October 15, 2017
• There were about 35 men at the weekend. Joe & Ben Rehmeyer attending the closing circle.
• The membership acknowledged Alan Pooley for his years of service on the board.
• Request to get Greg Kimura’s poem, Before The Men’s Retreat, on the website.
• David made a plea for volunteers when we make a request for help by email, as we did for Tanglewood’s Blueberry Run and the Common Ground Fair.
• Treasurer reported we had $2715.70 before the weekend and that we took in $775 from the auction (total would later go to over $1000 before donating $78 something to Nepal).
• Ancient History: a box of treasurer’s records from Richard Chalmers was opened and group photo and mailing list from 2008 was posted. Charlie C. noted that the balance in the treasury, what we paid to Tanglewood for rent, and insurance were all basically the same as today.
• David informed the members that the Main Hall would not be used for workshops in the future so that it would always be available for conversation.
• Carl S. plugged the outreach effort at the Common Ground Fair and said he got a lot out of meeting new men and women and talking about who we are and what we do.
• Bob Poole reminded us of the last event he went to about 15 years earlier, Father-Son Connect. Carl S. urged us to make the effort to reach out to younger men.
• Hank L. noted that he has been running a successful “Connections” program for years that touches men, women and kids. He noted that grades 3-5 are a tremendously important time to start making those connections.
• Jeff K. suggested “hook” topics on the website or FaceBook like “Growing up Male in America.”
• Holbrook suggested we make it clear on the website what kinds of visits are allowed during the weekend. He also suggested we could have a day (presumably Saturday) specifically inviting Gay, Bi-, Transgender men to join us, or a day for Fathers with sons 14 and up.
• Steve C. asked why not do tee-shirts again?
• David noted there were three vacancies on the board and Giovanni Carbone, Steven Assante and Steve Case stepped up to fill them, presumably for a two year term ending May 2019.
• Theme for Spring 2018 – Vincent & David: “Passion: how do you identify your life’s passion?”
• David encouraged us to start enrolling new men for the spring weekend now while we’re excited.
• Workshops — Charlie C. noted that the workshops seemed to be created at the weekend without much attachment to the theme and asked how could we make it different. Suggested were to highlight the request to create a workshop in the confirmation letter, to add a checkbox to the registration for “I want to give a workshop,” put the workshops on the website. Tom J. noted two weekends he had attended: experiential stuff in Vermont instead of just talking about stuff, and a Minnesota weekend of “how to” workshops. Workshops might require coordination with attendees beforehand like with instructions to bring a locking knife. Have at least one workshop on the theme. Allow “Pop Up” workshops of only 20 minutes. Up the discretionary amount a workshop leader can spend to $50 before asking the board.
• A suggestion was made during the Jobs & Tasks portion of the meeting that we could take the treasurer off of the executive committee (by amending the Articles of Incorporation / By Laws).
• Jobs & Tasks for Spring 2018
Facilitator — Tom B., backup John B.
Friday dinner — John Bly
Saturday breakfast — Tomas, Daniel
Saturday lunch — Tom B. & Steve Assante
Saturday dinner — Giovanni, Tom J., John B.
Sunday breakfast — Steve C., Daniel
Sunday lunch — Vincent
Variety show host — Mike Arruda
Auctioneer — Charlie
Coffee meister — Carl and Earl Small
Workshop organizer — Charles G.
(discussion ensued about workshops (see above)
Registrar — Charlie C.
Mailing List — Bob O? is this the same job as Postmaster General?
Food Master Chef — Brad
Dishwasher — Alan
First Aid Kit — Daniel
Quilt Curator — Tomas
Tanglewood Liaison — Carl S., Tom J.
Brochure — Tom B., backup Charlie C.
Proofreader — Rick A. and Mike A.
Fire — Holbrook
Bocce Balls — David H.
Bell — Charles G. and Holbrook
Signs — Steve A. (Charlie has them)
Photographer — Bob O.
Website guru — Tom B. (transfer domain registration to MCM, INC.)
Webmaster — Mike A.
(Vincent is currently hosting, will be changing services)
FaceBook — Ham and Dan
(talk to Mike about how to make it an open group)
Common Ground Fair coordinator — Charlie C. , Carl Friday setup,
Bob Sunday takedown
Meeting ended at about 9:35.
Notes and Minutes by Charlie Crane, secretary
Minutes accepted October 23, 2017