ECA meeting on incorporation proposal

2/22/09

Hartung Hall (informal notes by Deirdre Helfferich)

Present: Kate Billington, Nancy Burnham, Eric Glos, Deirdre Helfferich, Hannah Hill, Hans Mölders, Mike Musick, Monique Musick, Mali Noreen, John David Ragan, Debbie Rimer, Mark Simpson, Lisa Sporleder, Nancy Therrell. Also present were Les ? and Bill Baker of the Lions Club.

A meeting was held to vote on a proposal for incorporation of the Ester library as a separate entity from the Ester Community Association, but it was pointed out at the outset by Mark Simpson that the meeting was, in fact, not a legal official meeting of the ECA, as there had not been a directors' meeting to set the meeting, and so therefore no binding votes could take place. So it was decided to have a discussion on the proposal instead.

A slightly revised overview of the JTEL on its own was prepared and offered to the attendees for review, along with a copy of the proposal.

Pros and cons of the idea of separation were discussed. Pros were:

Relief of liability concerns for the ECA;

Focus on and independence of mission, bylaws, and operation for the library;

Potential increase in options or availability of capital or other grants (direct to the library rather than through the ECA);

Relief of increased paperwork & reporting requirements for the ECA due to larger sums of money coming into the organization.

Cons were:

Possibly unecessary due to feedom for the library committee within ECA bylaws;

Loss to library of grant management track record that the ECA has;

Loss to ECA of library assets (i.e., the land).

The proposal and overview were also discussed. Monique pointed out that the library should have a five-year business plan to help it focus on its operations and for obtaining grants.

(more notes to follow)

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