Kiwanis LGBT+ Club of Southern California
Board of Directors Meeting
July 2, 2018
In Attendance: Miguel Sarasa, Tara Lawrence, Debbie McQueen, Delia Guzman, Darrel Jimenez, and Nancy Booher. Excused: Ed Heaberlin.
A.) Welcome and Introductions: Kiwanis International supports youth related projects, and community service projects. The idea for the LGBT+ Club came from wanting to focus and support LGBTQ youth. It is already gaining some recognition on the national level.
Introductions made by President- Miguel Sarasa, V.P.- Tara Lawrence, Secretary- Debbie McQueen, Treasurer- Delia Guzman, and Directors- Darrel Jimenez and Nancy Booher.
B.) What is Kiwanis and what do we do? Kiwanis serves local communities. The LGBT+ Club is a specialty club, which Kiwanis wants more of in order to reach more kids. Our sponsoring club is the Kiwanis Literacy Club with Doug and Jean Chadwick, which supports youth literacy in Southern California. We will be using technology to help us connect through social media, emails, and conference calls, but we will try to have a few meetings in person throughout the year.
The LGBT+ Club hopes to provide scholarships for higher education. There is still a lot of negative impact on LGBT+ kids, so we want to support them, and show them they are loved and that they matter.
C.) Financial Update & Report: As a Kiwanis Club, we have to meet certain requirements in order to be recognized as a club. According to our bylaws, member dues are $120 per person, we have the option to fundraise our membership dues. We currently have $615, waiting on a $100 donation. Our Gofundme account has raised $415. $225 was added after Hemet Pride BBQ. Valerie lent our club the money to be in compliance, so the money we are raising goes to paying her back.
For our first year as a new club, our membership dues will be $100. As of October, 2019, they will go to our regular amount of $120. Out of each member dues, approximately $50 goes to International, and $20-$30 goes to district dues. The remainder stays in our account.
D.) New Membership:
Charter Night: Our Charter Night is planned for September 8th at Hamburger Mary’s in Ontario. It will be a celebration of our club and a welcoming to all members in attendance, we will also be doing an induction of the officers. We will be fundraising at our Charter night with a silent auction/raffle. We can ask other clubs to donate a basket and can ask for donations for our silent auction.
Membership Finalization: We are updating the charter member list, currently have about 21-22 members. Members must fill out and return membership applications for the member roster. Key Club is a high school division of Kiwanis, we can market to graduates that want to continue to help.
Officer Retreat/Strategic Plan: Our fiscal year starts October 1st 2018, so we are trying to plan a retreat so that we can plan out our year. We are looking at dates towards the end of September. A suggestion was made to look into a park off of Green River and the 91 as a more centralized location for us to meet. We will continue to meet monthly using conference calls.
E.) Old Business-
Hemet Pride BBQ: Donations were collected for food at the event. The proceeds were given to the Kiwanis LGBT+ Club.
We can try to help organize and put on LGBT+ events in smaller communities that may not have anything available. We have a great opportunity to do these as our club’s signature service projects.
Club Leadership Education: Divisions will put on CLE events. Online training is also available.
Division Council Meeting: We are in Division 47 based out of Hemet and Palm Springs, but members can participate in local division meetings and events, and even help out in other clubs.