The regularly scheduled February 27, 2010 meeting of the Douglass Alumni Association was held at Bethel A.M.E. Zion church. The following members were present: Douglass Releford, Virginia Hankins, Sheila Leeper, Louetta Hall, Ozine Bly, Wallace Ross, Harry Smith, Carl Bradford and Calvin Sneed. A quorum was met.
The Meeting was called to order by President Douglass Releford. Louetta Hall opened with prayer. Calvin motioned that because of a late start, to waive the reading of last meeting minutes. Virginia Hankins seconded.
OLD BUSINESS - Doug reported that the required fee of $1,500.00 for the Douglass School Historical marker has been paid by anonymous donors. Doug relayed our appreciation to those persons for their generosity.
Calvin presented handouts. One announced the approval of Douglass High School receiving the historical marker and the other one was of the text that would be on both sides of the marker. Calvin also stated that we would be getting a phone number from Charter soon. Wallace asked if Charter was the only company we considered and Doug told him that it was cheaper to go with the company the other organizations were using and that Charter’s rates were the best.
Virginia Hankins asked how the telephone and internet service would be funded.
Doug stated that it was discussed in the last meeting that we would no longer need to rent a storage facility so we would be able to transfer those funds to the telephone and internet service. Virginia also asked if we could maybe look into grants. Doug stated that talks were already in the works about us applying for grants. Wallace Ross suggested that we ask members of the association for donations. Doug stated that we need to stress the importance of Douglass Alumni members paying their yearly dues as a means to help meet our financial obligations.
Calvin suggested that we would need XP or Vista on the computers and that they would most likely be Dell since that was who the city had their contract with.
Doug stated that in a conversation with Terry Cunningham it was disclosed that there was a grant in place to take care of the furniture situation. Since our organization was small in comparison to the other non profit organizations in the building, he was not sure how much furniture that would consist of. Doug did say that chairs, for some reason, would not be included.
Virginia asked if the scholarship money had been transferred into the scholarship account and Doug said that it had.
Calvin questioned if Jeff Faulkerson had been paid yet. Doug said as soon as we could acquire his address, the check would be sent.
NEW BUSINESS - Doug suggested that we discontinue the use of our P.O. box since we would have a physical address once we moved into the V.O. Dobbins Complex. Virginia Hankins made a motion to cancel the P.O. box when we move and Sheila Leeper seconded the motion. It was voted to do so. Doug also suggested those funds could also be used toward our utilities.
Doug reported that construction was going good and that there was going to be an innovative nuclear heating and cooling system installed for the community room at the V.O. Dobbins complex. This will be the only system of its kind in the state of Tennessee.
There was a discussion on where the marker should be placed. Calvin suggested the courtyard. Virginia suggested we wait on a date closer to completion of the building to give everyone a chance to look over the grounds before we decided on placement of the marker.
Harry Smith asked if there was going to be shelves in the office at the complex. Doug was not sure. Harry said if we needed shelves, that may be something that he could volunteer to build for the association. He showed us a picture of his work.
Doug asked the association to remember several of our Douglass Alumni who are sick and in the hospital.
Virginia Hankins suggested we have a dinner for the working board of the Douglass Alumni Association for appreciation of the work we have done. Everyone was in favor of doing that. Our next scheduled meeting will be on April 17, 2010 at the Golden Corral at 1:00.
Virginia Hankins made a motion to adjourn and Ozine Bly seconded.
Douglass Releford adjourned the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Virginia Hankins
