MEETING MINUTES OVERVIEW OF THR REUNION PROCESS AUGUST 10, 2OO8

MEETING MINUTES

Overview of Reunion Process

8/10/08

ATTENDANCE:
Janelle Jarvis
Sheanette Jarvis
Andrea Jarvis
Collette Charles
Carla Johnson

Meeting came to order on August 10, 2008 at 1:30 pm. The above listed attendees were present.

REVIEW OF LAST MEETING MINUTES/OLD BUSINESS:

• Janelle reviewed minutes from the 7/26/08 meeting at Jan’s house

REUNION SITE UPDATE/NEW BUSINESS:

• Janelle and Collette have visited the following sites:
• Discovery Green and The Grove restaurant at the park grounds downtown. Although Discovery Green can accommodate the family, the Grove may not for Saturday night activities. Only ½ of the deck is available for private rental, the other ½ is open to the public. The park does have a 50% discount for non profit organizations to rent space on the lawn.
• Pearland Park. Availability of indoor facilities, but may not be able to accommodate entire family at one time due to capacity limitations
• The above info is pending a final count of course which we plan to have in 2009. If the final count is lower than the capacity at these locations, we may retry them in the future.
• Carla gave update on H&H Ranch.
• Facility has been updated and has the means of accommodating the entire family and with catering (selections other than BBQ) and activities.
• Plans for the committee to arrange a visit on Sept 6^th.
• H&H has a larger capacity for the family and pavilions as well for covering in anticipation of high summer temps and rain. They also have an indoor area (for an extra fee, pending necessity and budget of course)
• I have the info from Karen @ the ranch in my email. Aunt Carla also gave me her hard copy.

REUNION HOTEL UPDATE:

• Carla and Janelle provided information on several hotels near H&H and surrounding area. A list was divided up to obtain specific hotel information.
• Questions to ask hotel representative includes the following:
• Group Discounts / Non Profit Organization discounts, if applicable.
• Parking Fees (free/self park? or pay per day?)
• Total Room availability (how many are available and how many are we allowed to block for family?)
• Are double beds available? (We do not want a suite hotel where all rooms have king sized beds and no doubles options)
• Capacity of ballroom (use of ball room for 2 nights maybe…Friday night social/registration and the Saturday night dance of course)
• Copy of catering menu
• Can we bring in outside food if budget does not allow for catering? Kitchen facilities for this?
• Amenities for price paid (Fitness room, internet ready, others)?
• Complementary Breakfast
• How far in advance are reservations required?
• When is deposit due and how much is it? (Contract issued? details inside?) When is final balance due?
• Check in/ check out time?
• Shuttle services?

FUND RAISING:

· Janelle shared fundraiser options, and presented some samples she received from vendors. More information has been requested for more options.

• Flavored Popcorn (maybe for a casual fundraiser) from Popcorn Palace . The samples were tasty!
• Scented Candles, cookie dough, and gourmet coffee from Lil Ol’ Cookie house. They also sent samples. The cookie dough is very good! This company may be good for a holiday fundraiser because of the nature of their products.
• Raffle Tickets
• Collette purchased a roll of raffle tickets and the 1^st $100 gas card is available
• 1^st place $100 Shell Gas Card
• 2^nd place $50 Prepaid Visa Card
• 3^rd place $25 Wal Mart Gift Card
• Tickets will be sold for $1.00 and all checks/money orders will be made out to The Mary Clotea Family Reunion.
• Money for raffle is due Nov 1^st.
• Drawing will be Nov 15th
• We are waiting on Jan’s pledge of $100 to get the other prizes. Collette already has the gas card.
• Dues
• We discussed dues. We decided on $25 quarterly (every 3 months) per household, regardless of the # of people in it. Single people would pay $25 and families of whatever amount would pay the same. This would amount to $100 per household in one year. The dues are scheduled to start January or February of 2009 (we may want to give people time to pay holiday debts etc.) Mathematically speaking, if just 50 ppl/households pay their dues in full, that’s already $5,000. If 100 ppl/households do, that’s $10,000, etc.

REUNION COMMUNICATION:

· We will start working on the 1^st family communication. Plans are to stuff envelopes on after we visit H&H Ranch (Sept 6^th tentatively) and decide if we want to use the facility.

· The 1^st letter will include the following:

o Our progress as of late (general)

o Request / delegate committee members

o Fund raiser info (in letter)

o 10 Raffle tickets @ $1.00 each

o Self address stamped envelopes

NEW REUNION COMMITTEE MEMBERS:

· Andrea Jarvis and Carla Johnson were nominated to be Recording Secretaries, Andrea accepted. She will be assisted by Carla Johnson

· Sheanette Jarvis was nominated to be Financial Secretary, accepted

POST REUNION MEETING PROGRESS:

– Janelle has narrowed the list of hotels near H&H down to about 15. They are based on proximity to reunion venues, prices, capacity, online photos, and guest reviews online at Travelocity.com and Hotels.com

– We will begin calling these hotels once we decide whether or not we want to use H&H for the picnic (seems likely, but still pending). If we decide on Discovery Green, Janelle has also compiled a comprehensive list of hotels near this park

– Janelle has contacted Cindy Folsom of the Humble Civic Center conveniently located on Will Clayton Parkway near H&H. They have ballrooms that could accommodate the family and have non profit discounts. I went to the site and it looks like a nice facility. Executive committee members will likely visit the facility in the future to check it out. It can be reserved as early as June 1, 2009

– Janelle has found info on a free 90 minute tour of the ship channel. This could be done before the picnic maybe on Saturday. We would look into chartering a bus to take the family there so we can remain together. Members of the executive committee plan to take the tour first to see if we like it

– Janelle will begin looking into charter bus prices

Respectfully Submitted,

Collette Charles