 The primary purpose of the meeting was to establish officers and
check-signers for the organization. However, the meeting spilled
over into other topics as well.The board is starting out with
seven members, with four returning from the old board.
The four returning members are Andy Anderson, Darlene Begolka,
Andy Meister and Tom O'Donohue. New additions to the board are Jean
Bruner-Jachino, Andi Hake and Keith Snyder.
At the beginning of the meeting, O'Donohue asked if anyone would
object to him opening the meeting, because there were no officers in
place to do so. Everyone agreed and the first order of business was
then to nominate and elect officers.
The officers for the new board are Andy Anderson, president; Jean
Bruner-Jachino, vice president; Darlene Begolka, treasurer; and Andi
Hake, secretary. Snyder will serve as an alternate for the
secretary.
With the officers elected, the meeting was then turned over to
Anderson as the president of the board.
The board also authorized Begolka and Anderson to be the
check-signers for the tourism bureau and appointed Hake to serve as
an alternate in the absence of one of them. According to the bylaws
of the organization, each check must be signed by two people.
The board also approved a new set of bylaws for the bureau.
O'Donohue provided copies to all the members and offered a quick
overview of the changes that had been made. He said that in most
cases, it was a change of language, changing the governing body from
the Logan County Board to the city. He said the language in most
cases would say something to the effect of "by the mayor of the city
of Lincoln, with the advice and consent of the city council."
There was also a change made in board member eligibility.
O'Donohue said the language had been changed to allow membership of
people who do not live in Logan County but work for a business in
the county.
Finally, the bylaws implement a change in the fiscal year of the
bureau. O'Donohue said the fiscal year had previously been
designated to coincide with the Logan County Board year; it will now
coincide with the city of Lincoln's fiscal year; May 1 to April 30.
As the board reviewed the new bylaws, Hake, who has extensive
experience with not-for-profit organizations through her role as
executive director of the Lincoln/Logan Chamber of Commerce, said
there were language issues she would like to see changed. She said
none of the issues were such as to prevent the board from approving
the new bylaws immediately, but there were items she wanted to
address with them later and perhaps make some changes.
She told the group that primarily, she is interested in assuring
that the bylaws are written so as to protect the bureau and its
not-for-profit status.
In addition, she told the board that the paragraph defining
removing members from the board should probably be looked at
carefully. In that rule it states that the board can remove one of
its members with a 30-day notice. Hake said that was not required by
law. She said allowing a board member to stay active for 30 days
after a termination could be detrimental to the bureau and board.
She said she would suggest they consider changing that. But again,
it didn't have to be done right away.
Other business the board discussed included the payment of bills,
work that was done on the World's Largest Covered Wagon, and a
renewal of contracts with Abbott & Associates for accounting
services.
[to top of second column] |
Nancy Saul, interim executive director, also spoke to the
group about attending a tourism convention. She said she would
be willing to go if they wanted her to. The group talked about
how important attendance at the convention is. Saul said it was
an important meeting to be a part of and Bruner-Jachino agreed.
The group also talked about whether or not one or more board
members should attend, and that was also considered to be a good
idea. Tentatively O'Donohue and Snyder both volunteered to
attend, but said they wouldn't be able to make a solid decision
until they had reviewed their schedules.
The board also talked about the future of the board itself.
Snyder told the group that he and Hake were on the board now during
the transitional period, but they could step off if others are
interested in filling the seats.
The group talked for a while about people whom they feel would
serve the board and bureau well, and who could be approached to
join.
The topic of monthly meetings also came up. The old board had
established a standing monthly meeting at 4:30 p.m. the fourth
Thursday of each month. Discussion around the table indicated that
members thought the starting time was too early. Most seemed to
agree that the fourth Tuesday was OK if the meetings could start
later. Because the city council also meets on the fourth Tuesday,
the group decided to back the starting time off by only 30 minutes
and begin the meetings at 5 p.m.
Snyder said that with the decision, the next step was to
establish and vote on a specific meeting schedule.
The group also talked about meeting locations. O'Donohue said he
was interested in seeing the board meet at locations outside the
city of Lincoln. He emphasized that the meetings didn't need to move
every month, but he felt that throughout the year, meetings should
be conducted in all the Logan County communities.
It was also mentioned that with this meeting being on Dec. 9 and
the next meeting not scheduled until the end of January, that was
possibly too long to go for the approval of paying bills. It was
decided that the board would have a brief special meeting on Jan. 2
at 5 p.m. at the Hampton Inn.
In other discussion, Saul told the board she felt the group
needed to make an effort to get the word out that the tourism bureau
is remaining open and will continue to serve the Logan County
communities. She said that many are assuming that the bureau has
been shut down.
Since April of this year, there has been a great deal of
discussion on the future of the bureau, with many assuming that once
the city took over the hotel-motel tax, it would dissolve the
bureau. Theoretically, the city doesn't have the authority to
dissolve the bureau, but the bigger concern was whether or not the
bureau could survive without funding from the tax.
Throughout this process, the city has stated numerous times that
it was not their desire to see the bureau suffer. Their only desire
was to see the organization function more efficiently and be more
productive in drawing "heads in beds" tourism to Logan County.
The group talked about this misconception and asked that Saul
prepare news releases to update the community on the status of the
bureau. Hake was asked to assist in preparing those releases.
The group also talked about the expectation that it will be a
while before a new full-time executive director is hired. Begolka
said that for the bureau to keep its state funding, it must have a
director in place. Currently Saul is filling that position on an
interim basis.
The board decided they should discuss this in executive session
and called for that to occur. Media and Saul were released from the
meeting, with no further action to be taken.
[By NILA SMITH] |
