Meeting Next Week

[Jim Dolan]

Hi Deborah:

It looks as if I am going to be out of town next week and therefore will not be able to attend the next SEA planning meeting.

I would like to put my 2 cents in the discussion regarding the organizational structure of SEA as we continue to develop the group, as was mentioned as one of the priorities for the group in the near term.  Since I will not be able to attend the meeting, I will summarize what I would say if I was present.

I respectfully propose that we should:

(1)     Move towards becoming a “stand alone” entity, not attached to any government agency or non-profit.  Based on the research and consulting I have done regarding non-profit status, I don’t think we need to go so far as becoming a “501(c)(3)” at this time, but that certainly may become a possibility down the road.  There are advantages and disadvantages to doing this but at the moment I don’t perceive SEA as being big enough to warrant the hassle, energy and expense of setting up 503(c)(3) status.  We are pretty grass roots at the moment, which is OK.

(2)     Have a small (2 or 3 person) finance committee to keep track of income and expenses and report to the group at each meeting.

(3)     Have co-chairs, as was strongly suggested by the NCEA folks at our initial training.  I propose that the co-chairpersons serve for 12 months, (maybe with staggered terms so they don’t both start and end at the same time) and then we open the positions up for review and/or nominations or volunteers.  If someone serving as a co-chair wants to continue serving for another 12 months, that’s OK, but at least let’s discuss it every 12 months.  I also propose that, if possible, at least one co-chair should come from the community at large or “private sector” (ie, banking, private citizen, small business) and one co-chair from social services, because I think it is good to have community/private perspective in addition to the rather dominating social services perspective we have in our group.

(4)     Set aside a portion of each meeting (maybe 15 – 20 minutes) for a group member to inform the rest of the group about that person’s company or agency, what they do or what they do not do or cannot do (example: What does Senior I & A do? What does Skagit State Bank or Whidbey Island Bank do if the bank has reason to believe that once of their elderly customers is being exploited?  What does APS do? Etc.) so that we as group members know more about the various agencies and other entities in our group and in the community.

(5)     Encourage every current member to try to recruit one new person over the next year.

Also, regarding your earlier request for storage space, I think we can store most of what you described at my office if needed.

Thanks,

-jbd-

Law Office of James B. Dolan, PLLC

720 South Main Street Suite 227

P.O. Box 2784

Mount Vernon, WA  98273

Telephone: 360-336-2939

Facsimile: 360-336-2949

E-Mail: jbd...@jbdolan.com