RETIRED EMPLOYEES OF KERN COUNTY
MINUTES OF BOARD MEETING

March 11, 2003

President, David Merritt, called the meeting to order at 10:04 a.m. 

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

OTHERS PRESENT:  Wanda Castro, KCERA; Jerry Dodd, Belva Jarad, Everett Julkowski and Blue O’Connor

MOTION By Norman Briggs to approve February minutes, seconded by Opal Hargis and CARRIED.

Doris Williams gave the Treasurer’s Report of February 28, 2003; copies are on file.  MOTION by Opal Hargis to accept the Treasurer’s Report; seconded by Allan Choy and MOTION CARRIED.  MOTION by Doris Williams to pay the enumerated bills; seconded by Tom McCarthy and CARRIED.

Doris Williams reported that she has never received a copy of the budget.  Secretary, Ginger Mello, stated that she will make a copy of the budget from the Web and mail it to Doris with a copy of the minutes. 

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

CRCEA – Everett Julkowski will not be able to attend the Spring Conference in San Diego due to a car accident that he was in on Monday, March 10, 2003.    There are a few questions that Everett will be sending to President, David Merritt, regarding information for the Spring Conference. Also, other counties are looking into the director and liability insurance because they feel that the $1 million policy for all the counties is not enough.

CCAPE – No Report

Host/Hostess Program – For the month of February, 28 volunteers worked 86 hours and assisted 1,115 visitors to the County Administration Building.

Allan Choy also announced that the Board of Supervisors will have a luncheon for the host/hostess committee on Tuesday, May 20^th at 11:30 a.m.  Each member of the committee will receive a letter inviting them to the luncheon.

Monthly Program – Today we will have the South High School Jazz Band. 

Jeanne Berkshire announced that she needs to have the program a month in advance so that she can have it printed in the newspaper.  Jeanne is not only our 2^nd Vice President but she is also our Publicity Chair. 

Newsletter – Joe Porter reported that for the last two issues he has had trouble getting articles to even make a newsletter.  Joe wondered if anyone had ever considered printing the newsletter quarterly instead of bi-monthly.

After considerable discussion, it was decided that we would continue to print as it has been.  The TREND is our only way of communicating with our membership.

COMMUNICATIONS:  Several newsletters from different counties came in the mail.  President, David Merritt, handed over to the Secretary for filing a copy of a letter he wrote and mailed to The Honorable Roy Ashburn to congratulate him on being appointed to Vice-Chair of the Public Employee and Retirement Committee.  Also a letter was received from Nautilus Insurance Group informing our organization that we have coverage of losses caused by CERTIFIED acts of terrorism.  This letter has been filed with the Secretary.

OLD BUSINESS:

Status of Procedures for Special Use Fund – John DeMario was not in attendance at the meeting, so no report.

Status of Public Relations Committee – Norman Briggs reported that he is planning to set a date on a Friday morning to meet with the entire committee and the two new supervisors.  The committee will be meeting soon. 

Web Page – Norman Briggs announced he is working on getting a counter set up so that we can see how many people are going to the REOKC web site.

Norman also stated that the budget is on the web and that as soon as he gets the TREND from Joe, he will have it on the web.

Brochure – Everett Julkowski announced that the brochure is in the final form. 

Margaret Julkowski had taken pictures with her digital camera and then had some difficulty getting those pictures out of the computer. One day she turned on the computer and was able to do it. 

Directors and Officers Liability Insurance – Hopefully more information will be available at the CRCEA Spring Conference.

Monthly Luncheons – Norman Briggs distributed the final report of the four businesses who responded with a bid.  Of the four bids, the committee recommended going with the bid from Mossman’s.  The price of a luncheon with disposable plates would be $6.00 per person saving the organization $1.25 per person per luncheon.  The Christmas Luncheon would cost $8.50 per person with China plates.  In all four of the bids, having China added costs of anywhere from $.50 to $2.50 per person.  The other reason for going with Mossman’s is that we have experience with them. MOTION was made by Opal Hargis to accept the bid for one year with Mossman’s; seconded by Norman Briggs and CARRIED.

NEW BUSINESS: 

July Picnic – Jerry Dodd has reported that he will have his wife, Helen, call President, David Merritt, on whether she will head up the picnic this year.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

Jerry Dodd reported that he and Herman Riese would like to be removed from the Legislation Committee.  Both Jerry and Herman feel that they did a good job in their day, but the aims of the Board have changed.  Jerry and Herman always felt that it was local politicians that needed to be worked with and now the Board is also working with State politicians.

President, David Merritt, read a letter from Ken Varley that he had received.  Mr. Varley was offering his business to entertain our membership.  Mr. Varley does a one man interpretation of historical reenactments which would be appropriate for your organization.  Norman Briggs requested the letter and asked if this would be a person who would be paid.  Norman is trying to figure out who gets paid and who does not.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:13 a.m.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

Ginger Mello, Secretary