USS TOPEKA (CLG 8) ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
May 5, 2001
Meeting Minutes
Present: John Reynolds (President), Mary Reynolds,
Dudley Cass, Ruth Cass, Don Nellis (Chairman), Pat Nellis, Jim Ownby, Pat
Smith, Jerry Judge, Ruth Judge, Parky Parkhurst, Betty Parkhurst, Jack
Timmons (Sec/Treas), Jean Timmons.
1. John Reynolds called the meeting to order at 3:05 PM.
2. Minutes of last Advisory Board Meeting held in Bonita,
CA on October 28,2001 were reviewed and accepted without revision.
3. Treasurer’s Report as of April 28,2001. We are solvent and
all current billings received have been paid.
A. Deposits: We have signed contracts for 2001 Reunion Atlanta
Hotel and Atlanta tours. Towards those contracts we have paid a deposit
to Crowne Plaza Atlanta Airport Hotel in the amount of $500 and Fran
O’Reilly (Tours) $200. For the 2002 Denver Reunion, we have a signed
hotel contract with Hilton Denver Tech South. We have deposited $500
toward that contract. We also have a $500 deposit with the attorney who
is handling our Incorporation as a not for profit veterans organization.
We are experiencing minor cost increases in printing of directories,
postage, and web site costs. There are increased costs for newsletters
primarily because of the increased number of members. Our cash flow
continues to be adequate.
4. Membership Report:
We have 995 members in the database. Eighteen additions since last
October’s meeting, and 47 additions in the past year.
829 Active - on the mailing list.
76 deceased with (20 widows on the mailing list)
342 have paid dues to date. As compared to 361 at Oct 2000, very
positive trend. Dues Analysis:
Paid for 2001 200
For 2002 17
For 2003 19
For 2004 48
For 2005 31
For 2007 1
Total 342
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5. Old Business
A. Status of USS Topeka CLG 8) Reunion Association Tax Exempt Status.
(1) Letter from Denis M. McDevitt, CPA, LLM, A Professional Law
Corporation April 19, 2001 was read in total. In summary, the
attorney’s letter enclosed the proposed Articles of Incorporation for
the USS Topeka (CLG 8) Reunion Association to allow the association to
become incorporated as a California Nonprofit Public Benefit
Corporation for charitable purposes. The letter stated "Upon
incorporation, all property held by the Association will become
irrevocably dedicated to charitable purposes and no net income or
assets of the corporation can ever inure to the personal benefit of a
director, officer or member thereof or any other private individual.
However the corporation can reimburse expenses and pay for a
director’s insurance for example. If the corporation ceases to exist,
then the property must be transferred to another nonprofit fund,
foundation, or corporation. Upon incorporation, the corporation cannot
carry on propaganda, attempt to influence legislation or support a
candidate for public office. The President and Secretary of the
Association must sign the Articles of Incorporation in order to verify
that the Association has authorized its incorporporation by means of
said articles."
The attorney’s letter stated that in addition to filing the Articles of
Incorporation, the Association must also apply to the Internal Revenue
Service for federal tax exempt status under Section 501(c)(19) of the
Internal Revenue Code. Basically veteran’s organizations can be tax exempt
if they meet several requirements. It looks like we meet those
requirements without difficulty.
John Reynolds and Jack Timmons signed and dated the Articles of
Incorporation, the motion authorizing the action having been passed in
the October, 2000 meeting.
6. Correspondence:
A. We have received proposals from Ken Noble and Jack Connery
recommending the 1,000th member should receive some
significant recognition. Jack Connery suggested paying for the next
reunion or some portion of the reunion expenses for that new 1,000th
member.
Discussion ensued: Lots of thoughts expressed. Dudley Cass made a
motion that we give the 1,000th member 5 years of dues free.
More discussion, the vote was against the 5-year dues proposal. It
appeared the tenor of the discussion was against the giving of any
financial benefit to the new member who would have just been lucky.
7. New Business: Finally, purpose of the meeting, Atlanta
Details. Ruth Cass reviewed the hotel, meals, and tours situations.
Jack Timmons passed out for all to review a proposed (pending receipt of
added information from Jerry Craig) Atlanta 2001 Reunion Highlights and a
draft Reunion Registration form. These are anticipated to be slightly
updated and sent to Jack Connery for inclusion in the May 2001 Newsletter.
Setting of Reunion Fees: John Reynolds used the Reunion Registration
form to open the discussion on setting reunion fees. Dudley Cass and Jack
Timmons went through the details of the Reunion Cost Estimator
Spreadsheet. Discussed in detail whether we would lose or gain money based
on our estimate of 150 attendees. Noted needed to change the Reunion
Registration form category "Child’s Plate (12 and younger)"
to read "(ages 5-12)" to avoid ambiguity.
Motion was made and seconded to accept the reunion fee as $105 per
adult for all four days, $12 for Thursday, $36 for Friday, and $57 for
Saturday, Teenagers at Banquet are $39 and get adult food, no liquor,
children ages 5-12 are $19 at banquet and would get a child’s plate.
Children under 5 are free and get chicken tenders etc.
There was discussion re whether to pay the Atlanta hotel rental for
cork boards and easels, or borrow, or buy for long term use. It was
decided that the rental rate quoted by the hotel was acceptable and
preferable to having to carry the materials from reunion to reunion.
8. Other Business - Jack Connery had indicated that due to a
possible schedule conflict, that he and Jill might not be able to attend
the Atlanta Reunion and wanted to know what needed to be done, who was
interested to running the ship’s store etc.
Jack Timmons declined; has too much Sec/Treas work to do.
Dudley and Ruth Cass declined; too much other work to do.
At one point it was suggested that if Jack and Jill were not to be able
to come to the reunion we should take other actions. There is a
considerable investment in materials and, rather than taking a financial
risk of loss, perhaps we should just tell folks they could order Ship’s
Store materials by mail.
Lots of discussion, no specific action. The consensus, if there was
one, is that if Jack and Jill are somehow not able to make the reunion,
they will need to ship the ship’s store materials to the hotel, someone
can take up the slack and man the ship’s store.
We would then have to post a ship’s store watch bill to try to keep the
ship’s store stocks safe from loss and to assist in sales.
9. There being no further business before the Advisory Board, the
Meeting was closed at 4:25 PM.
The next advisory board meeting will be in October 2001 in Atlanta.
Respectfully submitted,
Jack E. Timmons
Secretary Treasurer
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