SAAHJ Regular Meeting Minutes

8 am, November 14, 2013

Bibliotech

In attendance: Laura Calo, Neal Morton, Jessica Elizarraras, Francisco Vara-Orta, Tessa Benavides, Elaine Ayala, Mary Anthony, Melissa Aguillon, Maury Vasquez, Isis Romero, Nora Lopez

  1. Introductions – Starts at 8:15 am
  2. Catarina Velasquez, representative from Bibliotech gave a rundown of how library works (tour followed meeting)
  3. Treasurer’s Report
  4. Neal said the foundation has $118,258.19 and operational fund has $8,014.21
  5. Several members paid dues
  6. We’re also not paying for the credit card machine anymore
  7. Deposited check from AARP; WellMed and Eva’s Heroes are still delinquent with $2,500 and $1,000, respectively. WellMed should come in by end of December; Eva’s Heroes should be wrapped by the week following the meeting.
  8. Neal said double checks were sent in from Valero and Generations FCU (the FCU will use toward 2014’s gala); Our Lady of the Lake also sent a double check and they’ve done that in the past
  9. Neal said the accountant has filed documents that would prevent a 60 day investigation due to a late return. He met with CPA to sign the return
  10. Neal also talked about online ticket sales and memberships. There are two different options: We’re not rich enough to do an umbrella service, plus it could be too complicated and we’re not sure it’ll work. Ticketbud is simple, they won’t charge us for using them to ticket free events; with paid events, they do a $99 flat fee per event while letting us do ticket sales, RSVPs, merchandise sales; if we use their credit card payment process there’s a 3 percent charge, which we can balance out by slightly increasing our charge. The other option was Pay Pal; we wouln’t have to pay a 3 percent credit card charge. The membership suggested we look into Google check out, amazon and wepay. PayPal is free, as long as we have links that direct users to pay pal sites; we can have the app that goes into our own site for $60 yearly or $5 a month (Ed Lozano would be able to do this for us); Group decided to use ticketbud for the holiday event to work out kinks for future events. Francisco decided Ticketbud and PayPal are good options.
  11. Mixer & Membership is discussed by Melissa and Jessica; fliers printed and passed to share. We’ll host another Membership drive in March which will be more low-key.
  12. Voting on nominees based on email submissions; Tessa helped Francisco count the votes. The nominees included John Quinones and Maclovio Perez for the Henry Guerra lifetime achievement award which highlights journalists that represent our cause. Quinones is active in SA and would be a perfect fit for this year’s gala, he seems open to it. Perez was a local weatherman for WOIA, spent time in SA and now works in Corpus. Nominees for the Community Service Award: Henry Cisneros. Group agrees he’s a good fit, has had an interesting trajectory after leaving office. Corazon de Oro: Robert Rodriguez is one of the few nominees. He brings filmmaking to the area, supportive of students in filmmaking, invited students to his home, he’s a St. Anthony alum; None of the Corazon de Oro nominees are guaranteed. Also on the short list: Sandra Cisneros. Something to consider as we go into a gala with national attention: We don’t do Corazon de Oro every year, but as Elaine put it, “We want more bling.” Members of the group including Elaine, Maury, Isis and Francisco made their case for nominees.
  13. Nominees counted and revealed as follows: John Quinones for Henry Guerra Lifetime Achievement; Henry Cisneros for Community Service and Robert Rodriguez for Corazon de Oro.
  14. Update on Gala: We’re on the books for the Marriott; information should be available for the next meeting. We’re maneuvering the situation because of NAHJ holding their national conference here along with the gala. It’ll be the first time held in SA in 30 years that the NAHJ has been around.
  15. Discussed new website
  16. We’re now at sahispanicjournalists.com. Ed Lozano came to the rescue after old website went MIA; current site still needs some work. Membership forms are available and we’ll work on adding online capabilities to link to facebook and twitter. We purchased the new domain for $12. Still group’s information is scattered and scrambled
  17. Francisco discussed next roster of meetings for 2014; trying to keep it minimal.
  1. Announcements:
  2. Francisco’s working on the conference as the national co-chair; asks for panel ideas for August.
  1. Adjourn
  2. Neal moves to adjourn, Jessica seconds

Notes by Jessica Elizarraras, VP