Monthly Meeting Minutes

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Here are the highlights from our meeting.

NLSA Member Meeting Agenda
October 7, 2009; 8:15-9pm


Introduction: Annie
Quick Icebreaker (State your name, If I could start my own nonprofit today, it would be a…)     
Statement of Goals and Objectives for NLSA
Integrate into the UWM Community, get more involved
Help make the Milwaukee Community a better place, take part in more community events
Allow nonprofit students to further their academic careers - Gain more knowledge, experience, conference opportunities

Events (Bill)
Bring Your Own Pumpkin - Sunday, October 25th, around 3pm
Voted on having the event at Annie’s house
Bill created a flyer
He will keep us updated on further information (Annie’s address, time, etc.)
UWM men’s basketball game
We will be attending the UWM Men’s basketball game on Friday, November 13th, 7:00pm, US Cellular Arena
Service Opportunity: We want to get more involved as an organization, so we are working closely with Variety Club by volunteering at their events
Career Fair
We are putting together/hosting a career fair on Friday, December 4th.
Think of organizations you would like to see at the career fair, do you have any special connections with this organization? If so, please provide us with contact information.
The fair will be held in the Union room 280. We will probably sneak in our own food (pizza, cookies, etc.) and not the Union’s food.

UWM Policy (Justin)
We have two radio spots on WUWM radio to promote our career fair
Kyle will help out with the scripts
Operations grant for supplies is already spent
Technology grant was spent on computer in office
A NLSA banner will be going up in the Union in about two weeks. Annie and Brooke created the design
We have the ARNOVA travel grant – The conference will be held in Cleveland
Proposal for large grants is due Oct 30th.
If you have any ideas or anything for a large event, please let us know.
There are restrictions as to what will be covered by the grants (gas, food, etc.)
Proposal form is needed to gather ideas so we can start the grant writing process. We are thinking of having a grant writing committee.
There is a conference in Washington DC on general nonprofits
Ask your professors about possible conferences to attend, search which conferences that you are interested in on the web, make sure you would actually attend these conferences.
We can vote on which conference(s) to attend.
Please give us your proposal by October 25th

Finance (Molly)
Went over NLSA financial statements
We spent all of last year’s grants by June (the deadline). Most of our remaining funds are restricted, except for the $295.
Voted spring event funding
$100 budget for events this semester. All are in favor to spend this money on events such as: Bring Your Own Pumpkin event, rakes, etc. There will be 4 events this semester. Most of the events are sponsored and won’t cost us much money.
Suggestion by Bill: We should revamp our website. He is talking with an IT friend about possibly setting up a PayPal account for donations. Donations to us are not tax deducible. Businesses can write them off as a business expense. Bill knows of companies who might want to donate to some of our events. If we make a certain amount, we might have to file our own 990.

Membership (Brooke and Michelle)
Sign in if you haven’t yet. Provide us with your correct email address.
Pay $2 in dues to become an official member
Put any suggestions in our suggestion box

President (Annie)
Book Drive
We are pushing professors and students for a book drive sponsored by NLSA. Annie made a flyer. We have an office on the 3rd floor with a huge bookshelf. We want this to be a good study area/library. Will make books available based on how donors want to do this. Four books are already in the office.

Office Hours/Study Groups
NLSA office is in the Union room 377.
Annie’s hours are from 4:30-6:30 on Tuesdays.
We are thinking of having office hours on Sundays. Would you be interested in having this room open on Sundays as a resource? We answered yes, but on a case by case basis (exam time, etc). Those with keys, could you let us know when you are in the office so we can come in if we want? (Put it on your Facebook status, etc.)

Other News:
Justin: Public Allies event - Saturday October 17th 11-4
Need volunteers from 9-5
There will be a scavenger hunt, pick up, kids will plant beans in a pot, etc.
Justin is passing around a flyer, pick a shift.

Annie/Jenny: Farewell party for Professor John Palmer Smith? His last day is Tuesday, December 15th. We will talk to Lisa about this.

Molly: We need very committed volunteers to model jewels, fur, etc for the Variety Club fundraising event.
Event is Friday evening, November 6th at the Pfister.
If interested, talk to Molly.
You will receive a free meal of $85 value