KCALL Board Meeting Minutes – approved

February 8, 2005

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal

 

 

Present were: Frances Schach, Deanna Long, Janet McKinney, Deborah Showalter-Johnson, Sandra Berman, Beth Cohen, Tom Marsh, Debbie Steele

 

I.          Call to Order – Deborah Showalter-Johnson called the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m.

 

II.         Approval of Minutes – the minutes from the November 10th board meeting were

approved.

 

III.       Treasurer’s Report – Treasurer Sandra Berman reported that there was a balance of $2,447.50.  As discussed at the annual membership meeting, she changed the checking account service so that we will no longer receive returned checks with the statement.  This will save KCALL a $2.00 monthly fee.

 Sandra also reported on the membership numbers, three members did not rejoin, but several new members have joined.  She is waiting on one membership renewal.  There are not as many vendor members as in previous years.   She provided board members with a current membership list.

Expenses for the coming year were discussed; the main expenses are Earthlink, which costs $360.00 per year, and the Holiday Party, which varies but is usually substantial.  Janet McKinney suggested that we may need to include the cost of lunches for guest speakers in the budget.  Postage might be a possible expense, but will probably not be a large expense because most notices are delivered via e-mail. The reserve fund was briefly discussed as to how it originated and how it could be used.  The treasurer’s report was approved.

 

 

IV.             Committee Reports & Plans   

           

A. Technology Committee—Deborah thanked Janet for chairing the Technology Committee again last year.    Sandra asked about changing the website contact for the KCALL membership list password, as well as changing the password.  Deborah will be the new contact, but the password will remain the same.   

            It was also addressed that the membership application needs to be changed to

reflect the current year and treasurer;  Sandra will take care of this. 

 

B.     Program Committee—Phill Johnson, chair of the committee was unable to

attend the meeting, so Deborah passed out a report that Phill sent to her, listing the proposed programs for 2005 and new ideas to consider.   Questions were raised about the impact of these programs on the budget.  The new ideas in the report were discussed, but the board needed further clarification on them, such as UMKC Boot Camp, a PLI Webcast, and additional social events.  It was decided that Deborah would contact the committee to request further explanation of these ideas, along with their intent, cost and expectation from KCALL, and have them copy the board members with this information.  As for additional social gatherings, Deborah will ask the program committee to address the ideas at the next membership meeting in March to see if members are interested in participating.  

Sandra raised the idea of having a charity drive at a time of year other than the holidays in December.  Some members were in favor of doing this, and Deanna brought up ideas such as the Book Drive that the Young Lawyers Section of KCMBA organizes in the summer.  Deborah will add this issue to the agenda for the March membership meeting, and will ask for volunteers for a committee to organize the drive.   

It was discussed whether the Electronic Discovery program could cause conflict between vendors that are members of KCALL and/or sponsor our events;  Janet mentioned that this had caused problems in the past.

 

Old Business –

A. Confirm reserve raised to $1000.00

            It was confirmed that the reserve fund is not mentioned in the constitution or by-laws.

Janet suggested that the reserve fund be separated from the operating funds on the treasurer’s report.  The purpose of the reserve funds were discussed, and it was decided that the fund would be used for “unforeseen shortfalls”, as Tom Marsh aptly stated.

 

            B. Task Force Assessing Legal Resources in KC

It was discussed how the union list in the past helped members with collection development issues.  Shook used to be responsible for the union list, but it was discontinued by a vote of the membership recently.  Deborah wants the idea of the task force presented to the membership to determine if anyone is willing and able to participate.  She will e-mail Paul Callister and ask him to bring up this idea at the meeting and explain his vision for this project.

 

            C.  Adding Program Chair duties to the VP/President Elect office

This issue was discussed briefly; some board members thought adding more duties would make it even more difficult to find candidates for the VP/President position.  Deborah moved to table this issue for now, and the board approved.

 

V.        New Business

            A. Budget for 2005 

The expenses for 2005 were discussed when the Treasurer’s Report was presented by Sandra.

 

            B. Splitting Holiday Party from Program Committee

            After some discussion, Deborah suggested leaving this open each year; if the host         

of the Holiday Party wants to organize it, then the host will be responsible, otherwise this will remain the responsibility of the program committee.

 

The next meeting will be on March 10th at Armstrong Teasdale, who will provide lunch for attendees; everyone will need to RSVP to Frances Schach by March 7th.

 

Deborah Showalter-Johnson formally thanked Tom Marsh for hosting all the board meetings and providing lunches for board members. 

 

VI             Adjourn - meeting adjourned by Deborah Showalter-Johnson at 1:05 p.m.