attending group meetings and helping with program and pricing development, which resulted in the price drop that they just announced and, also, they now have Margarite Charney working on the program. He has reached out to families that have come to the family camp in the past to encourage them to come and it looked like the Wuametts and perhaps Sonja Conrad may be joining them.

The Regional Helper Menucha planning session will occur on September 8th through 10th; they will be doing that in the Olympia area and, hopefully, they will visit that group for latihan.

New Business:

Marius wanted to know if Oswald knew how many kids were going to attend the Great Create and what were their approximate ages. He and Michael are bringing various garments to marble so it would be helpful to know how many kids were coming and their approximate ages. Honora mentioned if the Conrads are coming there would be three young men; Sawyer is 17, Basil is 15 and the youngest brother may be 12 or 13. They are pretty close in age and they are tall so they may wear large sizes. She thinks Sawyer is 6’5”. Michael said it sounded like he and Marius could make varieties of T-shirts available in adult large, adult medium and adult small. They should fit teenagers. If there are any toddlers they will be stuck – they could probably bring one or two shirts along in those sizes.

Aaron responded that, at last count, there would be 14 people. Subud is going to take one building, the South Lodge, and it accommodates up to 25 people. There is no minimum. They told him they were not going to charge any type of penalty. In the contract it looks like there is a $25 per person penalty but they adjusted the numbers and they are not going to charge the penalty because it’s our first year and they want us to come back and do it again. So far he has not heard whether they have had any kids.

Aaron asked if anybody knew anybody who was a lifeguard, please let them know. There was no pool but there was a small lake and a really nice swimming area. He said he was bringing a kayak – he planned on bringing some of his toys.

Information about the Great Create will be on the list server for Subud Portland and on the Subud newsletter. Aaron said he just made a pitch for his workshop which was going out in the weekly on Friday and, also, they have made sure that there was an announcement on the PNW website with a link. There also have been flyers; he made a flyer and put it in the weekly. Camille stated that Halimah Taylor had asked her to put a flyer on the list server; Oswald said he would help to do that.

Ending the Meeting:

There was no other new business so a motion to adjourn was made, seconded; all were in favor so the meeting was adjourned.

Signed by the Recording Secretary, Lydia Tedrow.