VENTURA COUNTY PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S NETWORK
Post Office Box 6329 Q Oxnard, CA 93031 Q (866) 275-4134 Q www.VCPWN.org
Minutes
VENTURA COUNTY PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S NETWORK
LEADERSHIP TEAM MEETING
August 21, 2014
IN ATTENDANCE: Sue Osborn, Darian
Taylor, Lynn Ryder, Shirley Jones Snyder,
Linda Wall, Sheila Lowe, Jann Huling, Anna
Kittleson, Celia Cortez, Ferne Ross, Jim
Nicoll
ABSENT: Micki Rickard
discussion to end the award be tabled, Lynn
2nd. The motion carried.
Pres Elect/Programs – Lynn Ryder
The September 11th program will be a fashion
show by Sarah and Teri Domier, with Jodi
Campbell (Lia Sophia).
President Sue Osborn called the meeting to
order at 6:15 pm.
▪ Lynn has received speaker applications, but
many are not topics of interest to our group.
Possibilities include a speaker from the Grand
Jury; Linda Northrup on balancing work and
life: Dr. Adrienne Lara; Susan Landry.
Darian moved that minutes of the July
meeting be approved, Shirley 2nd, Motion
carried.
DIRECTOR REPORTS:
Finance –Shirley Jones Snyder, Linda Wall
There was no financial report this month, as
Linda is still getting up to speed on the books.
We do not know whose memberships are up
for renewal, but Linda and Jann will
coordinate and send out invoices.
President - Sue Osborn
See old/new business
Immediate Past President – Darian Taylor
No nominations have been received for the
Wind Beneath My Wings award. Ferne
expressed her view that the award may not be
important to the community. Discussion
ensued and it was agreed that our members
are not properly aware of the significance of
WBMW. It was decided to takes steps to
better publicize the award and make sure
members know what it is and why it is
important.
▪ Shirley requested a leave of absence for
health reasons. She will report back on her
progress in January. She has turned over
records to Linda and will continue to support
her. Sheila made a motion to accept Shirley’s
request for a LoA. Ferne 2nd The motion
carried.
▪ Volunteers are needed to help Linda collect
money at the registration desk. Darian
volunteered to help from time to time, but
Jann suggested, and it was agreed, that one
past recipient read her winning essay at a
meeting. Anna made a motion that the
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alternate board members are needed to relieve
her.
Shoblom, Linda McCarthy, Teri Domeier to
help.
Secretary/Web Manager – Sheila Lowe
Rick Taylor made a proposal for the website
update, which included adding a birthday field
to the membership application.
▪ Ferne will continue posting new member
profiles on the FB page. She announced her
intention to close our current page and open a
new one. She is creating a new database for
mailings and would like to add home
addresses. She also announced that she is
considering a switch from Vertical Response
to Constant Contact.
Membership – Jann Huling
Jann will work with Linda on renewals. She
will begin holding committee meetings at her
office on the Tuesday after the September
general meeting: 4478 Market St. #702,
Ventura, noon.
Member at Large – Jim Nicoll
Jim continues to cross-promote at other
organizations’ events. He ensures that we
have appropriate membership items to
meetings and is willing to continue manning
the membership table.
Networking – Anna Kittleson
The quick self-intros worked well at the last
meeting. The “no commercials” rule needs to
be enforced in order to maintain the schedule.
Old Business –
Linda has been unsuccessful in uncovering
new information regarding our corporate
status. Sue will talk with Julie Saltoun, who is
now a sole practitioner, and ask for a cost
estimate to complete this project.
▪ Anna will reiterate that Blow Your Own Horn
and Who Did Business With Whom are
members-only benefits. Spirit of Networking
Award promos will begin with the September
meeting, and Sue will mention it, too.
Hospitality – Micki Rickard
Absent, no report submitted.
▪ Four signatures are needed for the bank.
Shirley, Linda, Darian, and Lynn will meet at
the bank to complete the paperwork.
Special Events – Celia Cortez
Celia reported that her committee met and
discussed handing out Expo invitation cards
at NAWBO (Sue), Ladies Luncheon (Darian),
and the Chamber Expo. So far, 8 tables have
been sold to 12 people. Volunteers will call
members to book a vendor table.
Ferne suggested that Celia create a Facebook
Event for the Expo, and offered to help set it
up.
▪ Sue asked for a status on new gmail
accounts. So far, four board members have
created theirs. All are requested to create an
account that will be attached to, and move
with, their position by the September board
meeting.
▪ Website update: Sue reviewed the free
Drupal websites submitted by Rick Taylor and
chose three possibilities. Ferne has a contact
who proposes to create a WordPress website
in exchange for membership and meeting
fees. Sue also has a contact from whom she
Communications - Ferne Ross
Ferne will begin publicizing the expo and is
setting up a committee comprised of SuZanne
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would use the VCPWN cards and revisit the
issue at a future date.
will request a proposal. A separate meeting
will be scheduled for demonstrations of their
work.
▪ Jann spoke with Abraham Luna, who works
with junior and senior high school girls in El
Rio and would like to coordinate some type of
mentoring relationship with us. The girls,
whose parents are mainly farm workers, need
to see that other opportunities exist. Sheila
suggested we sponsor 5 of them for dinner, as
we did with our highly successful
DreamMakers program. Jann will invite Mr.
Luna to attend the January meeting.
▪ Sue reviewed the letter we received from the
State Board of Equalization in May, which
invited VCPWN to participate in a women’s
networking event. Having received no helpful
responses to her inquiries from the person
who sent the letter, Sue handed it over to
Ferne, who will follow up.
New Business –
▪ It was decided that hors d’oeuvres only will
be served instead of dinner at the November
silent auction. The question arose regarding
whether the cost would be reduced, as guests
might find $38 too high for this event. Sheila
pointed out that change of costs requires
some programming changes to the website.
Meeting adjourned 8:30 pm
Respectfully submitted by Sheila Lowe
Sue proposed making the silent auction a
progressive event, where everyone changes
tables twice, which allows for more
networking. Each attendee would receive a
card with a color, letter, and number. All
agreed. Darian and Sue will coordinate.
Baskets that receive no bids will not be
automatically heavily discounted as they were
in the past, as this discourages bidding. Celia
suggested that to create excitement, buyers
could draw a card with a discount amount
(according to a color) on those baskets.
▪ Ferne requested that we obtain a Send Out
Cards account for $10/month from member
Teri Domeier. Teri offered 100 points. The
question was raised as to whether the account
would be limited to one user, and who would
be in charge of it. Darian and Shirley pointed
out that we have a lot of notecards with the
new VCPWN logo. It was decided that we
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