RETIRED EMPLOYEES OF KERN COUNTY

MINUTES OF BOARD MEETING

August 12, 2003

President, David Merritt, called the meeting to order at 10:05 A.M.

ROLL CALL:  Jeanne Berkshire, Norman Briggs, Allan Choy, John DeMario, Opal Hargis, Tom McCarthy, Ginger Mello, David Merritt, Joe Porter, Elinor Wells and Doris Williams

OTHERS PRESENT:  Wanda Castro, Jerry Dodd, Claude Fiddler, Belva Jarad, Lois Maujer, Blue O’Connor

MOTION by Opal Hargis to approve the June minutes; seconded by Norman Briggs and CARRIED.

Doris Williams gave the Treasurer’s Report of June 30, 2003 and July 31, 2003; copies are on file.  MOTION by Allan Choy to accept the Treasurer’s Report; seconded by Tom McCarthy and CARRIED.  MOTION by John DeMario to pay the enumerated bills; seconded by Elinor Wells and CARRIED.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

CRCEA – Everett Julkowski is in the hospital having had a minor stroke.  About  two weeks ago, Everett had either a triple or quadruple bypass and a pacemaker installed.

 CCAPE – Blue O’Connor reported that he had spoken to Ward and there was nothing to come before our meeting.  We had nothing going back to CCAPE.

 Host/Hostess Program – For the month of June, 31 volunteers worked 95 hours and assisted 1,236 visitors to the County Administration Building.  For the month of July, 32 volunteers worked 98 hours and assisted 1,108 visitors to the County Administration Building.

 Monthly Program – For this month Kelly McWatters will be speaking from the Investment group of Smith Barney.  Norman announced that the  people who speak to our membership from investment firms are for  education purposes only, NOT to sell anything to our membership.      Claude Fiddler, Chairman of the Board of the Gleaners, spoke         regarding volunteers to work at the Gleaners.  The Gleaners put out 5    million pounds of food a year at a cost of $.06 a pound.  Norman       announced that for the September meeting he will have David            Deutsch in to speak to our membership and for the month of October,

           Claude Fiddler from the Gleaners will be here to speak.

            Newsletter – The suggestion was made for Claude Fiddler to write a small article that could be published in the TREND. 

 COMMUNICATIONS; President, David Merritt, received 9 County Newsletters; 4 (2 for each month of June and July) from the Bakersfield Homeless Center; a letter from Wanda Castro, KCERA; a letter from the Center for the Blind & Visually Impaired; Letter of the Law, Kern County Superior Court and a letter from Tejon Ranch Company regarding the Tejon Ranch Vision.

 OLD BUSINESS:

 Status of Public Relations Committee – No Report, but a suggestion was made to  meet with one supervisor at a time to introduce ourselves and give them an idea of what we do.

 Web – John DeMario states that the old board members are still listed on the Web site with a few other items that need to be corrected. 

 Directors and Officers Liability Insurance – President, David Merritt, stated he had received the new policy from Pacific Group Agencies, Inc.  This is the     free policy that we have through CRCEA. Norman Briggs reported that        Doris Williams had called him regarding the Walter Mortensen Insurance       policy having gone up to about $1200.  Norman would like to see if there is     something that we can get for a smaller fee.  John DeMario suggested that  President, David Merritt, contact Steve Pettee, Pacific Group Agencies, for a general liability insurance quote.

Monthly Luncheons – President, David Merritt, collected only 8 sign-ups for     payroll deduction for the monthly luncheons at the July Bar-B-Que.   During      the meeting there seemed to be controversy between John DeMario and       Wanda Castro as to who would be keying in the $5.00 luncheon price at          KCERA.  John DeMario stated that he had an agreement with Craig that          John would be doing the keying of the luncheon tickets.  MOTION by Tom       McCarthy for the payroll deduction authorization to stay at $5.00 but            will only charge $4.00 for those who sign up for the monthly luncheons              through payroll deduction; seconded by John DeMario and CARRIED.

 Fair Report – Jeanne Berkshire, fair chairman, thanked Tom McCarthy and Elinor Wells for volunteering to help Jeanne by going to the meetings with her.  At  this time she has been able to handle everything over the telephone.  Jeanne  is reporting that she has a letter of confirmation from the Fair that we have      Harvest Hall for December 9, 2003.  The letter also thanks our organization      for all the help that we give just prior to the start of the fair.                         

  NEW BUSINESS:

 Joe Porter reported that he received a letter from a surviving spouse with a copy of his obituary.   Currently we publish the names only due to limited space.  MOTION was made by Opal Hargis due to space limitation we only print names  for obituary purposes in the TREND and we are unable to accept paragraphs; seconded by Elinor Wells and CARRIED.  Norman Briggs stated that the Secretary send a copy of the policy to Norman so that he can include it in our  Policy and Procedures Manual.

Nominating Committee:  At this time President, David Merritt, stated that we     need to appoint a nominating committee for next years officers.  President, David Merritt, appointed Tom McCarthy and Opal Hargis as the representatives from the Board and Belva Jarad and Lois Maujer from the general membership. Our  by-laws state that we need 3 people from the general membership on the committee.  A decision was made to make an announcement at the general meeting for the last member for the committee. 

President, David Merritt, adjourned the meeting at 11:34 A.M.

 RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

 Ginger Mello, Secretary