BoD Minutes – Feb 18, 2022
CTSS BOD ZOOM Meeting Minutes – 2-18-2022
Attendees: Louise (host), Bob, Jane, Norm, Bill, Tom, Duck & Jacqui
Call to Order: 7:33 PM
Officer Reports:
Chairman & Vice President–Bill Dexter
Unfortunately, the first 22 minutes of Bill’s report is incoherent at times on the recording. This is what I was able to decipher.
He has not heard back from NESS President, Annie Banks as to what the NESS schedule of events will be. Bill suggested that the BOD meet every other month with a general membership meeting in the months that the BOD does not meet. These meetings will be chaired & notes taken by either Tom
Harrington or Bill Dexter for discussion at the next BOD meeting. A motion was made by Norm & seconded by Tom to have BOD meetings every other month, with the exception of Nov & Dec. unless an emergency arises. All were in favor.
We should determine the dates of the events we normally participate in: Bethlehem Fair, Garlic Festival, Photos with Santa & the Bethlehem Christmas Town Festival. Duck is trying to make arrangements for a second Photo with Santa event in Fairfield County in November; it is not finalized yet.
Are we going to have a Workshop Weekend? Is Lake Compounce on our radar?
Additionally, if there are any other events that members would like CTSS to participate in, it should be brought up to the BOD so an events calendar can be made.
Bill & Tom came up with a tentative CTSS schedule for 2022:
BOD meetings:
Friday, April 22, 2022
Friday, June 17, 2022
Friday, August 12, 2022
Louise asked if these meetings would be ZOOM meetings. Bill would prefer in person meetings, but since the BOD members live all over the state, maybe ZOOM meetings would be best. No discussion was held to determine place of in person meetings.
General Membership meetings: Saturday, April 9, 2022 at Ciao Restaurant, Thomaston, CT from 2 PM to 5 PM for a late lunch and meeting. Similar to what we held in January in Rocky Hill, CT. In a discussion between Bill & Bob, it was suggested we would have a 50/50 drawing. The winner of the drawing would then pick the site of the next meeting. That way all meeting would not be held in Litchfield County.
Bill asked Bob if the meeting at Ciao Restaurant could be moved to May since its so close to the March meeting.
Santa Get Together: Picnic type event on Saturday, March 26, 2022 at Bill Dexter’s house. Margo Stuart will be there to take orders for suits. Bill will write up an email to be sent to membership by Jacqui.
Lake Compounce? (Their Christmas in July event is always held the weekend nearest the 25 th of July. This year it would be July 22, 23, & 24 th ). If we are going to do Lake Compounce this year, maybe a joint event with NESS would be good. Details are on hold until we hear back from Lake Compounce.
Jane just sent an email to Maryann at Lake Compounce to gage their interest in having CTSS attend again this year.
Picnic: (General Membership Meeting since it is usually so well attended) Saturday, August 13, 2022 (rain date Sunday, August 14, 2022)
(NESS Santa Camp will be August 26, 27 & 28, 2022)
Bethlehem Fair: September 10 & 11, 2022
Garlic Festival: October 8 & 9, 2022
Workshop Weekend? In the past, we have had good attendance at our Workshop Weekend the weekend before Halloween. (This year it would be October 21, 22 & 23, 2022)
Photos with Santa: Morris, CT – 1st weekend in November. No date has been set for Fairfield County event.
Bethlehem Christmas Town Festival: December 2 & 3, 2022.
Vice-President – Tom Harrington
He suggests that a committee be formed to arrange events. Asked Jane to send him the list of members for that purpose. Jane said that she will send out a general email inquiring if anyone is interested in joining the events committee to organize events like the Workshop Weekend, etc. & see what kind of response we get.
Treasurer – Bob Smith
Balance in checkbook is $11748.42. A check was written to the Chamber of Commerce in the amount of $225.00 for yearly membership. As per an email sent from Bob on Dec. 28, 2021, stating that “we recently received a couple of donations via PayPal. He said we should compose a thank you letter that can be form filled and emailed (preferably) or USPS regular mail. I’ll look around for some from my donations to various organizations. If everyone would do the same, we’ll put our heads together and figure out who and how we’ll send them.”
Jacqui sent Bob a thank you letter that she composed (attached to the end of the meeting minutes) Bob responded: ” Your letter looks good. I think we should discuss this at the next Board meeting. I did my annual donations and got automatic Emailed replies. I’m good with that. Please add this as a discussion item.”
Jacqui stated that a written thank you from us is more businesslike. Tom agreed. Jane stated that the way a person gives us the donation is the way we should proceed. If they give us an address, then a written thank you is in order. If it just contains an email address, then that is the type of thank you that should be sent. The thank you letter could be sent by whoever received the donation…a more personal connection. Jane will send a copy of the thank you form letter to the BOD members for them to use when needed.
Secretary – Jacqui Kuzmik
Approve the minutes of the Nov 19, 2021 meeting. Norm made the motion to accept the minutes; Tom seconded the motion. All were in favor. Follow-ups from previous meetings are at the end of this report.
January 15 th meeting at Elizabeth’s Restaurant in Rocky Hill was considered a success. All BOD members got a copy of the meeting survey that was sent out by Jacqui previously. No further discussion.
Committee Reports:
Events (Workshop Weekend) – Committee needs to be formed.
Norm volunteered to work with Tom on the committee.
Website – Duck Unitas (chair)
There will be no work done on the website for the next couple of weeks due to his computer system upgrades.
Elections & Membership – Jane OGrady (chair) & Louise DesJardins
There are 47 members to date.
Picnic – Louise & Phil DesJardins & Jane OGrady
Facebook – Louise DesJardins
Old Business:
New Business:
Next Meeting:
Place of Meeting: TBD
Time of Meeting: 7:30 PM
Adjournment: 8:54 PM Motion made to adjourn by Tom & seconded by Norm. All were in approval.
