To: IFHFR Members     

From: Daniel Berger, Secretary

Date: August 4, 2011

Ref: Minutes of the IFHFR meeting of Tuesday, July 12, 2011

1. Opening remarks and discussion: At the regular monthly gathering of the IFHFR, there being a quorum present, the meeting was called to order by President Fabio Fernandez at approx. 7:00 PM on July 12, 2011.

• The meeting was held at Ralphie and Dale Lauretano’s home, 14741 Mustang Trail, Southwest Ranches, Broward County, who graciously allowed us to congregate in a most warm and welcoming locale. The President thanked Ralphie on behalf of the membership for opening up his home as venue for the June meeting. We all felt welcomed indeed.
• Bob Straile received special mention as he was instrumental in arranging the event and brought the food from “Shorty’s” specially for the event. Thank you Bob “Caddy Bobby” for all the hard work in obtaining and setting up the food and drinks.
• Special thanks were due to Darryl Hickey for his fine stewardship of the IFHFR during the last year.
• New member Daniel Berger has volunteered as Secretary and has already produced a fine set of minutes for the June meeting to keep us all informed. Welcome and thank you Daniel. 
• It was especially significant to see long time member Ron Buschbom attend this evening meeting although he now lives in the West coast. He drove 2 hours to be with us tonight. And he is driving back after the meeting. Very glad to see you Ron.
• Birthday wishes to Jim DeLeo and Bob Straile.

2) Approval of Minutes: The minutes of the June 14, 2011 meeting had been previously distributed via email. The minutes were discussed and approved by acclamation by the membership.

Committee Reports:

3) Treasure’s Report: A) Bank Balance: Treasures Bob Straile reported the IFHFR account had a balance of $10,229.46 as of June 30^th, 2011. B) Updated Check Book:Since our check book account is quite old, having been originally opened at Barnett Bank, the Treasurer will seek a replacement of the checkbook to reflect the current name of the bank, Bank of America. New board members will sign onto the account. C) Membership Dues: A roll call of the names of all of our members who are paid up for 2011-2012 was read.  Anyone who has not yet done so, please mail your check for $40.00 to the P.O.Box in Bob's email.  We are a dues-based organization and have never used any donations to pay our overhead. The latter fact is a point of integrity for us, as we have promoted this concept honestly in our fundraising. We need about 30 members to remain solvent, so do not delay! The Treasurer will report on the status of the dues’ collection at the September meeting. Dues continue to be $40.00. Bob will be sending a reminder email to the members in the next few weeks. D) Tax Exempt Forms: The Treasurer presented the Sales Tax Exemption Form for “Consumer’s Certificate of Exemption” issued by the State of Florida which allows the IFHFR to avoid paying sales tax on purchases made by the Fellowship. Please keep in mind to obtain and use the form when purchasing items for the Fellowship as we may not be able to reimburse for tax expenses incurred, and for which you seek reimbursement. Bob has copies of the form and they may be sent to you electronically via email. E) Announcing New Donation: The Coral Springs Rotary Club will be donating $500.00 to the IFHFR.

Old Business:

4) At Risk Youth Fishing Outings: - A) Roy Gonas reported on the progress being made on the Miami-Dade County fishing trip for at-risk-youths planned for July 30, 2011. A $300.00 deposit was made towards the July fishing trip. Bob is arranging for the juice, chips and water and he is submitting a letter to Publix Supermarkets for a donation of cash, groceries and/or paper products.  The trip is from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM but Rotary volunteers are asked to arrive no later than 7:30 AM for the required preparations and for the greeting of our early arriving guests. .The boat will be the Reward Won, and will leave out of the Bayside Marina (not the Miami Beach Marina). Fabio Fernandez will help with the food (sandwiches) purchase and pickup on the day of the event. Other volunteers are needed. Please contact Roy.

Roy has already selected a number of at risk children and continues to seek additional deserving children to attend the trip. No high school or Rotary exchange students are expected and it is open to our member's children or grandchildren, which is a great way of bringing them into the fold and creating good memories (contact Roy Gonas for reservations). The boat can hold 30 kids comfortably, but could take a maximum of 42. Right now we are at 15, plus 4 counselors.  Roy has been hard at work on this. Please mention this at your Rotary Club meetings!

Roy will be reporting on the details of the event at the September meeting.

B) We also look forward to hearing the details of the Broward County At Risk Youth Fishing Trip during our September meeting. Dave Rice and Don Lieberman are leading that effort.

5) Children’s Summer Camp: The status of the program designating children to attend the Camp at Umatilla, Fl. has not been finalized. Jerry Mills will look into this situation. He will evaluate the status of the SOS Children’s Village.

6) Member’s Overnight Fishing Trip: Roy Gonas reported on the progress being made on a member’s fishing trip to Sanibel Island on Friday, September 16- meet for dinner, Saturday, September 17- 7:00 AM meet at dock to go fishing, Sunday 18th ditto. A second trip to Captiva Island can be arranged for those who cannot make it.

7) D&O Insurance: As previously reported by Bob Straile, Treasurer, the current D&O policy will expire in mid August 2011. At a prior meeting Bob had provided copies of the policy, information on the related costs, and name of current broker involved, for review by the members. A close review of the policy and discussions with our broker indicated that all directors, officers, committee members and volunteers are covered by the policy. General members are not covered.

The membership discussed motion made by Roy Gonas, and approved it by acclamation, to allow the President, Fabio Fernandez, with the assistance of the Treasurer, Bob  Straile, to negotiate and purchase suitable D&O Insurance coverage in line with the current coverage and costs. Kitty McGowan volunteered to review our general liability insurance- the challenge is the water coverage aspect, as these policies offer no coverage when off-shore. The NRA insurance is an option. We expect to report on the status of the renewal during the September meeting.

8) Fundraiser- Rot. Club of S Miami- possible bartending: At prior meetings the members had discussed the benefits and capability of serving in a, yet to be defined capacity, in the distribution/sale of beer during the Art Festival sponsored by the Rotary Club of South Miami. This event takes place in the last weekend of February 2012 and lasts for two days. During the June 2011 meeting the membership agreed by motion to put our hat in the ring and begin to negotiate some arrangement to man the beer booth or participate in some other capacity in the selling of beer at the mentioned festival. Fabio Fernandez will keep an eye for this opportunity with the South Miami Rotary and Brew Master Darryl Hickey will head the negotiations of our efforts with the beer companies if this project becomes a reality.

9) Fundraiser- Thomas the Tank Engine: Bob Straile had previously reported on a Miami-Dade County event related to “Thomas the Tank Engine”. There is a possibility for IFHFR to get involved, as a fundraiser, in directing the parking of vehicles during this annual event. Other non-profit organizations seem to be already participating. The event lasts for 3 weekends and will require approximately 5 people for each shift. At the June meeting, after close evaluation of the benefits and the required manpower and based on motion by Darryl Hickey and seconded by Robert Trescott, Bob Straile was authorized to inquire and negotiate a preliminary agreement with the sponsoring museum that would allow for our participation.

Bob will be reporting on the status of this fundraiser during the September meeting.

10) Meeting venue- President Fernandez reported that the search is still ongoing for a venue that is convenient for both Miami Dade and Broward members. Several ideas, including meeting at The Beverly Hills Cafe, were floated.  Darryl Hickey is looking into this issue. Stay tuned for events as they develop...

New Business:

11) Fishing Tournament Fundraiser:  Kitty McGowan reported that Marine Industries will not be sponsoring the 45th Annual Florida Billfish Tournament and there is no fishing tournament scheduled at the present time. Should there be opportunities for IFHFR involvement, she will let us know. Bad economic times portend a lowered chance of this being a viable revenue source for us.

12) Club Logo- Jim DeLeo has the artwork. We require the art work to be able to incorporate into our stationary as well. Jim will bring the art work to the September meeting.

13) Future of the IFHFR fellowship: President Fabio presented the members with information pointing to the nebulous future of the Fellowship unless we bring in new members and afford them some control.  Such changes will revitalize us and lighten the load that each of us is obligated to bear if we are to survive in our role as a both a service organization and a source of camaraderie. Low membership growth, lack of member interest, decreased quality or frequency of motivating events, competition from other sources, etc. Many of the same symptoms are affecting other service organizations, but the discontinuation of such icons as the annual Gold-digger’s Show, the decrease  of activity and membership of Rotary clubs, Elks Clubs, the bad economy, the age of our founding members, the relocation of many members outside our area,  etc. have hit home especially hard. The membership of the Fellowship has been rapidly decreasing, and some current members are at an advanced age or nearing retirement. At the current rate the Fellowship will likely disappear within 3 to 4 years. Given these realities, the membership debated and explored realistically controllable reasons for the decline of membership which may be summarized as follows: 1) Quality of speakers at monthly meetings, 2) Quality of planned events during monthly meetings, 3) Frequency and general appeal of member’s events outside the regular monthly meetings, 4) Lack of new member referrals, 5) Web site needs improvement and is not current, 6) Available PR material not adequate, 7) Jerry Mills mentioned lack of influence at the Rotary District level, 8) Ralph L. mentioned that we have done very little hunting and only some fishing- we must not lose focus of the nature of this club, etc.

Most importantly, however, the members agreed that it was worth making the effort to preserve the Fellowship. With that in mind the discussion turned to solutions. We realized that additional efforts, such as a better web site, better and more frequent member’s events, and a better structure to the meetings (advance location, dates and speakers) is required in order to induce younger members to join our ranks.

Hopefully by making these efforts we will be creating our replacements and assuring the continuation of our charitable efforts and camaraderie.

We, therefore, agreed to appoint 4 volunteer Chairpersons to head the critical and important efforts that must be made in order to assure the survival of the Fellowship. These 4 Chairperson positions and the membership of the committee will be on a volunteer basis to assure that the Chairperson and the members are fully committed to the effort and responsibility assigned to the committee. Committees will update the members on a monthly basis on their game plans and the results obtained so far. Each committee will prepare an outline of its strategic plan, with possible timelines, to serve as a quite to all the committee members of the work expected to be done; and provide basic information to the general membership of the efforts being made.

Elected Chairmen and Members to date:

Member’s Events Coordinator: Bruce Kerestes: Volunteered to be the Member’s Events Coordinator. Additional members needed. Committee will do activity planning to help members that may need assistance in putting together a member’s event. In particular Bruce is already planning a hunting trip. He will report on more details at the September meeting. There is also a fishing event being arranged by Roy Gonas; Some other Member Events ideas had been presented at prior meetings and these included: 1) Skeet shooting at Markham Park Range; 2) pistol shooting at NW 25^th and 42 Avenue- in the Fall due to bugs and heat; 3) suggestions for a Hog Hunt have been made recently by Ralphie Lauretano. Bruce will be discussing membership on the committee and coordinating with the volunteer members to assure success of these efforts.  

Meetings and Speakers Coordinating Committee:  Chairman to be determined: However, Joe Witz and Darryl Hickey have volunteered to be members of this committee. They both have some suggestions on speakers that they may be able to enlist to present at our meetings.  The Committee will be involved with recruiting speaker and other monthly meeting events coordination. Some ideas had already been presented for implementation during our prior monthly meetings and these included: 1) turtle hatching and release in Key Biscayne with prior visit to Jimbo’s-  Robert (Bullet) Trescott would like to help with these arrangements; 2) speakers from Bass Pro Shops; 3) speaker on Everglades pythons- suggestions made to discuss with Shawn Meiman for arrangement of this event; 4) pistol shooting at local indoor pistol range - see Darryl Hickey for help, 5)  determining a more central meeting venue to hold our meetings.

Membership Services and New Members:  Shawn Meiman in addition, Dave Rive volunteered to join this committee which will be creating innovative ways to recruit new members. Due to Shawn’s travel schedule he may not be able to make some meetings but expects to be represented by members of the committee who will be working together with him. Some ideas have been suggested for the Membership Committee to explore and include: 1) monthly meet-other-Rotarians evening card exchange types of event that are being help in Broward and Dade; 2) improved messages for potential members should be written for inclusion at IFHFR web site and possible mail distribution, 3) encourage non-Rotarians to participate, etc.

Web Site Maintenance Committee:  Don Lieberman: Upgrading and updating IFHFR web site.  Including more current articles, photos and PR material geared to a new membership. This committee needs additional members. Don is asking for assistance in generating the material he needs to maintain the web site updated. He may have more specific questions at the September meeting.  
 

The IFHFR will be heavily reliant on the efforts of the newly elected committees Chairmen and Members. We wish them well and look forward to their concrete actions and updates on the results of their committees at the coming monthly meetings.  
 

  14) IFHFR Future Meeting Schedule: (Please mark your calendars)

August 9. 2011 ………………... No meeting; Summer break

September 13, 2011 ….…….... Broward. Return to Ralphie Lauretano’s home. (Jerry Mills volunteered to coordinate the food supply for the Sept meeting. Speaker?? Early display of Ralphie’s knifes and gun collection. Member’s gun trade.) 

October 11, 2011 ………..…… October Fest Event, Roy and Roselyn Gonas’ home. (Coordinator of food and event’s speaker: Roy Gonas.) (We are warned that there will be NO Bud Light).

November 8, 2011 ………….... Broward County. ??? did somebody volunteer???

December 13, 2011  …………. Holiday party??? Did Robert Trescott volunteer???

January 10, 2012 ……………  TBD – Dade County???

February 21, 2012 …………...  Broward. At Kitty McGowan’s home. (Coordinator of event’s  speaker and food Kitty McGowan and Tim McDermott.)  
 
 

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Daniel Berger, Secretary  
 
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