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East Texas PFLAG Minutes
March 9, 2009

The meeting was called to order by Lou Anne Smoot at 7:15 pm.

Attendance: Eleven members were in attendance.

Minutes: Due to the absence of Brenda, Gene read the minutes from the February meeting. Gene moved and Tom seconded that we accept the minutes with one correction. Motion carried.

Treasurer’s Report: Lou Anne gave the Treasurer’s Report. The current balance is $1633.32 which includes $727.74 profit from the Valentine Dinner/Dance. This profit will be split between Project TAG and East Texas PFLAG.

Old Business:

Our Certification of Formation has been approved by the Secretary of State. We are still waiting on our 501(c)3, which is being processed for us on a national level by PFLAG and should be finalized this summer.

Troy, Lou Anne, and Gene reported on their recent trip to Austin as participants in Equality Texas Lobby Day at the Capital. Following training sessions, they visited in the offices of various state congressmen to advocate for support of various bills currently in committees which have a direct impact on our GLBT community.

New Business:

The floor was opened for nominations for officers. Gerry Phifer and David Mason were nominated for Vice-President, Brenda McWilliams was nominated for Secretary, and Lou Anne Smoot was nominated as Treasurer. Troy spoke on Gerry’s behalf and David spoke on his background and experiences. All currently paid members were given ballots and a vote taken. The results of the election were:

Gerry - Vice President

Brenda - Secretary

Lou Anne - Treasurer

Program
Lou Anne introduced our speaker for the night, Katy Stewart. Katy is currently serving as the President of the Bryan/College Station Chapter of PFLAG and is the Volunteer Coordinator for the State of Texas. She shared with us the current work of PFLAG at a National and State level. She also explained the resources at our disposal from the PFLAG website and explained how we could develop an East Texas PFLAG webpage, utilizing hints, logos, and links from the National site.

Katy also shared the financial opportunities available to our organization through the Diversity Outreach Chapter Assistance Grant. For assistance in grant writing, our contact person at National is Kimberly Jones. Katy also shared some of her chapter’s successful fund-raising events. She concluded by reviewing the Straight For Equality Program that has been developed and showed several brochures available explaining this program. Our chapter currently has some of these brochures available for the asking. Lou Anne thanked Katy for her visit and her wonderful and helpful presentation.

Adjournment: With no further business to discuss, Troy moved and David seconded for adjournment. The meeting was concluded