January USSI Board of Director Minutes

Date: Monday, January 13th, 2025 Called to Order: 3:30 PM

Board Members Present: Michael Davis, Tony Covarrubias, Derek McDonald, Marti Goff, Lynne Williams, Sheena Fort (via Facebook live), Pam O’Brien, Darlene Rich (via facebook live), and Ronni Spaulding.

USSI Staff Members Present: Kevin O’Connor (Executive Director), Stephanie Smothers (Office Manager).

Board Member Excused:

Board Members Absent:

Members present: Mark Lyman

Persons to be heard: Krystal Hudson

Quorum: Present

Marti Goff, board chair, called the meeting to order at 3:30PM.

Approval of Agenda:

Darlene motions to approve, Derek seconded the motion.

All present board members vote, and the motion passes unopposed.

Approval of Previous Minutes:

Mike motions to approve last month’s meeting minutes with the revision of removing Jerry from present board members list, and change the ED language to “Kevin shared that Musicians from the High School will be playing at lunch tomorrow”, Pam seconded the motion.

All present board members vote, and the motion passes unopposed.

Treasurer’s report: Financial statements shared and discussed. Lynne states that they put together a budget. Kevin adds that every year we will be doing an internal audit, Mike and Tony volunteered to do the internal audit and Stephanie will help facilitate.

Committee Reports

Membership: Pam shares that they sent out reminders that their membership needs renewed. Stephanie made an online membership form, and 6 people have used it to sign up. We currently do not have a way to accept credit cards, and we will work on that when our website gets revamped. Mark considers forming an executive committee. Discussion of committee meeting dates.

Activities/Fundraising: Ronni to spearhead the meetings. Kevin shares that we have April 19th for the easter egg hunt. Ronni added to the committee agenda looking for a volunteer for the yard sales, identifying events for the new year, and identifying vegetable market/food market point of contact. Ronni to add Father’s Day BBQ to agenda to see if MSHF can fund the event and we can have it with volunteers. Marti to reach out to Marge to discuss the gaming license volunteers and gaming license issues.

Property Development/Expansion: Derek to identify meeting dates.

Grants: Tony to set up meeting dates for them. Kevin shares there is a project called the North Project from the Alaska Heat and Smart Organization; the grant is $150,000 for energy efficiency.

Gaming: Marti to identify meeting dates. Marti shares that Bingo is this Friday, January 17th. She shares additional upcoming dates. Willow Winter Carnival will have bingo on January 25th.

Kitchen/catering: Sheena will set up the meeting dates. The freezer door got put in. Everyone said that the additional dinner went really well, and almost all chairs were full. The third Thursday lunches will be paired with Live Music starting this Thursday. Next month there will be a photographer to do professional photos for next Thursday. USSI received a $5,000 dollar grant from The Talkeetna Bachelor society. Stephanie added that Liberty Farms will contribute some meals for MOW for February.

Derek motions to combine the Kitchen/catering committee with the MOW (Meals on Wheels) committee, Marti seconded the motion.

All board members present vote, and motion passes unopposed.

The board discusses combining the Property Development/Expansion, Building, and Housing committees.

Derek motions to merge the Property Development/Expansion, Building, and Housing committees to one committee, Pam seconded the motion.

All board members vote, and the motion passes unopposed.

ED Report

Kevin shares updates:

- MOW $5,000 grant.

- Freezer door installed.

- Stephanie will be on vacation for the next 3 weeks until February.

- An article in the Frontiersman about the USSI.

- AARP will be doing taxes at USSI on January 29th and every other Wednesday until April.

- Discussion of an upper Susitna Trooper station, looking for space for 3 troopers and wildlife troopers. Space specifications were discussed.

Old Business

1. Bylaws Revisions/Policy Revisions –reviewing Bylaws, Ronni to send Pam a copy of the November meeting minutes about the Bylaws, Pam and Mike will bring any edits to the board to vote on.

2. 2025 Budget – Presentation was already done for the board, discussion of making a motion to approve the budget.

Derek makes a motion to approve the amended budget with the building maintenance to be changed to $10,000.00, Mike seconded the motion.

All present board members vote, and the motion passes unopposed.

New Business

1. Audit - Mike and Tony volunteered to do the internal audit and Stephanie will help facilitate. 2. Vicki Compensation - The structure of how Vicki is paid is a salary position and supposed to be 20 hours a week, one meal a week and that would be prepping, serving the meal, the meal the day of, and grocery shopping.

Tony makes a motion to give Vicki a bonus of $500.00 for 2024 bonus, Mike seconded the motion.

All present board members vote, and the motion passes unopposed.

3. Raffle - Limited number of raffle tickets, we need atleast 500.

4. Gun Show – Krystal Hudson discussed the plan for the upcoming gun show. She mentioned they need space for the four-wheeler they plan to raffle off. Marti emphasized the limited space the USSI has in the auditorium. The board agrees on the Gun Show being on August 8th and 9th .

5. Homeless Connect – Maynard Center has the Homeless Connect January 28th 10-2PM. Free clothes, free resources, and a lot of other vendors ready to help.

6. Evening Exercise Classes – Discussion of getting together exercise classes online Monday’s, Tuesdays; Kevin adds that there is an LDS class every morning besides Tuesday. Run club for Tuesday morning or exercise. The board discussed.

Meeting adjourned at: 5:52PM.