All Star I Family Conference Governance

All Star One Town Meeting
July 4, 2005

The meeting opened with Deb Weiner Soule and Ben Soule leading the song, “Where do we come from?” (by Brian Tate) which introduced the theme of our conversation.

Info on Exec – Debbie Weiner Soule

• How to contact the Exec/get information
• Introduction of the Exec.
• Introduction of Marc Soule, webmaster.

Healing and Reconciliation Committee – David Osgood

David discussed the planned Talk on the Rocks: “Tuning your Heartstrings.” What does healing and reconciliation mean in this beloved community? We will begin to look at these questions tomorrow. “Star is a place with great diversity, including diversity of feelings. This means anger, fear, sadness, pain…we want to look at how we as a community can find ways to create a context where those times of pain can be understood and moved beyond. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Come explore…”
Members of the Healing and Reconciliation Committee stood.

Jim Prochaska concluded, “One of the most meaningful gatherings was a Friday during the conference Kemp Harris and Bill Tibbs chaired, when we talked about issues around community. We will also be looking at ways to proactively reach out. We know we have lost some special people in this conference…we want to reach out to people…people may not accept that, but we will try.”

Governance Structures.

Jim explained that we have the Board of the Star Island Corporation, the Corporation itself with its members who are nominated; the Council of Conferences with representatives of our conference attending and speaking on our behalf, and our own conference governance. We want to explore how our governance works.

Jan Prochaska brought greetings from the SIC Board

Jan introduced her colleagues on the Board, Nancy Meyer and David Yermack. Jan also explained the format of the Star Island Corporation and how people come to be members of that body. She explained that the focus on the Board is on looking to replace legacy of the Jennings for the last seven years. Two AS1 conferees are on the committee: Debbie Weiner Soule and Scotty Stewart.

Council of Conferences: Henry Powsner.

Henry gave an overview of recent conversations within the CofC, saying, “We all have to share in financing this institution if we want it to survive. While we have been solving our problems, other conferences have other solutions which might work better. The CofC’s suggested that there be a number of representatives available: providing feedback to the board, to share information with the conferences; working so that conferences can share best practices that have evolved from their experiences.” There are a number of workshops/breakout sessions that have evolved. CofC has met about four times in two years. One group is focusing on keeping conferences well filled. Some conferences are like ours. Some don’t fill at all. Every room left vacant costs the Corporation money. Another group is looking at development of part time attendance, bringing people in for one or two days even if they aren’t a part of the conference.

By pooling our interests, we can get officers and directors’ insurance which will include our conferences’ staff, for much less. Ditto liability insurance. We also know that the IRS has become interested in us…once a certain amount of money comes into the organization, the IRS requires reporting…we are looking into incorporation of the Council of Conferences with each conference coming under the wing of the larger tax exempt organization.

We are focusing on the sharing of best practices….which is very valuable.
Question:
what about change of dates for conferences?
Response:
Yes, we discussed that issue and had a chance to share why our needs were the most important…and we found that this was a common problem.

Henry reminded us that there are two voting members at the CofC meetings…dates of that meeting could be announced on the website. Next meeting is October 15. Observers welcome.

Occupancy at our conference:

Jim Prochaska said, “We as a conference are responsible for filling our conference. What the task force looking into occupancy and revenue recommended to the board is that if we fall short in filling our conference, a process of sharing the island where another smaller conference would start up during the same week. There is also serious consideration for changing schedules if a conference is consistently falling short during the prime time of the season. There also is a commitment to share the costs. If we need 260 conferees, the conference would need a way to cover those costs. So we need to look at alternatives and understand how we would handle those responsibilities. All Star One has gone beyond our usual limit. We are at 280 this year. This helps with conferences which are falling short. Do we get credit for this? No. But this does help the Island financially.”

Jim noted that another benefit of information sharing was the realization that All Star One had no scholarship program. This gave rise to our scholarship program.

Questions/comments:

• Concern was expressed about transient guests understanding the ethos of the island, particularly with regard to fire/water issues. Comment: One result of having the boat change is that we have fewer visitors. There is an economic impact on the island stores, and it also makes the island more elite and exclusive that it seemed before.
• Question: Is the Council of Conferences considering ways in which we can recruit people in our own churches to come to some of the undersubscribed conferences? Jan Prochaska responded: There has been a start in this direction…and this will evolve as well.
• Question: Is the board is considering the establishment of another family conference? Response: that will be coming up on the Board’s agenda.
• Comment: our materials probably have not changed to reflect changes in the Board’s policy around registration. Also it was true (this year) that everyone who wanted to come to our conference did come.

Chapel Accessibility: Ben Soule

This is one of the issues that has been addressed by the Council of Conferences for the last two years. The chapel is a focal point…how it is treated is a matter of interest for all conferences.

Ben explained that improved access has been going on for about 20 years. In 1985 an ad hoc group was appointed to look into physical accessibility. Pathways have been improved, ramps created, accessible room in A Cottage, bathroom off lobby, etc. One of the first projects was to change the text in the Blue Brochure which said the island was rocky and difficult to get around ‘and if you have accessibility problems you should go elsewhere.’ “Since then, many things have been done. But many people think about the Chapel, which has been put off as other things have been made accessible. Now the Chapel Access Committee needs to decide how to make chapel services more accessible to more members of our conferences. A groups headed by Brad Greeley, now VP of the Star Island Corporation Board of Directors, has created a survey to give out during the 2005 conference season, on how to make chapel services more accessible to people who come to the conferences. We have them here on the island and they are one the lobby desk. We are encouraging as many people as possible in our community to complete this survey; we want to hear from you if you care about the chapel.

Questions:

• Regarding a fire limit on chapel: what would the proposed changes do to that? Response: about a year ago, the Rye Fire Marshall said that limits on many of the public spaces would be set…Eliot Hall, lobby, Newton, Marshman, and the chapel were included. His rough numbers have been bandied about…50 if there is one door, 70 if two doors. The Chapel seems to be off the radar screen of the fire marshal at the moment, but it is possible that a limit will be set at some time in the future. This survey has tried to separate out how they feel about accessibility without going into the complicating issue of the numbers.
• Is the Chapel a historic site? Yes, at national, state, and historic level. The Rye Historic commission believes the Star Island community are the best possible caretakers of that building and they trust our decisions along those lines.

Annual Fund/Stewardship: Larry Yermack

Larry noted the generosity of the All Star One conference …$88,533 raised last year. He observed that there were two ways to help corporation. First, through the Fred and Ginny McGill Society, as bequests are what we need as a way for the Corporation to build its endowment. Second, we seek greater giving through the Annual Fund. This year, we have a goal for giving to the Annual Fund from All Star One in the amount of $90K…we are currently at $52K pledged or delivered. He also noted that there is a group of conferees…about 15 giving units…who have come forward to establish a 2005 matching program so that new donations on island or pledged will be matched 1:1 up to a limit of $4,200.
There was no further business taken up at the Town Meeting.

-- Recorded by Debbie Weiner Soule,
Secretary of the All Star One Chairs/ Convener All Star One Executive Committee