A board meeting of the Houston Hockey Booster Club, Inc. was held on Tuesday, September 9, 2008, at Margaret Martin's residence in Houston, Texas. President Margaret Martin presided over the meeting. Executive board members present were Melanie Ogren, Margaret Martin, Barbara Pride, Tom Huber, Patrick Humphrey, Renae Rives, Kristi Parrott, and Ivan Kusjanovic. Also in attendance were Basil Reyna, Dale Humphrey, Kelli Stohs, and Timor Martin. The meeting was called to order at 7:25 pm.
The minutes from the previous board meeting were presented. Typographical errors were noted. Melanie made a motion to accept the minutes with the changes noted. Barbara seconded. The motion was passed unanimously.
Barbara Pride presented the treasurer's report. There is currently a balance of $5,907.42 in the account. The bank account was charged a $3.00 statement charge and a reimbursement check for $7.95 was cleared. Barbara stated that she still has the deposit check of $200 for the bus trip.
Old Business:
Lisa Munoz agreed to co-chair the table committee and the website committee. Kristi made a motion to accept Lisa as the chair. Barbara seconded. The motion was passed unanimously.
All signers for the bank account have signed and the paperwork has been turned in.
Ivan renewed the domain name for the website for 3 years. The cost was $27.57. Reimbursement was approved at a previous meeting and will be remitted to Ivan.
The membership applications have been turned in to the front office and are scheduled to go out in the season ticket holder packages.
Barbara presented samples of logos to use for the booster club shirts. Melanie advised that all companies will charge an initial set up fee of $60 - $70 for the logo. She found a shirt company that would charge $20-$25 for the shirt with the logo on a minimum order of 24 shirts. It would take approximately 1-2 weeks for the logo approval and an additional 2 weeks for the shirts to be completed. The type of shirt was discussed and it was decided that Barbara should get definite prices on short sleeve polo shirts, long sleeve polo shirts, and long sleeve t-shirts. Barbara advised that she would send an email out with the prices of the shirts for a board vote. Renae made a motion to accept the Tailgunners current logo as the logo for the shirts. Tom seconded & the motion was passed unanimously. It was proposed that the color of the shirts be either red or green. Barbara made a motion to use red and green as color choices for the shirts. Kristi seconded and the motion passed unanimously.
Melanie attempted to contact the company that was previously used for the premium item pins but received no response. The company possibly went out of business. She is currently looking for another business to use. Ivan indicated that he may know of someone that can help with the pins and he would check into it. A suggestion was made to contact other booster clubs to see who they use for their pins. The cost of the pins before was $2.10 per pin and a total of $630.00 was spent. The pins should have the same logo as was used before but with the dates 1994-2009 added.
Margaret is still waiting to hear from Tiffany in the front office for a Feed the Office date. She will call Adrian Cavazos to see if he could assist in scheduling.
Margaret stated that she is waiting to hear back from Helen Brown about the Feed the Team dates for this season. Helen is contacting Sugar Land Ice and the coach.
Margaret passed out the board member phone list.
The booster club table wheel was discussed. There was concern over how to determine if someone has already spun the wheel. Basil suggested that they put a check mark on the application if they are bringing it to the table. The wheel would be available at the table for the early bird time only which ends October 31st. Margaret advised that she talked to O.J. and he is going to look for items that could be used as wheel prizes.
The leftover pad folios were discussed. A motion was passed last year to sell the remaining pad folios for $25.
Margaret advised that she received an email with a bill for the bus trip that was due October 10th. According to the bill the booster club would have to remit payment for the bus trip prior to the season opening and there would be no way of knowing if enough people would go. Barbara made a motion to cancel the October bus trip. Kristi seconded. The motion was passed unanimously. Barbara advised that she would void the deposit check for the bus. A poll will be placed at the booster club table to see if there is enough interest to take a bus trip on November 29th and/or March 14th. Prices were discussed and a suggestion was made that non-members should pay $10-$15 more than members. Kristi & Basil both stated that they would search for alternate bus companies keeping in mind that the buses should seat 40-50 people and have a wheelchair lift.
The activity tentatively scheduled for September was cancelled.
The by laws have been amended with the new board members listed.
New Business:
Margaret advised that there are approximately 30 coffee mugs, an unknown number of hockey pucks and cases, and hockey stick pens left over. She suggested using these for the table wheel prizes. After discussion it was decided that this issue be tabled until O.J. advises what items he was able to give the booster club.
Margaret requested that each board member work the booster club table at least once during the season.
The membership applications need to be mailed out to the membership. Kristi volunteered to do this. Ivan will send Kristi the membership list and Margaret will email the applications to Ivan and Kristi. Additionally, the booster club table will need 25-30 applications for the games, which Margaret will handle.
Margaret made the suggestion for the board to purchase a printer to print the applications and other necessary paperwork. Melanie advised that she had a printer at home that was not in use and she would donate it to the booster club.
Margaret received an email from the Birmingham Booster Club. They will be attending the Aeros game on January 30th and requested to get together with the Aeros Booster Club for dinner before the game.
Patrick stated that he put up a new hit counter on the website.
Scott Henninger asked for possible meeting dates. He advised Margaret that the 3rd Tuesday looks good with the exception of December. He also asked for tentative dates for the banquet. After discussion it was decided that January 27th or February 16th looked like the best dates. Margaret will contact Scott with the dates. If neither date is acceptable then another date will be chosen.
Meeting places were discussed. There should be a separate meeting room and the restaurant must be willing to split the checks. The Ragin Cajun was determined to be too expensive for future meetings.
The Kids Unlimited Bass Tournament is scheduled for October 25th. Margaret has the camping information for those interested and is requesting donations for the tournament. She will send out an email to the membership. Margaret is going to request permission from the Aeros office to accept donation items at the booster club table. Margaret advised that she received an email stating that Kids Unlimited is sending a gift to the booster club. She will send out an email when it is received.
The Kids Unlimited bowling party scheduled for February was cancelled. Currently nothing is set up in November and Kids Unlimited is requesting help from the booster club. They asked if the booster club could help set up a party at a bowling alley. The bowling alley must be willing to allow Kids Unlimited to bring in their own food. Ivan stated that he would check with a friend to see if they could help.
The next board meeting was scheduled for October 14, 2008.
Kristi made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Tom seconded the motion and it was passed unanimously.
Meeting adjourned at 9:05 pm.