City of Lawrence

Lawrence Sister Cities Advisory Board

May 14, 2008 minutes

Approved June 11, 2008

MEMBERS PRESENT:	Stuart Boley, Kathleen Hodge, Linda Hyler, William Keel, Jon Josserand, Bob Moody, Bob Schumm, Andrew Tsubaki, Gina Ross, Ken Albrecht, Michael Kennedy, Kelly Herndon, Lynn Ground, Lori Hutfles
MEMBERS ABSENT:
STAFF LIAISON PRESENT:	Michael Tubbs
PUBLIC PRESENT:

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The Chair announced the presence of a quorum.    

Minutes were corrected and approved for the April 2008 meeting.   

Review of Accounting Documents (Boley)

• Boley indicated amounts regarding the Van Zoest visit had been corrected.
• Boley reviewed the accounting documents as distributed.
• Boley offered to review the ‘retained earnings’ issue as he works through reconciliation of the current accounting documents with past practices.

Report from Friends of Hiratsuka (Tsubaki/Kennedy)

o The payment for the sculpture, previously authorized, has been made.

Report from Friends of Eutin (Albrecht/Keel)

• No new information is available about the status of the interns.  Frank Baron has left for Germany.
• A request for $1,000 has been made to the Rice Foundation in behalf of a guitar orchestra effort in Lawrence.  This is a follow up effort to the van Zoest visit.

Student Emergency Issues:

o Keel brought to the group the issue of financial risk involved with the potential early return of a student overseas for health or disciplinary reasons.  Discussion ensued with a current practice which should be modified.  It was the general consensus of the group that Sister Cities Advisory Board would stand behind the emergency needs for financial resources for such a purpose, with the understanding that the student and family would be ultimately responsible for any extraordinary expenses.  Josserand volunteered to assist on crafting language which might be included in student applications to cover this need.

o A larger discussion occurred regarding emergency medical needs.   

Announcements

• The 2007 Annual Report and a 2009 Budget Request has been filed with the City.
• The 2007 IRS form 990 has been filed.

Scholarship fundraising event for 2008 (Moody)

Moody gave a report on behalf of the fundraising committee.  The recommendation was made to do an event at a local venue, featuring local food, probably in October.  Menu would be light food and beverage.  A number of local venues are being approached.  The idea is to find an annual signature event and to broaden attendance beyond that achieved in recent years.  

Membership event

It was the consensus to hold the 2008 event at the end of July in conjunction with the visit of the students from Hiratsuka.  Their visit will be July22-31 and the event should occur in this timeframe.

Third Sister City committee (Schumm)

Schumm visited with a local individual who had contacted us regarding interest in establishing a sister city relationship with a city in Afghanistan.

Sister Cities Web Presence (Josserand)

Josserand indicated he had not yet convened a meeting of the committee but would do so as soon as possible.

Meeting adjourned at 7:00 pm.

Minutes approved by the Board.  June 11, 2008