MCLA Board Meeting
Little River Inn
March 7, 2007


The meeting was called to order by the President, Jo Bradley, at 1:35 pm due to marketing meeting going overtime.

Present were Jeff, Pam, Jan, Mike, Stuart, Steven, Kevin, Richard, Mike, Michael and Scott. On the phone were Ted and Rich.

PRIVILEDGE OF THE FLOOR:
MOTION: A motion was made by Jeff Stanford to approve the minutes of the February 7, 2007 meeting. Mike seconded the motion. It was unanimously approved.

TREASURE’S REPORT:
The MCLA checking account has a total of $32,000.00.

MARKETING COMMITTEE REPORT:
The marketing committee reported on the following items:
• Booth at Nature Tourism Conference
• California Drive Magazine and California Visitor’s website banner ad was approved by marketing committee
• Arts Council partnership of $800 per month for 4 months was approved based on:
A. They need to achieve deliverables outlined in their proposal by June
B. They need to seek matching funds from the County
C. They need to adopt our “M” logo.

MOTION: A motion was made by Richard Strom to approve the above items. Jeff Stanford seconded the motion. It was unanimously approved.

The board received an update on the goMendo website. The internet committee met on March 6, 2007 with Dobay Designs and ideas and concepts were discussed. Everyone worked well together and agreed.

MCPA REPORT:
Richard and Jan reported on the last MCPA meeting. A letter from one of the MCPA Board Members, which had been sent out and was publicly known, raised concerns regarding funds given to the CEO for moving expenses. This was without authorization of the MCPA Board. After much discussion:

MOTION: A motion was made by Jeff Stanford for the president, Jo Bradley, to write a letter to MCPA regarding the misappropriated funds for the CEO relocation reimbursement. Ask the MCPA Board to revisit the approval of last meeting and to have those funds put back into the Marketing fund or whatever fund it was taken out of. Steven seconded the motion. It was unanimously approved.

The Board discussed an auction prize that was auctioned at a Georgia Charity
Event. It was done without prior approval of lodging or the MCPA board.

MOTION: Richard made a motion that MCLA respectfully decline to participate in the fulfillment of the auction sold at the Georgia Charity event as there was no prior approval. Jeff seconded the motion. It was unanimously approved.

MCLA needs to respond to the idea of an international media tour that the CEO of MCPA is initiating as we are focusing on national media. We feel, as does Hype House, that it is premature to be putting a lot of money into international tourism. It was requested that this be addressed in the letter to MCPA also.

The Board was also concerned over budgeted funds paid from MCPA to the CEO for medical stipend.

MOTION: Kevin made a motion that these funds that were paid out for over budgeted medical stipend be paid back to MCPA. This request is to be included in the letter to MCPA regarding the moving expenses mentioned earlier. Jeff seconded the motion. It was unanimously approved.

ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT:
Michael gave an update on the phone calls to lodging to get survey information for database. Over 352 phone calls have been made to lodging.

On February 20, 2007 the Advisory Board approved the Annual Report.

Scott asked that the Board consider whether we need an administrator for 25 hours per week or whether we need a director to go out and work with other groups, get projects done and so on. Scott will do a presentation at our next board meeting.

The next board meeting is scheduled for April 4, 2007 inland. However, as Scott will not be available, we decided to have an email poll and see what date would work for the meeting.

The internet sub committee reported that the new goMendo website will be live at end of April and completely in June.

OLD BUSINESS:
The board determined that a Finance Committee needed to be established. Richard Strom, the treasurer, Dushyant and Mike were nominated to serve on this committee.

MOTION: Steven made a motion to approve the Finance Committee. Pam seconded the motion. It was unanimously approved.

The board discussed the formation of a Personnel Committee. Since we have no personnel we decided to revisit this again in 6 months.

NEW BUSINESS:
Some on the board requested an Organization Retreat in April to assist in board development. Their concerns were that our board meetings be on time, concise and run correctly. The majority decided that the board thus far had done a great job in accomplishing tasks and it was not necessary to have a retreat at this time.
This could be revisited in the future. A Marketing Retreat was discussed as well. It was determined that Scott would look into that, with the whole Board in attendance.

MOTION: Jan made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Pam seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved. The meeting adjourned at 4:05 pm.