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
January 15, 2014
IN ATTENDANCE: Sue Osborn, Darian
Taylor, Lynn Ryder, Sheila Lowe, Jann
Huling, Anna Kittleson, Micki Rickard, Mary
Gabriels, Jim Nicoll, Ferne Ross
Speakers for the next few months are as
follows:
February. Suzy Prudden: Money, Mind,
Mastery. March. Mary Kravitz: Simplify Your
Marketing(?) April. Silent Auction and
Progressive Dinner May. Lynn will ask Martha
Jaffe to do her Travel Tips program.
ABSENT: Linda Wall, Celia Cortez
Medical leave: Shirley Jones Snyder
Finance –Shirley Jones Snyder, Linda Wall
In her absence, Linda sent P&L and Balance
Sheets for the second half of 2014. We still
don’t know whether anyone is sending out
renewal notices.
President Sue called the meeting to order at
6:20 pm.
Darian moved that Minutes of the November,
2014 meeting be approved, Micki 2nd. The
Minutes were approved as submitted.
Secretary/Web Manager –Sheila Lowe
Nothing new to report.
Ferne asked to have the Facebook badge on
the website updated. Unfortunately, this will
not be possible, but since there will be a new
website in a few weeks, it should not be a
problem.
DIRECTOR REPORTS:
President - Sue Osborn
Lynn and Sue will seek three bids for
insurance coverage. They believe we have
sufficient coverage, thus, there is no
compelling reason to incorporate. As part of
the bid process, they will try to get better
explanations from the insurers.
Membership – Jann Huling
Due to Jann’s illness, the Membership
committee did not meet in January. The next
meeting will be February 2nd at 5:30 at Marie
Callender’s on Victoria.
Immediate Past President – Darian Taylor
Darian has emailed several members to
request a copy of their Wind Beneath My Wings
essay to read at upcoming meetings and get
the members interested in this important
award. In the meantime, she will read the list
of past recipients at the next meeting.
Networking- Anna Kittleson
Anna will produce ballots for the Spirit of
Networking award at the next meeting. The
Blow Your Own Horn segment will be strictly
limited to 30 seconds. To avoid having non-
Pres Elect/Programs – Lynn Ryder
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enough. She especially encouraged board
members to bring them as a way of getting
extra advertising.
members promote other non-members during
the BYOH and Who Did Business segment,
hostesses will discuss the ground rules during
table networking.
Anna and Jann will get together to review
their job descriptions.
Old Business –
Sheila raised the question of what happened
to the names of interested people from last
October’s Expo. Sue asked Ferne to hire
someone to enter them into our database for
mailing and follow up. However, nobody
knows where they are. Ferne thought Linda
had them (subsequently, Linda has said she
thought Ferne or Jann had them). Sheila
volunteered to enter the names in a
spreadsheet if they can be found.
Hospitality – Micki Rickard
Micki was delighted to announce that Martha
Jaffee has enthusiastically joined her
committee.
Special Events – Celia Cortez
Celia needs to convene the auction committee
soon.
Website: The vote was 5 in favor of Elaine
Omalia, 4 in favor of Lauren DuMond. Three
abstained and two weren’t present to vote. A
committee will be convened comprised of
Sue, Lynn, Ferne to work with Elaine.
Sheila has been the web hosting company for
several years, invoicing in January. She will
prorate the fees for the first two months, in
anticipation of completion of a new website.
It was noted that we would need to add 18
new members this year to pay for the website,
which will deplete our funds substantially.
There was some discussion regarding whether
Elaine’s fees are negotiable. Darian made a
motion that we pay up to $2000 plus
$80/month to Elaine. Ferne 2nd. Two
abstained. The motion passed.
Communications - Ferne Ross
Ferne spoke with Sheldon Brown at the Breeze
and sent notices to the Reporter and others.
The January meeting notice appeared in at
least two newspapers. She has emailed Gloria
Miele to ask how we can be listed in the WEV
newsletter.
Ferne is interested in using Mail Chimp to
send the monthly newsletter. She will explore
whether there is a limit on how many can be
emailed at no charge (or nonprofit cost).
Member at Large – Jim Nicoll
Jim asked Ferne to put him on her press
release distribution so that he can share our
notices with his circle of contacts. He
requested that anyone who has VCPWN
marketing materials bring them to the next
meeting to put in the Membership box.
There was discussion about updating the
current brochure. Jann will talk to Shar at the
Ventura Chamber about doing a redesign.
Anna will talk to Cory Pironti about same.
New Business –
Mary has not been receiving any of the board
emails or meeting notices. All board members
are requested to make sure she is on the board
distribution list and meeting notice list.
Member at Large – Mary Gabriels
Mary pointed out that we need to ask people
for door prizes as there have not been
Sue suggested we provide a copy of the
agenda for all attending general meetings.
Mary pointed out that we stopped doing so
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some years ago to save paper. Sheila suggested
it could be printed on the back of the hot
sheet. Sue will take over copying the hot
sheets for the meeting from Lynn.
Sue proposed an idea for doing something to
contribute to the community: at the
November meeting she spoke with Maria de
la luz Flores from CalWorks at Oxnard
College. This is a program for adults who
have been on welfare are now going to school
and working to change their lives. The
program is looking for mentorships, including
speakers who will inspire them. A variety of 2
hour workshops are offered in the program
on Friday mornings, and they would like us to
join them in the Spring. Sue, Jann, and Sheila
volunteered to be speakers. Sue will find out if
other board members may attend. Lynn
suggested we open these students up to
membership and bring them to meetings.
Meeting adjourned 8:10 pm
Respectfully submitted by. Sheila Lowe
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