MINUTES OF AVP/USA,Inc.
ANNUAL MEETING

Burlington, NJ

SEPTEMBER 4-6, 1999

Meeting was convened Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m.

The minutes from the Winter Board Meeting were presented and approved.

The status of the National Office and Executive Director were reviewed. Mail, email, and telephone communication are a problem since we share the same address as Texas AVP and Marjorie Kerr and therefore can not simply have mail/email/telephone forwarded. There are other loose ends to deal with such as moving the Excel account, closing Houston bank accounts, and dealing with the copier and large table belonging to AVP.

The Leadership Team decisions since the Winter Board Meeting were presented. The only items were to sell the Royal Dutch Petroleum and Gannett shares that had been donated to AVP. These actions were ratified.

The Treasurer=s report was presented. A new bank account for AVP has been opened at Crestar Bank. The appeal letter brought in $3,000; an appeal to Quaker meetings brought in $1,300 and miscellaneous donations and income amounted to $1,800. AVP currently has cash on hand of $5,000 +/-. Regarding the Excel account, Marjorie Kerr will transfer the authority as AVP=s contact to Tom Truitt. Tom is willing to clean up the books as they are without further work on Marjorie=s part and asked for authority to hire a bookkeeper at $200 to $300 to help accomplish that task. That action was approved. He noted that we will need an audit at some point.

Minute: We are currently on schedule.

The meeting recessed and reconvened at 10:00.

The group then addressed the proposed changes to the bylaws and mission statement. The group agreed that we would proceed through the changes one by one and adopt the noncontroversial items on the spot while deferring deeper consideration of items such as changes in the mission statement.

Much discussion ensued. The revised by-laws and mission statement were adopted in the form attached to the minutes.

The meeting recessed until Sunday night.

Sunday night

The meeting began with the gathering: AOne gift I would like to give to AVP in the next year ...@

The AVP/USA Policy Statement was revised to reflect the changes in the new AVP/USA organizational structure and the revised By-Laws. All changes were reviewed. The revised policy statement was approved as submitted.

The Committee for Local and Regional Support Group Report. The co-clerks of the committee will be Ellen Flanders and Candace Mayer. Jan Krouskop was nominated for the position of President of AVP/USA. Jan will also server as recording secretary for the CLRG Committee. The committee goals for the next year were established.

Fundraising and Finance Committee report. Ann Ward will serve as clerk for the committee. The committee established goals for 1999-2000. This included raising funds, managing the budget and providing technical support to locals. The committee nominated Tom Truitt for the position of Treasurer. Tom presented a draft of a 1999-2000 budget.

Communications Committee. Diana Couch agreed to server as clerk of the committee. The responsibilities of the committee will include the Transformer, manual publication and distribution, maintenance of the Web site, publishing a national directory, database management and the gatekeeping function. The committee nominated Toby Riley for the position of Secretary.

Conference Committee. Richard Nethercut agreed to serve as clerk of the committee. The proposed place and date fo the 2000 AVP/USA Annual National Gathering is October 6-9 in New York. The committee will also provide liaison with AVP-International. Suggestions were made to hold the gathering earlier in the year and in the western part of the country.

Education Committee. Grace McGRath and Candace Mayer agreed to continue to serve as co-clerks. The committee will continue work on the Basic Manual, the Youth Manual, the Advanced T for T and the Spanish Manual. The committee agreed to place a copyright statement in all manuals.

Technical Support Committee. Toby Riley agreed to serve as clerk of the committee. The committee was requested to assist facilitators in becoming literate in the use of email and the Web.

The meeting then ended with the presentation of a special plaque for Marjorie Kerr as a tribute to her service to AVP/USA. Rick Krouskop accepted the plaque for Marjorie Kerr. The meeting recessed.

Monday Morning

9:00 a.m.

The Annual National Gathering of AVP-USA

Gathering: I hope/expect AVP in the coming year will ________ .

Present were: Steve Angell, Lloyd Bailey, Toby Riley, Diana Couch, John Shuford, Tom Truitt, Robin Willetts, Jan Krouskop, Vivian Sullivan, Don Ayers, Fred Feucht, Ann Ward, Chelsea Kesselhein, Marc Seiden, Kaki Sjogren, Candace Mayer, Rich Nethercut, Darrell Heffte, George Sinnott, Susan Heffte, Anya Ermak, Ellen Flanders, Janet Lugo, Clare Danielsson, Andy Rose

The Committee of Committees reported that they plan to meet bimonthly to discuss issues. It nominated Ann Ward as Vice-President.

The meeting then approved the new officers:

Janet Krouskop B President

Ann Ward B Vice-President

Toby Riley B Secretary

Tom Truitt B Treasurer

The proposed budget was presented. The budget was approved with total expenditures listed of $37,000. Due to the need to accommodate our fiscal year, the Treasurer may adjust the budget as needed. Questions about the placement of the Ambassador Fund and the Emergency Fund were addressed. The Ambassador Fund is under the International Representatives. And the Emergency Fund is under the Finance Committee with the Treasurer as the contact.

The group discussed open issues. The following came out: Concerns about the cleanness of the statistics, the directory, and what to do with old workshop evaluations. The CLRG will look into the archiving of the evaluations.

Prior to the close of the meeting, the Conference Committee met and decided to move up the date of the next annual meeting to May 26-29, 2000 (Memorial Day weekend).  This decision was endorsed by the Finance Committee and Treasurer and announced to the group at the Farewell Ceremony.

The meeting closed.