Attachment A2
All Star One Chairs Meeting
Held in Marshman Building – Star Island
June 27, 2010
Present: Pam Pierce, Phil Pierce, Tom Coleman, Tricia Coleman, Ben Soule, Debbie Weiner Soule, Ned Tillman, Kathy Tillman, Kemp Harris, Bill Tibbs, Carla Osgood, David Osgood, George Easter, Sally Easter, John Best, Estelle Best, Dana Powsner, Henry Powsner, Roy Cook, Marion Cook, Jon Krejci, Stan Corfman, Kim Corfman, Bill Clegg, Jane Trudeau, Elizabeth Yermack, Larry Yermack, Jan Prochaska, Cheryl-Anne Sturken, Joel Fredericks, Barb Hallows, Ray Hallows, Tom Walton, Deb Walton, Bill Gimpel, Chris Gimpel, Carl Sturken, Scott Stewart, Annie Stewart, Jim Prochaska, Dug Miller
Phil Pierce, moderator, called the meeting to order at 4:05 PM
Opening Words – David Osgood:
David shared his feelings around Nancy Wood’s worship service, and the music offered in the Neon Grandma concert. David shared a reading from“The Shape of Love” (books.google.com/books?id=OjdEmnnE54YC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Shape+of+Love&source=bl&ots=ZcfWH8B3oI&sig=p5KSujZXFKCo-UzJ__EE3F3x18E&hl=en&ei=O_vGTJvwKoT58AawnZko&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false ) His reading ended, “All sounds depend upon silence, all things felt depend on what is not felt.” He reflected on what it means to have our ears wide open, and to use attentive listening. Remember, David said, “That all of the form of Star is held in something beyond words. Sprit, awareness, consciousness…everything in form changes. Nothing will be the same in years that are going to be, and we are always changing and shifting. But at Star, we touch something eternal. When you put a word on it – God, love, — that is not it. That is a form. This is not a form. All of these forms are held in something beyond form, and that is what draws us back every year. We operate in two worlds: form, and the world of space. I invite us to move into this world of adjusting form with open awareness.”
Chairs Report
Carl and Cheryl-Anne Sturken were invited to report. Carl said things were going as they had hoped they would. Carl recognized the huge amount of work Cheryl-Anne had put in. “We’re on our way,” Carl said.
Draft Mission statement – Kathy Tillman
Kathy presented the draft mission statement for the All Star One conference. The draft is to be shared with people in the conference, with the hope that lots of feedback and ideas will be gathered. This will be processed, and we will look at this statement again at Whispering Pines.
Use of Art Auction Funds – Jim Prochaska and Deb Weiner Soule
Jim noted that there had been considerable discussion about the best way to use Art Auction funding to achieve our goals of supporting both the Star Island Annual Fund and our conference community. He presented a motion: We recommend that a portion of the funds from the upcoming on-island art auction be used to support our financial aid program (with the amount to be determined at Whispering Pines, following the conclusion of the conference). The motion was seconded.
Discussion:
Barb Hallows asked for a review of other sources of funding for financial aid. They were reviewed (Bill Gimpel). It is also possible that a separate fund drive could be repeated to raise funds. Jim Prochaska noted that we also agreed that it was important to strongly support the annual fund.
Henry Powsner: What would happen if the motion was defeated? Jim: The hope was that the approved motion could be announced to the conference in general, so that they would be aware of it, and so that we would go to Whispering Pines knowing that we had a commitment to this plan of action.
Bill Gimpel: We have a little money left from this year, and there are some other funds that we hope to raise. Elizabeth Yermack’s committee (financial aid committee) has projected that we have a need from 12,500 to 14,500 for the 2011 conference year.
Henry: If this motion is defeated, is there a plan to spend money from the art auction? Phil Pierce: no.
Bill Clegg: Since the current understanding is that money [from the auction] gets used for the Annual Fund, it would seem to me that that is what the money would be used for. Jim: For those of us who would prefer that the full auction proceeds go to the annual fund, one of the things we can do is to contribute to financial aid effort, like the Party with a Purpose, and other events.
Ben Soule: I want to speak in favor of the motion. It feels like we need to do this to give ourselves options. If we limit our options by saying no, the money can only go to one deserving purpose (the annual fund) and it limits our options in supporting financial aid. There is no number specifiied in this motion, and it gives us lots of latitude.
Stan Corfman: Question: before I vote, I would like to know what happened with financial aid. Also, it sounds to me that the motion, if carried, defers any decision about proceeds till Whispering Pines.
Elizabeth Yermack: At the Town Meeting we will talk more about what has happened with financial aid. I don’t know if you are all aware of the extent of the need, and the need to maintain the economic diversity of our conference. We don’t’ have enough information now to make a good decision on this.
Bill Gimpel: We awarded $11,416 to 40 people. (Bill also added information on what sources that funding came from.) Elizabeth: I support this motion strongly because I think we will have more information at WP. Jim: We have had real difficulty in dealing with our differences with this issue, and we felt that coming into our week, we need to have a better discussion. At Whispering Pines, we will have that opportunity.
Annie Stewart asked for a clarification of what funds we were discussing and when they will be disposed of.
Paula Phillips: People who aren’t former chairs don’t have a say as to where the money is going. Elizabeth: Could we make provision in this motion to solicit the community at large?
Phil called for a vote on the motion that had been approved and seconded. It unanmously passed.
Elizabeth Yermack: Before WP, I hope that the chairs will solicit a full opinion of the community and factor that into the decision making process. (This became a motion).
Discussion:
Paula: It would be good if there were an online comment period.
Jim: I support this, but on the other hand one of the things that has made things more difficult is we take things like this and make policy from it. We need to find a better way to include our community in general. We will be asking for input tonight…but it is not good to take a case and make governance, we also need to include more of our community.
Stan: We need to make policy in this area, but we don’t have a good track record at doing this. If we are making a baby step, we need to affirmatively ask people outside the room what they think on this.
Bill Clegg: I am in favor of what I hear — asking for input — but I relate to what Jim has said. Exactly what issue or question are we asking them to respond to. Seems to me that one of the reasons to defer our own work is that we have homework to accomplish. A notion that we would commit ourselves to sharpen some of the issues and questions is terrific. But to take a vote tonight and say we are doing something…
Annie: Bill makes a good point. It has taken us a long time to figure out what we want. There are two questions: about financial aid, which Elizabeth will lay out – and we don’t know how the rest of the island feels. Do they think we should be giving out this money? Second thing is the split of allocation from the Annual Fund, because people are passionate about this. I would hope we can accept written comments through the end of the week.
Tom Coleman: Our governance structure doesn’t support a plebecite. Input, yes.
Jan: We know as a group that we need $12,000. We hope we can raise $100,000 for the annual fund. We need to ask the group, how can we do both?
Kim Corfman: We need to structure what we want feedback on from the conference. Most people don’t have a clue as to what the problem is. Going through the exercise is consciousness raising.
Elizabeth: I am not looking for a plebecite. I want us, in considering the problem, to have some input from the community that we actually consider, and that goes beyond who is here on the island this week. There are people who have members of this community who no longer attend because they can’t afford it. I’m saying gather as much information as possible, it will all help us make rational decisions.
Roy Cook: The money we raise, however we vote, will all end up in the pocket of the SIC. Paying for your being here, for the Capital Campaign…we are still sending it to SIC.
Jim: From my perspective what we need to share with one another, if we go from a $100K annual fund to a $70K AF, it’s like a drop in enrollment and we would find it troubling. If you only ask one thing, you get one answer. There is a bigger question. I support money going to financial aid. We need to struggle with our community and the larger community in a way that if it supports financial aid it doesn’t take money from the financial aid fund.
A vote was taken, and Elizabeth’s motion passed unanimously.
Annual Fund – Ned Tillman
It was an awful year economically. You all came through. We didn’t make our goal. Our goal was $100K, we came in at $89K and it turned out to be the highest amount of any week of the summer, and under the economic conditions it was very good. The discussion we have just had has been part of my concern, trying to understand our goal for this year. We have already received $20K in cash and pledges. What should we set of our goal? Many of us are still in pain, but I’m thinking it might be a little better. Last year there was $11,015 in auction funds. We don’t know what that number will be till Whispering Pines. We have a full conference, I need feedback. Can we shoot for $100 K or are there too many unknowns? (Ned clarified that a ‘year’ is a calendar year.)
Discussion:
Bill Clegg: Did we receive any non-traditional or extraordinary donations in the last year?
Ned: There is another challenge and that is the capital campaign that is going on. We are trying to raise millions in the next year. That is getting off to a good start. In theory, those contributions are supposed to be outside of the annual fund. We have pretty high participation, people who give more than the average, and sometimes that doesn’t come through as strongly as in other years. I hope we can make $89K that we did last year. The auction fund is a question; how people contribute to the capital campaign is a question. We had 89 percent participation from the whole conference. The overall participation went up.
Elizabeth: Are you counting everyone who gave money to the auction as part of the 89%? (Ned: Yes.)
Bill Clegg: We all should arrive at an aspiration for the annual fund and communicate that to the Corporation. It is important for the director of development to get a sense of what the aspirations of the different conferences are. One way to do that is to round up to $90K and see if we could beat it.
Paula: If you took the outlyers, what do you think is the average donation of people in this conference?
Stan: Roughly, if we took in $90K last year over 150 giving units, that’s $600/giving unit.
George Easter: From the standpoint of the impact of what the goal has on givers, I wouldn’t reduce it below $90K. If I was talking to the Director of Development, I’d say, ‘you should look around $80K…between the capital campaign, our need for financial aid, we might not get it. But I would use $90K in the campaign.
Jim: In terms of our aspirations for our All Star One community and our Star Island community, I would like to see us extend ourselves to be leaders in terms of our Star Island community. I would like to see us set a goal that we achieved previously. I think it says, as much as we can, we may need to extend ourselves more, but it is for the well being of our conference and our island.
John Best: But we don’t want to have a shortfall. We raised the issue of credibility. I support what George said.
Bill Gimpel: I support what both George and Jim said. Going to the Town Meeting tonight, we could tell people that our goal is $100K. The sidebar is that if you are talking to Angela Matthews, we say, ‘this is our goal.’ But we follow George’s model and set expectations lower. Deb Walton: last year our goal was $100K, we raised $89K. Terrible economy. This year we have to fund the financial aid fund, and the capital campaign. If we set our goal at $100K, I am concerned that we have other places where money needs to go and we will fall short. And I don’t think it will help the island’s planning. I would rather set a realistic goal.
Larry Yermack: I support everything that has been said, and we have conflicting goals and limited resources. We have two members of the board in our community and one is the Treasurer of the Corporation. And maybe they can tell us what the impact of a $90K goal is. Stan: I think the discussions that eventually Ned will have with Angela and Vicky should take the direction George is saying. Right now we are setting our own goal, and our own commitment to the island. I happen to not like failure, but if I set an ambitious goal and don’t make it it makes me want to work harder. I would support a $100K goal and try to make it. Carla Osgood: My only concern is that we need to hold both: money for financial aid and the annual fund. My concern is that $12,000 is unrealistic for financial aid, we need more. And it means the world to a lot of people, and it points to keeping a community that has economic diversity. My concern is that I hope we don’t get soft on needing to make money for financial aid.
Tom Walton: We have been around for many years. The question we fashioned a long time ago was around more people wanting to come than could fit. Now it’s that more people want to come than can afford it. Will SIC encourage economic diversity and how much will it cost? Do we need a community of people that will give a lot of money? Do we need to shape attendance by how much we can give?
Ben: Since I can’t call the question, ultimately you are going to make a decision. Do you feel like you have heard enough from us?
Elizabeth: We spent $12,416 this year. Our committee determined that we don’t just need $12,500. We probably need up to $14,500. We had people we had to turn away. If everyone who applied could come, we would have run up to $14,500.
Scott Stewart: I am concerned about the $100K goal. If we commit to that, the island thinks they are getting that. We couldn’t divert elsewhere because we had committed. I would rather have the island depend on us less. Do people really notice if it’s $100K or $90K and change? Ned: yes.
Jim: I was struck that at Whispering Pines we challenged ourselves to raise more. We got $5K from one email. More from the auction. More from poker. More from Party with a Purpose. We are a generous community, in time and talent as well. We should extend ourselves, not let that down. We have that spirit.
Stan: Tom raised two important questions. Financial aid, to answer your question, is explicitly built into this year’s Corporation plan, with the reality that we are trying to learn more from the conferences themselves about how this works. The other question about changing circumstance on the island and what that does to the demographics: we recognize that we don’t want to lose economic diversity. This is 19th century hotel being run under 21st century regulations, and we are caught between a rock and a hard place, literally, and we need financial aid to retain the values we want. The other point available to this body and restrict that money so that it is a restricted gift.
Ned: I would like to wrap this up. You have given me this position. You are entrusting me with a lot of information. I get the sense, having heard all the comments, that aiming high is a good way for us all to go forward. So I would love to set the goal at $100K. A vote was taken on this motion, and it passed with all in favor, save one opposing vote.
Voting on chairs 2012
Chairs Retreat
Deb Walton reminded us that the Whispering Pines retreat will be held on November 12, 13, 14.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 PM.
- Debbie Weiner Soule, Secretary