Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes

August 6, 2006

In attendance: Felicity Pickett, Granger, John Terracuso, Cathy, Fred, Simon, Illana, Holly, Guy, Bob Scheier, Zack, Mary Rives (guest) Pauline Aiello (guest).

• Guy moved to accept the April minutes. Fred seconded. The motion carried unanimously.

(Accepting minutes from the June meeting will be postponed until September.)

Director’s Report

Felicity Pickett

We’ve received one bid at 26k for a new septic system for Fromson House. It will be put in this fall. The Camps have been been going well and were all fully enrolled with waiting lists. A camper broke his arm at Jr. High camp. T-camp and YPC went well. At the last minute Rosa Kessler got a job and was not able to direct camp, but her sister Pippi Kessler, who has been a long time staff person stepped in and did an amazing job. Greg Glassman was a new director for T-Camp this year and did a great job, as well. After camp we had a complaint about a T-Camp staff person and we’ve been conducting an investigation and that continues. Sr. High camp also began with an incident—someone made a complaint to the DSS hotline. It turned out to be a camper who did not want to come to camp. It was screened out by DSS.

We had a great director’s meeting. We’re working on creating a lice policy. There’s some talk about changes in ages. Aram and Sarah are not coming back next year to Jr. High Camp. In addition, Yoruba will not be returning to T-Camp. They have all had long term connections with camp and will be missed. We won’t be looking for a new T-camp director as having three directors was a bit of an experiment. We will be looking for new Jr. High directors. That search will begin this fall.

Development: We have raised $33,474 for camperships. We have given out $22k to Woodside Diversity camperships, 13K to general youth camperships. $33k will come from the fund, the rest from membership. Members and friends is in Sept, and all are invited.

Treasurers Report

Fred Schoeps

Rowe financials through 6/06 are on target and continue to demonstrate sound financial management on the part of Rowe Staff.

In reviewing the draft of the 06-07 budget that we will be discussing at our meeting I concluded:

a) the camp and conference center operating budget is on sound footings -- see comments below.

b) Rowe staff has consistently demonstrated their ability to generate 100-130K of development income year to year. A target greater than 130K will require Board intentionality and commitment to generate such results. The development committee is requested to lead a discussion related to 06-07 development income targets.

Fred moved to accept the fee structure as presented. Simon seconded the motion. The motion carried by majority.

Felicity suggested the creation of a committee to examine our fee structure. Granger volunteered to chair the committee.

• Simon moved to accept the fiscal year 2007 budget. Cathy seconded. The motion carried by majority.

Investment Policy

Granger Macy

The investment committee has been meeting much of the year to develop a policy on how Rowe's investment funds are handled. The policy defines responsibilities for periodic reviews of investments, the types of investments which are appropriate to

make, and defines responsibilities for how monies are managed—deposits, withdrawals, and transfers.

• Simon moved to accept the policy with Granger’s changes. Illana seconded. The motion carried by majority.

Development Budget

Bob Schoeps

At the last Development Committee meeting the committee established five priority areas for the coming fiscal year and they are the following:

1 Providing Camperships

2 Preparing the Chapel for 100th Anniversary

3 Finishing Dining Room Floor

4 Installing Septic System at Fromson House

5 Providing money to fund Stewardship Committee Projects.

We developed a budget to meet these goals. To meet these goals is very exciting, but to actually complete all these projects will mean a stepped up commitment from the entire Board and the Rowe Staff to meet the challenge. Conversely if we don’t have everyone’s commitment, we need to know now so we can revise our plan.

Here is a summary of the big figures:

Proposed Budget

Staff Housing $20,000

Chapel $33,600

Dining Room Floor $25,000

New Guest House $20,000

Total Capital Projects $98,600

Board Commitment $80,000

Annual Drive $18,600

Total Development Budget

Felicity Annual Fundraising $143,377 (includes annual drive above)

Board $80,000

Development Budget for 06/07 $223,377

This will be a stretch for the board and the staff but I think it is obtainable with a concerted effort. It is a goal that is a challenging but not one that is too overwhelming. I hope we can all agree to take this challenge to make Rowe viable for years to come.

Stewardship Committee

Guy Thompson

A number of people have done assessments on the facilities but not many have submitted reports. An email has been sent out requesting the reports be in by beginning of Sept so we can give the staff some leeway. We’ve scheduled a meeting for Saturday and Sunday before Work Week, which is at the end of September.

Nominations

Holly Thompson

At the annual meeting, we’re going to be voting in three new members, Bob, JT, and Granger. Illana and Holly are stepping down, so that will leave us with eight members, and we will be nominating Simon to be vice president. In addition, Doug, Cathy, Felicity, and Holly have been generating lists of potential female members and have been in contact with a number of women on the list, with some negative and some positive responses.

Long Range Planning Committee

Holly Thompson

The committee hasn’t met since the last meeting. Focus group turnout has been low. There one focus group since the last meeting, and the report is being drafted. It was a group of Brooklyn alumni, 25 - 35 years old, 13 people. Overall impression is that money does not seem to be barrier. They love Rowe a lot and would come, but currently there is no program that would get them here. Their main interest is being able to see their friends.

In terms of direction for the committee, we’re going to need a new chair. It would be nice to have people lead focus groups at Rowe during conferences. We would also like to develop an actual survey that we either post on the web or mail out or both.

Simon moved to adjourn. Cathy seconded. The motion carried unanimously.