In Attendance: Bob Bruhin, Raffaella, Maria Sawczuk, and Paula

Board Members Not Present: Nancy Lebovitz
 
 

ITEMS UP FOR DISCUSSION
 
 

Crystal Ball

Location: 

Raffae has not been able to get in touch with the Germantown UU Church due to work commitments. She will focus on that this week since she’s between assignments. She will be keeping the board updated via e-mail.

Date(s):

The board reviewed the February calendar and determined the best day would be Saturday, February 24^th. Our second choice would be Saturday, February 17^th.

Speakers:

Kirsten Houseknecht has volunteered to speak. She has also suggested a couple people she knows and is attempting to get commitments from the Board for them. The Board has declined to agree to anything at this time.

Jane Sibley, an acquaintance of Kirsten, has agreed to speak. And another woman who is acquainted with Fran Toscani and Kirsten would also like to have a presentation. These women would like a place to sleep and vending space as payment. The board agreed they would both be good additions to the list of speakers. The board will determine at a future meeting what can be offered.

Charles Arnold has also expressed an interest in speaking at the Ball. In exchange, he would like a place to sleep and vending space. The Board discussed Charles’ offer. Due to the nature of the material he was offering to discuss, the Board felt that it was not an appropriate tone we wanted for the Ball and unanimously voted to decline his offer.

The Rev. Matthew Thomas from the Berks Pagan Alliance has tentatively agreed to give a presentation.

Paula will speak with Ivo Dominguez from the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel if he would be interested in doing a presentation at the Ball.

The Board also discussed the possibility of having Deb D’Alessandro from ‘XPN participate in the Ball. Bob agreed to speak with her.
 
 

Vendors:

The Board discussed the vendor issue. So far we have the following people interested in vending:

Kirsten Houseknecht

Jane Sibley

The acquaintance of Fran and Kirsten

Kindred Spirit

Raven’s Mere from Reading

Greenleaf Herbal

Hand of Aries II

The Board unanimously agreed that the vendors will only be allowed one helper. All vendors and helpers will be issued Vending passes.

Food

The Board agreed that we will include the price of a catered lunch/dinner in the price of admission this year. Once the location of the Ball is determined we will look for a caterer. The Board agreed that that ordering a buffet for a certain number of people will be our best recourse and when it’s gone it’s gone.

Price

Is yet to be determined as have yet to know the location and cost of food.

Music

The Board agreed (3-1) to try another band this year. The band will be determined by the sound limitations imposed by the venue. Maria suggested the band Sugar Smack Daddy, who played at a party she had last year. The rest of the Board agreed they would be a good choice and would keep them under consideration.

Masks

The board unanimously agreed that this year’s Ball would not be a masked ball.

Time Frames

The Board agreed that we would set aside more time between the afternoon portion of the Ball and the dancing in the evening.

Newsletter

Deadline

Raffae stated the deadline for final submissions is Friday, January 5, 2001. Ads must be paid for one (1) week before going to press and all checks must be cleared. Raffae will be sending out her usual call for submissions.

Ads

Raffae reviewed Rayn’s progress selling ads. She is waiting for Paul Kale to submit artwork for the ad he purchased. Rayn has a number of ideas for drawing ads. Such as 

Blacklisting (ads without graphics). The Board agreed these ads were acceptable. Rayn will draw up a price list.

Rayn requested to be paid around the 15^th of each month.

Three Blade Jaguar has not submitted any ads or leads at this time.

Personals

Raffae informed the rest of the Board that Rayn has received numerous inquiries from people wanting to submit personal ads. As George wants to start a Pagan Personals section and has started Philly Pagan Singles in E-Groups, the Board agreed to have them.

The Board then discussed what the ads would include and what DVPN would be responsible for. It was agreed the ads would include post office box, if they were e-mail responses we could have automated forwarding to keep the person who placed the ad anonymous until such a time that they actually responded to a response they received, and the ad would be good for one (1) quarter of the year, or 3 months.
 
 

Distribution

It was agreed that Paula would begin mailing newsletters to Mystickal Tymes, Rayn, and to others merchants as needed.

Raffae asked Maria to contact the printer she used for the Pagan Pride flyers regarding the cost of bulk printing and standard sizes of newsletters.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Website

Bob asked the Board to consider upgrading our web service from "Non-Profit Private Domain Site" service to "Private-Domain Web Site" service. This will be an additional cost of $100 or so over the course of the year. Raising the cost of hosting to $250.00. With an additional cost of $35.00 as payment for domain registration the proposed total cost of our web site would be increased to $285.00. Bob advised the Board that this would give us the ability to have people type www.dvpn.org rather than typing out www.dvpn.org/~dvpn, thus avoiding confusion and making things easier for people to get to us.

The Board voted unanimously to implement Bob’s suggestion.

Side-note

DVPN was mentioned on ‘XPN by Deb D’Alessandro.
 
 

Board Membership

The Board reviewed the requirements under the Charter. The election is to take place during the last seven (7) days of February. Applicants must submit a written application. It was agreed to that we would use the Pagan Pride application as a template.

The Board asked Maria to call the Charter committee together to start work on membership guidelines.

Maria requested copies of the minutes from previous meetings. Paula said she would supply them.
 
 

Projects

Blanket Drive

The Board appointed George Reinhart as committee chair. At this time we have two tentative drop off locations. Maria’s office building in Wilmington and Kindred Spirit in West Chester.

Concert

Maria updated the Board on her progress. She spoke with Preston Elliot at Y100 who referred her to a contact of his. She also left two messages at the Prince Theater and has yet to hear back.

Fringe Art Show

Raffae has no news on this front. She has not seen or heard from Samantha.

December Meeting

Paula requested that the December Board meeting be rescheduled as it falls on Yule. Bob seconded the motion. The rest of the Board agreed. Maria suggested we hold the meeting the Thursday before Yule, which is December 14^th. It was also suggested that the meeting take place at Raffae’s Yule party. The Board left this item open.
 
 

Board Yule Party

Raffae offered to host this year’s Yule party at her house. The date and time are to be determined.

Mail Call

Bob presented the letter from the IRS stating they had received our application for the 501(c)3.

We also received a letter from Interfaith Working Group. Bob will contact to see what it involves.

A letter was received from Vernon Maulsby, an inmate at Graterford Prison, inquiring about DVPN’s stance on members being inmates. The Board agreed to ask him to write an editorial sharing his views on being a Pagan in prison. Bob said he would contact Mr. Mauls for additional information.
 
 

The Board meeting was adjourned at 10pm.

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