USS TOPEKA (CLG 8) ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
October 12,2001
Meeting minutes

1. John Reynolds called the meeting to order at 4:30 PM poolside at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Airport Hotel. We were not able to get a free meeting room and the hospitality suite was too noisy to allow business to be conducted there.

2.Attendance: Attendees were President John Reynolds, Don Anderson, Jerry Judge, Jerry Pennington, Dudley Cass, and Jack Timmons, Secretary/Trea 

Advisory Board Members who could not attend include: Don Nellis (Chairman of the Advisory Board), Tom Eagling, Jack Kehoe, Jim Ownby, Jack Connery, Irad Parkhurst and Past Assistant Sec/Treas Allen Jefferis.

2. Review of Minutes of last Advisory Board Meeting held in Bonita, CA on August 16, 2001. Minutes were read and accepted as read.

3. Membership Report: As of October 7, 2001:

  1017 in the database (52 additions since the last General Meeting on August 19,2000.
  857 Active - on the mailing list
  85 Deceased - (20 Widows on the mailing list, 5 Widows Inactive by their request.)
  160 Not Active; 93 who are not deceased or "Retired" usually bad mailing addresses.
  9 "Retired" - who said they wanted off the mailing list
  379 Active and Dues Paid  (44.2% of the mailing list)
    Dues: Paid thru 2001    379
Paid thru ’01     244
Paid thru ’02       29
Paid thru ’03       19
Paid thru ’04       48
Paid thru ’05       37
Paid thru ’06         0
Paid thru ’07         2   Gordon Herrigstad- Norbert Howe
    Non-paids ’10      26
These include
1. 20 Widows
2.  1 Naval History Museum
3.  1 CO, USS Topeka (SSN 754)
4.  1 ETC Victor Hammond, USN (ret) at the Naval Home
5.  3 Presidents of  
      (1)USS Topeka CL67 Reunion Assn.
(2)USS Oklahoma City ReunionAssn.
(3)USS Topeka Assn of Topeka KS.

4. Treasurer’s Report as of October 7,2001. We remain solvent.

Notes:

A. We have paid $400 for General Liability Insurance, including liquor law liability coverage for the entire year, which covers this Atlanta Reunion, the Denver Reunion, and all meetings including Laughlin and all Board Meetings. This at less cost than we had been paying for event insurance for just the reunion. The coverage's are as good as or better than what we had in the past.

B. We have paid the printer for the costs of the August Newsletter and the mailing of that newsletter.

C. We have prepaid certain expenses or made deposits as shown:

A. For the 2001 Atlanta Reunion;
(1) Deposit to Crowne Plaza Hotel on 01/18/2001 $ 500
(2) Deposit to Fran O’Reilly (Tours)
      Paid to Fran (Tours)		 04/02/2001
10/02/2001		 $200
$3873
        Total paid for tours to date   $4073 $4073
      Deposit for disk jockey   $100
  Total 2001 Reunion Deposits and prepayments     $4,673
D. Additional 2001 Reunion Expenses expected:      
  (1). Any additional tour seats that were sold      
  (2) Hotel Costs expected (varies dependent on head count)      
         Friday night buffet dinner (estimated)   $2282  
  (3) Saturday night Banquet   $2948  
       Wines for Banquet   $737  
  (4) Balance owed to disk jockey   $325  
  (5) Hospitality Suite costs   $2250  
       Estimated remaining costs   $8542  
E. We have prepaid a deposit to the Hilton in Denver CO for the 2002 Reunion.   $ 500  
         

5. Old Business

A. Status of USS Topeka CLG 8) Reunion Association Tax Exempt Status. Federal Tax Exempt Status approvals are all done as shown in the Newsletter.

California State: The $25 registration for State Tax Exempt Status Fee, the check has been cashed, we expect approval soon

6. Correspondence:

A. Status of Baka Hachi revision Postponed, covered in last newsletter

7. Atlanta Reunion Status to Date October 12, 2001.

A. Number of persons signed up to date 43 persons. This is much less than the expected and budgeted counts. At least 3 members indicated the events of September 11, 2001 impacted the decision to not come to the reunion.

8. Purpose of this Meeting - closing down Advisory Board Business, and a request for the continued participation of past advisory board members in leadership roles or committee positions as possible.

9. Proposed Slate of Officers and Board of Directors

The proposed Slate of Officers offered by Don Nellis is John Reynolds for President and Jack Timmons for Secretary/Treasurer. John Reynolds says the new bylaws provide that the Board of Directors will elect the officers, so the officers will be elected after the Board is elected. John is willing to continue as President.

The proposed slate for Board of Directors offered by Don Nellis (Chairman of the Board of Advisors) includes:

Dudley Cass       Jack Connery       Jerry Judge
Jerry Pennington  Ken Noble          Allen Jefferis

(With President John Reynolds as an ExOfficio member of the board.)

Discussion:
(1) Jack Connery stated by email that with some prospective Board Members not in the San Diego area, either video conferencing or telephone conferencing would be necessary to ensure the active participation of all Board Members. We have fewer members of the Board of Directors than with the prior board of advisors making participation critical. Jack Timmons said he would look into the costs, because Jack Connery’s concern is valid. This is an item that could be budgeted.

(2) Proposed slate for the Board of Directors. Don Anderson said he would like to be considered for the Board of Directors. In view of the need for telephone or video conferencing, his geographic separation would not be a problem. Don has put on a Reunion (Norfolk) and has participated in all reunions and attended all meeting where he could. Don Anderson said he could come to the Laughlin meetings and would be available for telephone conferencing at all Board of Directors meetings.

There was discussion about Allen Jefferis who is involved with many other ship reunion groups and who has been unable to attend out of state Topeka Reunions and who has not been available for several Advisory Board Meetings. Dudley Cass said he had received an email from Allen Jefferis where he had indicated he volunteered to make sure there was someone with experience available for the Board of Directors. Jefferis is busy and would be willing to step aside if someone else with experience was available and wanted the job or words to that effect. Jack Timmons remembered seeing that email.

John Reynolds said that he would be happy to have Don Anderson on the Board of Directors. One of the issues we have had in the past was the feeling that this organization was too San Diego or West Coast centered, and that Don Anderson would offer East Coast Representation.

The advisory board members present voted to put Don Anderson’s name on the slate of candidates for Board of Directors in lieu of Allen Jefferis. The remainder of the slate proposed by Don Nellis would remain the same.  

10. Other Business - There was no other business to be conducted.

11. John Reynolds closed the meeting at 5:15 PM.

Respectfully submitted:

Jack E. Timmons; Secretary/Treasurer

October 30, 2001