OREGON COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND
535 SE 12th Ave. (Portland office)
Phone: (971) 673-1588
BUSINESS ENTERPRISE PROGRAM
SPECIAL BECC MEETING
Tuesday, January 21, 2014, 3:30 PM
Conference call: (712) 432-1500
Participant code: 312353#
MINUTES
- Called to order.
- Roll call.
- Disposition of minutes (as recorded).
- December 19, 2013
- January 14, 2014.
- Nominations from the floor for Chairperson.
- Other business.
- Adjournment.
MINUTES
CALLED TO ORDER
Roll call.
In attendance:
Harold Young, Lewanda Miranda, Art Stevenson, Char Mckinzie, Derrick Stevenson, Gordon Smith, Ken Gerlitz, Jerry Bird, Ann Wright, Steve Jackson, Cathy Colley-Dominique, Tessa Brown. BE Staff: Eric Morris. Visitors: Carla McQuillan, Oscar Miranda.
Absent: Salvador Barraza, Steve Gordon, Lin Jaynes, Randy Hauth.
Miranda said that the Elected Committee didn’t have an Acting Chair for the meeting, so she made a motion that Young be temporarily appointed to the Chair position until a permanent Chair is appointed. Colley-Dominique seconded the motion. The Elected Committee voted and the motion passed.
Disposition of minutes (as recorded).
December 19, 2013
January 14, 2014.
Young made a motion that the Elected Committee accept the December 19, 2013 and the January 14, 2014 minutes as recorded. Lewanda Miranda seconded the motion. A vote of the Elected Committee was taken and the motion passed.
Nominations from the floor for Chairperson.
Miranda called for nominations for Chairperson. She said that nominations from the floor will be received and then the ballots would be sent electronically to Morris. The deadline for voting is Tuesday, January 28 at noon. Morris would let everyone know the results by the close of business that day.
Colley-Dominique nominated Young for Chairman. Gerlitz seconded the nomination. The Elected Committee approved the nomination by vote. Art Stevenson pointed out that the nomination does not need to be voted upon. There were no other nominations. Miranda requested that everyone send in their ballots to Morris electronically.
Wright asked if there was going to be an election to fill the open Salem representative position left open by Young taking the Chair position. Miranda said that according to the By-Laws, that would be taken care of in the next BECC meeting which would be the last Thursday of February.
Other business.
Miranda said the Salem 1 position is now vacant because Bird resigned. Miranda made a motion that Mckinzie be appointed to the Salem 1 position for the remainder of the term. Colley-Dominique seconded the motion. The Elected Committee voted on it and the motion passed.
Miranda said that at the next meeting they’ll talk about filling Young’s position. Miranda said that they can’t fill it until Young is officially elected into the Chair position.
Miranda said that the BE team has been working with the Confluence Center on active participation and on other rules and regulations issues. She said that there are a couple versions of active participation that OCB supports. One is the Tennessee version and the other version is one they adopted in 2012. Miranda made a motion that the BECC Board support either or both of these depending on the Confluence Center’s consensus. Colley-Dominique seconded the motion. The Board voted on this and the motion passed.
Wright asked Young whether or not he wanted to change the BECC meeting time until after he’s done working at 3:30pm. Young agreed that would be easiest.
Miranda said the next meeting date would be February 27th, the last Thursday of the month.
Art Stevenson asked if, once the Chair’s election is official, the Board could appoint someone to fill Young’s former position. He reminded the Board that a Legislative Session is coming up, so he thought the Board should be fully filled during that time.
Smith wondered who didn’t call in to the meeting. The roll call was briefly recapped. Jackson asked if Hauth had resigned as Chair and Miranda said he had. Young repeated that he needs to be elected officially as Chair before his open position is filled. Morris read the by-law about voting by ballot. Art Stevenson asked if Young was still the acting Chair until the votes are counted. Miranda confirmed he is. More discussion of the voting process and nominations followed.
Young stated that as Acting Chair, he would accept nominations for the Salem 2 position. Gerlitz nominated Wright. Miranda reminded everyone that Wright and Art Stevenson would be eligible to run for this position. Bird said that, according to by-laws, only the people in that area could nominate candidates for that area. Young then nominated Art Stevenson. Art Stevenson accepted that nomination. Wright nominated herself for the Salem 2 position. Derrick Stevenson said that this position would be voted upon by the Board, according to by-laws. Some discussion around whether to vote at this meeting or the next meeting followed. Wright withdrew her nomination. The Board then voted and elected Art Stevenson as the Salem 2 position.
Gerlitz recommended that the Board work on cleaning up the election portion of the by-laws to make them clearer. Art Stevenson volunteered to chair a by-laws committee. Young appointed him as the Chair of the by-laws committee. Young asked what happened to the budget committee. Art Stevenson said that Jaynes resigned from that Chair position, so recommended that Miranda chair that committee. Miranda suggested that Gerlitz chair the committee. However, Gerlitz said that he wasn’t interested in that committee. Miranda then accepted the Chair of the Budget Committee position. Young asked about the status of the unassigned vending committee. He said that he and Miranda are the members of the committee right now. Young said there’s an unassigned vending meeting at the end of the month. Art Stevenson encouraged any of the blind licensed managers to join committees they’re interested in.
Adjournment.
The meeting was then adjourned.