162nd Meeting of the CMC Board of Directors (**Public Copy)
September 25, 2016 / 12:45 p.m.
Members Present (8): Rev. Tedosio Samora, Rev. Dusa Althea Rammessirsingh, Rev. Vincent Fuqua, Rev. Tony Ponticello, Rev. Peter Graham, Rev. Daniel Tipton, Rev. Rudy Colombini, Rev. Paul Marinkovich.
Members Absent (1): Rev. Roxie Benson.
Financial Reports:
Profit and Loss: Apr. 1 2016 to Jun. 30 2016 (2nd qtr. 2016)
Income $82,088.53 Expenses $102,074.92 Income Remaining (-$19,985.92)
Equity Report: Jun. 30, 2016
Current $54,947.06 Apr. 1, 2016 $82,345.58 Gain of Equity (-$27,398.52)
There are several things which contributed to the large deficit.
• $11,578 -- Underestimate of Las Vegas Conference income remaining, part of which was $8,333 Sales Tax issue.
(Sales Tax to Nevada $7,692, plus Trip to Carson City $641)
• $7,413 -- One time adjustment to inventory
------------
$18,991 -- Total
The Las Vegas Conference didn’t produce the income remaining we expected due to the low cost of tickets. The Conference costs exceeded projections. Sales tax payment was big contribution to this.
Currently our month to month costs greatly exceed our income. Rev. Tony did not draw his salary this month. We need to discuss Rev. Tony's salary going forward.
We also need to have a fund raising discussion. Rev. Tony has been seeing a non-profit organization consultant and a personal business coach (Rev. Tony has paid for this himself) and he has learned that fundraising is actually the entire Board's responsibility in mature, medium-sized, non-profit corporations, which is what we are. He doesn’t have the time to do it and it is a great deal of work.
Rev. Tony will share ideas and requests that over the next few weeks every Board Member watch the following video:
Fundraising From the Heart Workshop (Santa Fe, NM) April 2011
https://vimeo.com/26402556
We need to develop a definite plan for a Fall 2016 Fund Raising drive and a Supporting Member drive and implement it quickly. Rev. Tony will share ideas.
We need to have more people on the Board and we need to have a person on the CMC Board who is an experienced fund raiser and other professionals. We should have a meeting to watch the inspiring fundraising video. We could do it on October 11, 2016 at 7:30 pm. Rev. Daniel’s and Rev. Paul can join us by Skype.
Supporting Member Report:
Currently 105 Supporting Members — $5,549.99/ month, $52.86 / members (net loss of 1 Supporting Members and gain of $68.33/month)
Gained 5: Lyn Johnson, David Murdock, Sharon Casey, David Fishman, Julie Vance
Lost 6: Rev. Joan Kral, Rev. Mo Benson, Joan Lorenz, Gaosi Wang, Rev. Donna Little, Antoinette Atanasoff
They left for a variety of reasons including health, person finances, and one made his transition.
1st Supporting Member Meeting is set for Sun. Oct. 16 at 5 p.m. Pacific. We will use Zoom video conferencing. As many CMC Board Members as possible should make this meeting. There will be a practice meeting to work out the technology bugs the week before on Sun. Oct. 9 at 5 p.m. Pacific.
Associate Ministers:
Gained 2: Rev. Josh Haun, Rev. Mary Thomson. They are doing a program on ACIM Gather.
Class Report:
ACIM-1 Students 13
ACIM-2 Students 14
6 ACOL Students Rev. Kim now teaches this class
LGBTQ and Beyond group continues.
Thursday Meditation Group has started. Attendance is good ~6 to 8.
Rev. Tony feels we may need a morning ACIM-1 class so we can catch ACIM students in Europe as well as those who want a morning class. We have someone in Scotland currently very interested. There has been a problem when one teacher teaches too many classes. It is better to spread this around to more CMC Ministers. A discussion was held about whether we should have a class. Rev. Tony asked if Rev. Daniel would be interested. Rev. Daniel did express interest in doing it. Rev. Tony said he will find out if there are at least 2 or 3 students.
There is currently a difficulty with two (maybe 3) ACIM-2 students in Rev. Paul's class surrounding their projects. They won't do them, won't honor commitments. They won't stay in communication with Rev. Tony. Another of Rev. Paul's students got very upset when Rev. Tony tried to monitor her project. She eventually quit. It's a problem.
Rev. Peter feels that Rev. Paul has to monitor his class and communicate the importance of their ACIM-2 projects. They have to agree to maintain their projects.
ACIM-2 teachers are responsible for overseeing the projects of their students with BOD oversight. Unanimous.
A discussion was held about having an agreement with CMC teachers that includes a non-competition clause -- something that states that they will not teach their CMC students "privately" for at least 6 months, or one year, after that students finishes with CMC classes. This has been a problem with previous CMC teachers.
CMC teachers are required to sign a contract with a non-competition clause which requires them to agree to not teach any course with former or current CMC students or curriculum for one year. Unanimous.
Old Business:
Rev. Kelly wants to start a Practical Spirituality Phone Class. Sat. 10 a.m. $50-$60 per month. Focus of multiple books and other material related to ACIM. Check-in, meditation, teaching, discussion. Students would have advance reading assignments.
The Board discussed that at this time felt that with all the projects that Rev. Kelly is working on it is best for her to work on one class at this time.
Rev. Roxie wants to start a phone class. We did not discuss as Rev. Roxie was not present.
Discussion about Rev. Kelly's capital improvement fund raiser. Rev. Kelly believes $30,000 isn't enough. (Previous discussion of "30 for 30" timing the fund raiser to our 30th Birthday on Mar. 1, 2017.) Rev. Tony wonders who is actually going to do the fund raising? He doesn't have time and he doesn't believe passive emails and letters are enough.
Fundraiser discussion: People will try to raise money through GoFundMe on Facebook or some other platform. We are going to find people who are capable of doing this kind of work. We need to find people who are willing to do it. Some feel need to have the fundraising meeting before we approve. The Board agreed to meet and watch the fundraising video that addresses how non-profits can think about doing fundraising.
New Business:
CMC vs. Nevada Department of Taxation NVDOT
Rev. Kelly and Rev. Tony did not prevail in their case with the Nevada Tax Commission.
2018 Conference Update:
The 2018 San Francisco Conference has been launched. 184 tickets sold. 52 individual tickets. The rest are blocks. One presenter does not want to pay the remainder for his block of 20 at this time. All the others have paid. James Twyman is also running a ACIM conference in April 2017 with many of the same presenters. Should we change our price structure at this time to insure that we are better positioned to sell more tickets. We decided to keep the current price structure.
ACIM Gather:
We have partnered with One Mind Foundation, Lyn Johnson & David Fishman (they became CMC Supporting Members) to resurrect ACIM Gather. We have a web platform for them which includes a radio player. We are helping them fill their program spots. Rev. Josh & Rev. Mary have started a program. Rev. Tony has started a program. This will be very good for our non-local Ministers-In-Training.
Rev. Tony has developed the following guidelines for CMC Ministers who have programs on ACIM Gather. Rev. Mary, Rev. Josh, Rev. Karen Worth have all agreed to them:
It is the CMC’s request CMC Ministers accept certain guidelines when they lead ACIM Gather Programs. The guidelines will NOT be “rules” for participation with ACIM Gather. However if CMC Ministers follow these guidelines it will qualify them to be CMC Associate Ministers, and there are other benefits relating to that status.
* Our ministers use their Reverend titles on the schedules and at least occasionally during the programs.
* Our ministers are open about being ordained through the CMC.
* Our ministers occasionally encourage people to check out the CMC’s programs and possibly take classes from the CMC.
*Our ministers publicize and encourage people to come to our Conferences. If the ministers come themselves, they could meet their listeners at the Conferences
The Board agreed with these recommendations.
We plan to start broadcasting our Sunday Service through ACIM Gather next week. We can solicit donations during it. We have a small technology hurdle. Rev. Kelly is working on it.
Motion: The CMC will start live streaming on ACIM Gather Sunday October 2, 2016. A disclaimer will be announced and written in the program.
5 yays 1 nay and the President did not vote.
Board Members:
Rev. Tony believes that we need to evolve our Board so that our organization can evolve and grow. It isn't just enough that Board Members are dedicated ACIM students and CMC Supporting Members. We need Board Members who bring needed skills: lawyer, accountant, fund raisers, etc. Too much responsibility falls on Rev. Tony. He doesn't have the time and there is too much anxiety involved being the sole responsible one for such important tasks. It's not an effective way to run an organization of our size. Rev. Tony doesn't believe we will grow doing what we are doing no matter how effective he is. It's time to grow.
Discussion: Board members are in favor of getting people on the CMC Board’s with specific skill sets that we need including a lawyer and fundraiser. The discussion was held and it was agreed that diversifying the skill set on the Board would be a positive step forward.
Castro Street Fair Booth:
Oct. 2, 2016 (Sun.) 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. This will be a challenge next week as Rev. Kelly will need to be here for the Service and not involved with that until well after service. It should be our first week on ACIM Gather and she needs to be able to handle that.
YouTube Videos:
Rev. Vincent wants to discuss Miracle Shares and Sunday Teachings being on YouTube. Do they all have to be on YouTube? Some speakers object. They may like to share but they do not want to be on a YouTube video. Rev. Vincent thinks that people should be able to request that they don’t get recorded if they speak and do a miracle share. Some pointed out that our services are public already.
Motion: Speakers and Miracle Shares have the option to opt out of the Youtube recordings. Unanimous.
Meeting Adjurned 2:45 p.m.
Next meeting scheduled Sun. Dec. 4, 2016
Respectfully Submitted
Rev. Peter Graham, Secretary
**Infrequently, the CMC may generalize certain items and/or names, or may eliminate an item altogether, that might be embarrassing and/or painful for a particular person and/or institution from the "Public Copy" of the Minutes. The "Legal Copy" of the minutes, held at the CMC office, may therefore be slightly different from the "Public Copy." The CMC guarantees that, to the best of it's ability, the "Public Copy" of the minutes contains no inaccurate or misleading information.