Public Speaking Northwest #9406

 

Officer Meeting Minutes

PUBLIC SPEAKING NORTHWEST

September 7, 2021

 

Meeting started approximately 1:00 p.m.

 

Members in Attendance: Jim, Barb, Nancy, Mara, Lynn C., Jinxin, Lynne D.

 

Minutes from the July meeting were approved.

 

Report from VPE Nancy: 

·      6 officers have been trained

·      Nancy reported several articles about hybrid meetings, including one in the most recent Toastmasters Magazine.

 

Report from VPM Kate:

·      Kate is still receiving inquiries about our club. 

·      Kate had several suggestions that sounded good from her training –

·       “a) Sending physical cards (via "snail-mail") of congrats and encouragement to members who reach milestones such as icebreaker

·       b) (This was not from the training, but the suggestion of sending cards reminded me of it) Here are two websites that I've been using for school: https://www.groupgreeting.com/; https://www.kudoboard.com/

·       c) Inviting past members to come back and judge a speech competition, or help as a mentor. Tap into their "expertise" as a way to engage them.

·       d) Inviting past members to summer/holiday parties”

·      We currently have 21 members, but expect that 4 of them will not renew, including Midori and Kameh.

·      We discussed several members that have not come to meetings lately (Giri, Hannah, Kristin, for example).  Their mentors will reach out to them.

·      Beginning next week, Kate will have more time to follow-up and “nudge” meeting non-attendees.

 

Report from Treasurer Jinxin:

·      Jinxin reported that we have a healthy balance in our checking account.

·      Five members have paid their dues so far.  Jinxin will send out another reminder to members.

·      Jinxin needs Barb to provide a letter to PayPal, explaining that she is now the Treasurer instead of Jim.

 

Report from VPPR Mara:

·      Mara suggested that we have an in-person event in the fall.  Various people expressed concern about increasing COVID infection rates.  We decided to have a special Storytelling (Zoom) event in October. 

·      Mara continues to look for new spaces for us to meet in-person. She said that finding a meeting space with the technical infrastructure to do hybrid meetings would be difficult.

 

Report from SSA Lynne:

·      Lynne expressed appreciation for Mara who substituted for Lynne while she was boating.

·      Lynne reported that IOS is hinting at some reluctance about letting us use our meeting space there.  The company is growing very quickly and all of our former contacts have left the company.  We discussed maybe using a different conference room in the building.  Lynne agreed to reach out to IOS again to clarify and explore options.

·      We still have heavy boxes of supplies stored at IOS. Jim and Mara offered to help Lynne with removing the boxes.

·      We discussed concerns about the technical capabilities of the IOS conference room with regard to hybrid meetings.

·      Lynne mentioned concerns about the technical difficulties with hybrid meetings and suggested that we need a “techie” member to help resolve them.

·      Lynne and Mara agreed to meet off-line to discuss issues regarding in-person meetings such as COVID safety concerns, technical issues about hybrid meetings, etc.

 

 

The meeting adjourned at 11:45 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Katz, Secretary