Sierra View Library Conference Room, Virginia & Peckham, Reno

Present:

Jim Poston, Chair

Patti Poston, Secretary

Heather Mayorga, Director

Bethany Callahan, Director

Jim Demuth, Director

David Pennington, Editor

Elizabeth Dahl, Director

Absent:

Carol Williams, Treasurer

Carl Lucas, Director

Guests:

Gina Hill

Carol Demuth

Mickey Harris

Cheryl Cardoza

1. Call to order and approval of agenda

Quorum present and call to order at 3:45pm

Approval of Agenda

2. Approve minutes of July 26, 2004 meeting – approved.

3. Comments by members and discussion of comments -

Gina Hill gave an introduction of herself and her school, Creative Performing Arts Center.

She asked for input on whether there would be an interest in these types of classes. There was a discussion with suggestions. Gina will do a workshop at the Conference and be a vendor.

4. Reports

a. Chair – Jim Poston – mentioned his article to the Reno Gazette.

b. Treasurer – Carol Williams absent but sent in report with Patti Poston. David mentioned that Impact used 8 pages of the newsletter for no charge. Jim P. made a suggestion to allow a maximum of 4 pages for the coops in future newsletters.

c. Resource Center – Carol Williams – no report absent.

d. Care Committee – Bethany Callahan – See attached. Bethany requested a calling card and stamps for the Care Committee. David made a motion that we buy a roll of stamps for Bethany and a calling card. Patti seconded it and the motion passed.

e. Conference Committee – Cheryl Cardoza – Cheryl gave a report about the conference and a discussion followed. David is doing homeschool dads and NNHS workshop. David is printing out 40 extra newsletters to handout at the conference. Conference committee is over budget and can’t spend more money on advertising. Press releases are going out, PBS and TV stations. Program Ads should pay for the newsletter. Cheryl will be blanketing news media outlets.

Old Business

5. Meeting time/date & format

A new meeting date and time has been proposed for the 2^nd to last Wednesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. The September meeting would then be September 22^nd at 5:30p.m. Location needs to be determined. The “2^nd to last” Wednesday provides time for board meeting news to make it to the newsletter, regardless of how many weeks are in the month. The next meeting was set for Monday, September 20^th at 5:30pm at Round Table Pizza at S. Virginia and Peckham.

6. Website ads

It was agreed to use the same price as the Newsletter uses for ads. What type of ads discussion will be continued at next months meeting with a report on what type we can use to keep our 501(c)3 status.

New Business

7. Conference advertising

The Education Expo begins with the opening dinner on August 27^th. The Gazette-Journal will print a My Turn column on homeschooling by Jim Poston, which will contain a paragraph on the conference – hopefully before August 27^th. Other planned advertising was covered in the conference committee report.

8. Conference presentation

Jim Poston is preparing a presentation for the conference on August 28^th. The board will review the presentation between now and the conference. Jim will present with other volunteers (who?). Patti, David, Carol, Bethany, Heather, Elizabeth all will be at the Conference for the NNHS Board Workshop.

9. Membership directory

Cheryl provided background on the membership directory. The last board was working on a membership directory but it was not completed. Jim P. asked are we interested enough in continuing working on the membership directory? The consensus was that there is enough interest to pursue, and that it should be available only to those who are listed in the directory. A discussion followed and Cheryl Cardoza and Mickey Harris have agreed to work on the membership directory after the NNHS Conference.

10. Member services – value for membership fee

Tabled for next meeting.

11. Election process

The 2004 election was the best NNHS election in our history, and we will probably use a similar format in the future. A little fine-tuning might be needed: What to do about write-in candidates? What deadlines are needed for a July election? How to handle the “variable” number of directors-at-large?

Jim P. said he thought the 2004 election was great and we should keep the same policy. Jim P. has volunteered to write an Election Policy.

12. Staggering board members’ terms of office

The entire board was elected this year. This would mean that the entire board would be up for election in 2006. This isn’t good for board continuity. Half the officers should be elected each year. If an office is vacated and a new director is appointed, that appointment should only be good for the remainder of that term. Are there volunteers for a 1-year term of office? Carol Demuth suggested alternating two “named” officers and two directors at large. We agreed to stagger the terms of two “named”officers and two directors-at-large each year but the exact offices have not been set.

13. Adjourn

Meeting adjourned at 5:10pm

14. Future agenda items

a. Electronic newsletter (old)

b. Putting web click-thrus on the website (old)

c. Conference followup with conference committee

d. Visibility of NNHS in northern Nevada

e. Student competitions, entries from NNHS (spelling bee, geography bee, science fair, athletic teams, debate tournaments, Future Cities, MathCounts, etc.)