Minutes of November Press Club board meeting Nov. 4, 2015, 6:30 p.m., Serra High School, 451 West 20th Ave., San Mateo
PRESENT: Antonia Ehlers, Ed Remitz, Jim Watson, Dave Price (via phone), Peter Cleaveland and Jim Henderson. ABSENT: Marshall Wilson, Aimee Strain, Jane Northrop.
FINANCE REPORT: Antonia said the club is doing better than she expected. She said there was $8,000 in the scholarship account, $7,967.76 in PayPal (contest entry fees), and $5,319.22 in the operations account. Antonia said the club has enough to cover the luncheon.
CONTEST BANQUET: The luncheon has been postponed until Dec. 5 because the judges need more time, Antonia said. She has put down a deposit for the room at the Crowne Plaza for that date.
IRS MATTER: The tax-exempt status of the club lapsed several years ago. The board discovered this fact earlier this year. Antonia and bookkeeper Ana Glodek conducted a conference call with the IRS. A penalty is possible. The main goal is to correct the situation and renew the nonprofit status. The board voted unanimously to get an estimate and a proposed retainer agreement from a CPA firm for the work that is necessary to correct this situation.
AWARDS LUNCHEON SPONSOR: Antonia reports the club is in negotiations with a corporate sponsor. They are offering help including finding a guest speaker.
SCHOLARSHIPS: Ed said the scholarship committee has selected one high school winner and two college winners. They’ll get $1,500 each, for a total of $4,500. The board unanimously voted to increase the number of college scholarships to two, and approve the $4,500 expenditure.
MEMBERSHIP DRIVE/CONTEST: Antonia reports that the club got 430 entries for this year’s contest. Jim Henderson suggested that we change the entry process next year so that everyone entering the contest would pay a membership fee with their first entry. Price suggested the club conduct a membership survey at the upcoming awards luncheon on Dec. 5. Price will send a draft of the survey to board members and Jim Watson said he would tabulate the results.
HIGH SCHOOL BOOT CAMP: Antonia said she is shooting to hold the camp in the third week of February. She’d like to open the high school contest the same day as the boot camp so that attendees could be encouraged to submit entries.
Meeting adjourned at 7:55 p.m. Minutes taken by Secretary Dave Price.