In Attendance on Zoom: George, John B, Maine Bob, Charles, David, Joss

  1. Check In
  2. Treasurer’s Report – John
    a. Joss received bank statements and checks from Bangor Savings Bank – nothing came to John B
    b. John B to check w/Tomas to see if he has the MCM checkbook or if Ian still had it when he passed
    c. Letter and $100 check from non-profit – “The Blackbaud Giving Fund by its agent, Your Cause”. Check is made out to Maine Coast Men, Inc. Check is dated 1/21/2021 and is good for 90 days. John will investigate to see if it is legitimate.
    d. Current MCM balance: $5246.24
  3. Board Minutes from 1/14/2021 were approved and accepted by the Board
  4. Mini Series
    a. Jan 22nd session on Grief. Congrats and kudos to Charles for stepping up and narrating the Jan 22nd session. Charles is involved with a hospice/grief series in his area. The other grief/hospice workers were surprised to hear that there are men’s groups doing grief work – good for MCM – men’s work is unusual and special
    b. George is hosting w/Maine Bob the upcoming session on “Non-violent communication”. The date is Feb 25 7-9pm. George and Maine Bob to send out a notice via Mail Chimp. Hoping for 15-25 men to show up for Zoom
    c. Future Sessions:
    i. March 26, Breaking Bread (No facilitator)
    ii. Maine Bob volunteered to host the April 22 session; Some incites gained from “Council of Circles”
    iii. David will contact C T Nguyen to see if he is still interested
    iv. At past presentations we asked men to consider facilitating…no takers at this point
    d. Possible topic: “How are you doing with the Covid pandemic?” Media fears and anxieties; co-morbidities. “Endless lists of things you might do” – Charles
    i. Tomas, Tom J, Phil E, Holbrook – four men to ask if they’re interested in creating/presenting an evening
  5. Council of Circles (update by George)
    a. Discussed information the Mail Chimp gathers when we send out emails
    b. We will offer to men of MCM another Council of Circles workshops  in late April/May
    c. WE need to figure out how to get the word out to MCM
    d. George and Maine Bob will attend next  – “A Council For our Times”
    e. Need to review and Clean-up of Mail Chimp
    f. “Can we use this list (Mail Chimp) to reach out and recruit more men?” – People we know who did not open the link -David
    g. Charles – “Could George put out some advertising about what “Non-violent communication” is about? Maybe u-tube video to watch first before session? George will look into this.
  6. May Retreat at Tanglewood
    Maine Bob – It would be difficult to be ready
    Charles – Have to have policy; Possible Zoom link for anti-vaccine people
    John – Tanglewood doesn’t know what the rules and restrictions will be in May; We won’t be ready to do the Spring retreat as normally was
    Board consensus at this point – Three day program probably not happening, will make final decision at next board meeting.
    At the next Board meeting – Discuss what our options will be if we do not meet.
  7. Website: Dan needs opening statement for the MCM website
    MCM Mission Statement – send this to Dan – go with the mission statement for now. David to speak w/Dan: “use MCM mission statement”
  8. Other: A rare sports discussion
  9. David away from March 12th until April 11th
    Next Board Meeting: Wednesday, March 10th 6:30-8:30 Zoom meeting

Minutes accepted: March 18, 2021