Hollister Heat Board of Directors
Emergency Meeting Minutes
date: Friday, October 21, 2011
location: YMCA, 351 Tres Pinos Road, Suite A-201, Hollister, CA95023
Call to Order:
The emergency meeting of the Hollister Heat Board of Directors was held at the YMCA offices at 351 Tres Pinos Rd., Ste A-201, Hollister, CA. The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm on October 21, 2011 with George Ramirez, President, presiding, and Jennifer Bagley, secretary.
Members Present:George Ramirez, Lupe Leija, Jennifer Bagley, Michael Montoya, Dave Super, Bill Baer, Shaun Zink, Keith Woeste, Nicole Ramirez, Brittany Homen.
Members Absent:Corina Vallejo, Anthony Hazen, Larry Diaz, Michele Diaz, Kaycee Day.
No Agenda due to Emergency Meeting Status
George Ramirez informed the board that he received a call from the Hollister Heat Bank – Santa Barbara Bank and Trust, concerning suspicious transactions. There were a number of discrepancies after reviewing 2 years of bank statements. Though the financial statements from Treasurer Michele Diaz at the last meeting showed $86,716.46 in the account, there is, in fact, only approximately $54,000. George Ramirez and Dave Super met with Michele Diaz and she admitted to wrongdoing during the last 3 years. George Ramirez also met with Larry Diaz who denies involvement. It has thus far been confirmed that there have been fraudulent deposits since February.
Michele Diaz is hereby removed from the Board of the Hollister Heat. Larry Diaz tendered his resignation from the board as well.
George Ramirez suggests that Dave Super take the position of Vice-President and that Nicole Diaz takes the position of Treasurer. They will both also retain their original positions.
New Safeguards for Bank Accounts – Financial Reports must contain Bank Statements; The President will no longer have check signing privileges; There will be 3 signers, with a necessary 2 signatures on the checks, but they will not have access to the checks; Treasurer will not have check signing privileges, but will hold the checks.
The original bank account HAS BEEN FROZEN! Santa Barbara Bank and Trust will call if any checks come through to verify their legitimacy for the foreseeable future. A new account is needed.
George Ramirez presented that he believed that this is a criminal matter and should be turned over to law enforcement. The board agreed. The Hollister Heat must be able to assure clients and sponsors that the matter is being taken care of.
Concerning public relations statements – no statements will be made at this time. Board members should be honest about their knowledge of the events, assure people who ask that there are now new safeguards in place that we hope will prevent this from happening again, and it is in the hands of law enforcement. The website also adds a level of accountability. George Ramirez and Dave Super will be the contacts on this issue and questions should be referred to them.
Bill Baer mentioned that the website is currently set up to send money to a deposit account. Michele Diaz insisted on this. He wanted to know if the new account would also have a deposit and checking account or if there would only be one account. As nobody even knew of the deposit account and to make things simpler and easier to track, there will only be one account opened.
The Online Registration date is no longer November 1st, 2011. A new date will be determined after a new bank account is open.
Santa Barbara Bank and Trust requires the minutes showing the action taken to open a new account for Hollister Heat.
- Moved by George Ramirez that the Hollister Heat should appoint Dave Super to position of Vice-President along with his original duties as Equipment manager and that the Hollister Heat should appoint Nicole Ramirez to the position of Treasurer along with her original duties as Travel Ball Coordinator, Shaun Zink seconded, motion carried.
It was mentioned that the duties of Travel Ball Coordinator would not be too difficult if there were stricter requirements for travel ball coaches.
- Moved by Dave Super that the Hollister Heat should open a new account with Santa Barbara Bank and Trust with Lupe Leija, Brittany Homen, and Jennifer Bagley as co-signers, Keith Woeste seconded, motion carried.
On a side note, Bill Baer reported that the new website is up and running. Registration is a 3 stage process. The first stage is personal information; it is mandatory information that cannot be changed. The second stage is supplemental information that can be changed. Jennifer Bagley suggested that the Division field be removed from visibility and that shirt dimensions should be available when selected shirt size. Lupe Leija will get that information from Mandango’s. The third step is payment.
Other issues regarding financial problems – The tax statements that were submitted this year are probably false; the Heat will have to follow up with Mike Grace from Grace & Associates.
New Financial Committee – Nicole Ramirez, Lupe Leija, Brittany Homen, and Jennifer Bagley.
Capital Improvements Committee will now include Michael Montoya (Secretary note - he is already on this committee, but we do need to replace Larry on the Snack Bar Committee.)
Members are concerned about accountability at the Snack Bar due to the fact that most transactions are made in cash. No solution was settled upon.
Investigation Issues – This is a criminal matter, it will be dealt with by the appropriate authorities. George Ramirez is asking to be investigated to demonstrate his innocence so that the Heat can move past this as quickly as possible.
Financial costs arising from financial problems –The new Treasurer will need QuickBooks or other financial software and the Heat will incur costs for using the services of Grace & Associates.
- Moved by Bill Baer that he be given a $900 budget to purchase a laptop and Financial Software for the Treasurer, Michael Montoya seconded, motion carried.
- Moved by Bill Baer to amend his original budget to include digital back-up of the Hollister Heat laptops (old and new) at the new amount of $1200, Shaun Zink seconded, motion carried.
Bill Baer needs to inform Sage to stop payment until a new account is established.
Someone mentioned that there is a Travel Account which Michele Diaz also has to be removed from.
Bill Baer needs new paperwork for Sage. Dave Super and Nicole Ramirez will now be on the Merchant Accounts. The original start of the online registration is now cancelled. Bill Baer requires a voided check and statement of Validation of Banking from Santa Barbara Bank and Trust. This statement should contain the new account information.
Questions – Who has the PO Box Key? Perhaps in the crate that Michele and Larry Diaz turned over that hopefully contains other information. The Heat needs to verify what our Monthly obligations are and confirm that they are still getting paid in a timely fashion. The AT&T account should be cancelled as well, as it isn’t in use and we aren’t sure of how to access it anyway. Nicole Ramirez will try to find the account information for Jennifer Bagley to call AT&T with. A new hotline will be opened with Google Voice and a new email account opened with Google as well. Bill Baer requires the credit card terminal so that he can change the account information. The Heat will now go through Sage for the credit card processing account.
- Moved by Jennifer Bagley that the Hollister Heat should hold a Special Meeting on November 1st, 2011 at 7pm, Brittany Homen seconded, motion carried.
Adjournment
Moved by Brittany Homen that the October 21, 2011 Emergency Meeting of the Hollister Heat Borad of Directors should be adjourned, Bill Baer seconded, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 8:15pm.
Next Meeting: November 1, 2011 Time: 7:00PM
Location: YMCA-351 Tres Pinos Road, Suite A-201, Hollister, CA95023
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