Walnut Creek Seniors Club
Advisory Board Meeting
April 19, 2021
Welcome & Call to Order at 9:30 AM
Approval of Last Meeting Minutes. Minutes approved.
Treasurer’s Report. Bob Mohler: Creakers are back in business. Unrestricted checking is up from March. Creakers’ income is also higher. Registration for Creakers was compressed into March. Bob has started working on income tax return. May 15th is the normal filing date for nonprofits. He is expecting a check from the city for the dues they have collected so far. Our CD is coming due. Bob made a motion to roll it over for another 6 months. Jeanne seconded. Motion passed. Fred congratulated Bob and the Board for a good balance sheet.
Correspondence – None
Manager/Coordinator Update
Vanessa Cendejas. The building is still being scheduled to reopen in the fall. The city has been meeting with Meals on Wheels and other groups that used to meet in the building for the fall. Kat has worked with Lisa Mattone for the travel group. They have scheduled a group to take a bus trip to Golden Gate Park in June. The City is sending out a survey to members next week and wants info on what kinds of questions the Board would like added to survey. The city is actively looking at the MOU for signing.
Presidents Report. Ellen Sorbone is theoretically a board member but has not attended a meeting and we are having a problem communicating with her. Regina is hoping to meet with her this afternoon and will ask Ellen if it is ok if Regina gives Fred her phone number
Unfinished Business
WCSC Secretary: No volunteers
Newsletter Robin reported that the Newsletter is almost ready to send out. Robin wonders if she should list the board members at the bottom of each newsletter. It was felt that would be a good addition. She would like to know the names of the board members plus their functions. Fred will send it to her.
2021 dues collection Fred thinks we are doing quite well with dues collection. All of the Creakers and Tennis Club members have paid. Fred was particularly impressed with Cindy’s figures re the numbers of people who have paid either by check or on the internet. Fred thinks a lot of people are waiting until the building opens. Robin says that 577 people have paid their dues. Jeanne asked if we expect our membership to go up or down due to the new Lyft program. Fred said you do not have to be a member in order to use Lyft. There is a lot of resistance to going back to the building IF we are going to have to stay 6 feet apart! Most groups do not want to go back with those restrictions. Robin says people are actually refusing to go back to the building with 6-foot restrictions. The Let’s Sing group has chosen to stay on zoom! Bob said he thinks things will be different by September. Kat is making plans for a September reopening.
New Business
Covid protocols. Everyone got the vaccination protocol that Fred sent (from the Creakers) and wants to know if we should adopt it for everyone. No decision was made.
Returning to the Senior Center. September is the tentative reopening date. Robin said the CDC reports that it is extremely low risk for people to catch Covid by touching. Fred thinks the majority of groups will not come back to the building until they come back with no restrictions. Robin mentioned that before Covid, the Bingo group was shoulder to shoulder! Fred thinks the city is considering the possibility of having the building open less than 5 days per week. He feels that is why the city is wanting to know which days each group wants to meet. Cindy wondered if they were trying to ease us out of the building so they could rent to someone else. Fred doesn’t think so. Fred said right now we have 9 groups that used to meet in the building and he feels we will probably be down to 6 or 7 groups post-Covid. Bob volunteered to ask the Trivia group next week how they feel about coming back to the building with restrictions. Robin feels we should have combination groups both on zoom AND in person. Regina agreed with Robin and felt we should look into it. Regarding getting vaccinations, Jeanne said we should realize that not everyone will choose to get vaccinated.
Pass Through grants. We have had two “Pass through” donations which we are requested to pass on to the City. Do we need a motion? One is a grant for the senior transportation program from John Muir Hospital and the other one is a donation from First Republic Bank for the Senior Club of Walnut Creek. Fred has tried going into First Republic bank to get information about the donation but has previously been unsuccessful. It was discovered that the bank had made an error in updating the club’s records and did not have Fred as an authorized signer. This has now been corrected. There was a discussion between Bob, Jeanne, & Fred regarding the ethics of Kat asking the bank for a donation for the Senior Club without the Senior Club having a copy of her request. The John Muir Hospital grant is $10,000 for the Senior Transportation Program. Fred said the First Republic donation appears to be to fund a city employee to help with the senior citizens of Walnut Creek. Fred feels what Kat is doing is okay because she has told him about it in advance. Jeanne is unsure. Bob was concerned about “unrelated business income.” Fred said he will not sign anything unless and until the Board approves it. He also mentioned that this is the 3rd year in a row we’ve done this. Jeanne said she wants to make sure we have accountability. Cindy & Bob were concerned that we did not have copies of the request to First Republic or a copy of the grant proposal sent to John Muir Hospital. They were also concerned about “unrelated business income” affecting our standing as a nonprofit group. Bob was also concerned about the potential liability issues associated with the grant, especially since we did not get a copy of the proposal. We are required to sign a grant agreement with John Muir promising, among other things, the proper use of the $10,000 grant and proper reporting and insurance coverage. When we pay the money to the City, we require that they sign a fiscal sponsorship agreement which basically states that they will hold us harmless for any issues arising out of the grant agreement. Bob thinks as long as we file the paperwork correctly we should be okay with this particular grant, since it is specifically for assistance to the Senior community. Jeanne feels it’s fine for Kat to try to get grant money for the senior club, but she feels the board should have a copy of what she is doing. Fred feels that as long as he is aware of what she is doing, it is okay. Bob talked some more about “unrelated business income.” He said most people feel 15% (unrelated business income) is the threshold to try to stay under. The $10,000 grant makes Bob uncomfortable from an accountability issue. The issue of the $3500 donation for Spec Rec was raised as a possible accounting issue because Bob feels we can not donate to a non 501c3 organization, which the City is. Our accounting would have to show the expense as something unrelated to a donation or senior programs. Bob was unclear about the tax implications. Jeanne said when she voted to approve this grant she did not realize there might be a problem with the 501C3. Fred says we can legitimately do this but Bob was unsure. Bob said the legitimate way to do this is to have Kat send us an invoice for City Services of some sort. The subject was tabled until next month.
Ambassador Reports. Robin: We have someone interested in leading the investment group. The Mahjong group is interested in coming back. PG&E is going to fund Robin’s son to teach Qigong for the city.
Rolando said the Walking Buddies are out walking. Everything looks good. The walkers all sign waivers for each walk. Robin said that 15 people downloaded info
Donn: Opening day for 2 of the Creakers divisions is tomorrow. The third division opens on Thursday. It’s great to be back. Everyone seems to be enjoying it. Donn says they have a good PA system and will ask people to spread out for the “opening ceremony.” Donn will send Robin a photo and a paragraph about opening day. Donn feels the drone pictures have never been very successful so he will take some pictures himself for Robin.
Cindy: See report. Robin was amazed at everyone who downloaded the coupon. We will have another coupon this month. 160 people downloaded the coupon. Robin hopes for more coupons from other restaurants.
Meeting Adjourned at 10:48.
Next meeting: May 17, 2021
