The Walter H. McClenon Fund

Sunday 23 June 2013

Minutes of Meeting

 

 

Quarterly Meeting of Trustees

 

The quarterly meeting of the Trustees of the Walter H. McClenon Fund, Inc. was held at 4 p.m. on Sunday 23 June 2013 at the 1119 S. Carolina Ave, S.E., Washington, DC 20003.  The President called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m.  The following Trustees were present in person or on the phone:

 

·                     Bob McClenon – President

·                     Chuck McClenon – Treasurer  (phone)

·                     Carol McClenon – Secretary (phone)

·                     Tom Baisden – Vice President (phone)

·                     Clara McClenon (phone)

·                     David McClenon (phone)

·                     Lee McClenon (phone)

·                     Kathy Clark (phone)

 

1.                  Approval of minutes of previous quarterly meeting of  16 March 2013:

The minutes were unanimously approved.

 

1.                  Quarterly Report of the Treasurer (previously distributed by e-mail).  Chuck reported that the General Endowment has $1,964.08 in its checking account, and the Special Endowment has $3,925.00 at this time.  The General Endowment should make contributions of approximately $1,500 this year; the Special Endowment should make about $6,000 in contributions. 

     

2.                  Report of President:

The President summarized the 36-page report.

 

•                     Meeting Agenda (1 page)

·                     General [Endowment] Summary (1 page)

·                     Special [Endowment] Summary (1 page)

·                     Assigned List (1 page)

·                     Unassigned List (2 pages)

·                      Agenda List (30 pages)

 

The President reviewed the procedures for nominating and contributing to organizations: 

•                     An organization can be declared Eligible and Nominated at the same time.

•                     Contributions to that organization can then be made at the following meeting (or thereafter).

•                     When we make a contribution to an organization, it automatically loses its Nominated status.

•                     It can be Nominated again at the next meeting (or thereafter).

            The extended e-mail discussion among Trustees which occurred in the weeks preceding     this meeting will be posted to the Website by Bob.  He will also contact Dotster to find        out if we could get blogging capability for our website. 

           

      3a.  Any other comments by the President – none.

 

1.                  Ad Hoc Committee reports – none

Lee asked about procedures for writing reports.  It was noted that Ad Hoc Committees have consisted of only one person in recent years. 

 

5.      Any Other  Reports – none

6.      Action on Amendments to the By-Laws:

•                     Article III B 2 – the proposed amendment to Article III B 2 was passed unanimously.

•                     The proposed Amendment to III B 3 was passed unanimously after the deletion of the words “annual or quarterly” and some other wordsmithing.

•                     The proposed Amendment to III B 4 was passed unanimously.

•                     The proposed Amendments to sections 5 through 9 were passed unanimously as a package, with wordsmithing to parallel the wording of III B 3.

•                      

            The proposed changes to Bylaw III B 10 were again deferred.

           

            The revised wording of Bylaw III B, as amended, is included at the conclusion of these    minutes.

 

7.   Action on File of Grant Requests:

 

The Trustees agreed not to make any contributions this quarter.

 

There was extended discussion about various Trustees' interests in various types of organizations and causes, and how these fit in with the mission of the Fund.  There was agreement to go on record as being interested in supporting “green” energy initiatives as a means towards improved quality of life especially for people in developing countries.  Other areas which were mentioned included telecommunications, literacy, housing, and rehabilitation of prisoners inasmuch as these causes tend to serve and uplift the relatively poor.  There was also discussion about training people to be more effective change agents.  Lee may provide additional information on this topic at a future meeting.

 

8.   New Business:

 

The Treasurer requested that an Investment Committee be created.  The Trustees unanimously voted that the Treasurer shall chair an Investment Committee and shall appoint its members.  Chuck indicated that he will appoint David and Lee McClenon to serve on this Investment Committee of the Fund.

 

      8a.  Discussion of audit of annual report of Treasurer – deferred.

 

9.   Appointment of Ad Hoc Committees – Anyone can volunteer himself or herself as an ad hoc committee.

 

10.   Next Meeting:  The Quarterly Meeting will be held on Sunday, September 15, 2013, at

        4  p.m. Eastern time, 3 p.m. Mountain Time, 2 p.m. Central Time,  1 p.m. Pacific   Time.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 p.m. (EDT).

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

 

 

Carol A. McClenon

Secretary

 

***

Text of Bylaw III as Amended June 23, 2013

 

[ III. Grants and Contributions Policy]

 

            B.         Evaluation Process

 

1.         The Board shall evaluate each organization from which a request for a contribution or grant has been received by the Fund, based on the Board's decision as to the appropriateness of a contribution by the Fund from one of its endowments.  There shall be two parts to the evaluation process.  The first part shall be the tracking and assignment of an evaluation status by the Fund.  The second part, for those organizations which have been evaluated, shall be the assignment of the organization to a category for each endowment.  The status of an organization requesting a contribution or grant may be:  (a) not currently evaluated; (b) insufficient information for evaluation; (c) evaluation not considered appropriate; (d) evaluated.  The categories to which an organization may be assigned when it is evaluated may be:  (a) ineligible for contributions; (b1) not selected for contributions due to financial concerns; (b2) not selected for contributions due to eligibility concerns; (b3) not selected for contributions for other reasons; (c) eligible for contributions but not currently nominated; (d) eligible for contributions and currently nominated; (e) eligible for contributions and permanently nominated.  An organization shall have a single evaluation status assigned by the Fund that applies to all endowments.  An organization that has been evaluated shall have a separate evaluation category assigned for each endowment.

 

2.         The President shall maintain a list of all organizations that have either requested contributions from the Fund or received contributions from the Fund.  This list shall, at a minimum, identify the name, last known address, evaluation status, categorization in each endowment, total amount if any contributed from each endowment, and date of the last report on each organization.    The list shall also identify organizations that have sent recent requests for contributions that have not been evaluated.

 

3.         At each annual or quarterly meeting of the Board, the President shall more specifically provide the following lists of organizations:

(a)        organizations that are not evaluated from which recent requests for contributions have been received and are in need of evaluation;

(b)        those which are eligible but not currently nominated for contributions from each endowment;

(c)        those which are eligible and either currently or permanently nominated for contributions from each endowment.

 

4a.         The evaluation by the Board of any organization that has requested contributions will normally be done on the advice of an ad hoc committee of one Trustee.  The President shall request Trustees to agree to be appointed to advise and report to the Board on each organization that has recently requested contributions that is not currently evaluated, and shall include the organization on the list of organizations that are not currently evaluated.  The President may appoint an ad hoc committee to advise and report to the Board on any other organization. 

4b.       The President may, but is not required to, drop any organization from the list of organizations from which recent requests for contributions have been received, if no Trustee has agreed to advise on categorization of the organization within nine six months after the request was received.

 

5.         An ad hoc committee to advise on categorization may request additional information from the organization, and shall present a written report including a recommendation as to category for contributions from each endowment.  The Board shall consider the committee's written report and shall assign the organization to a category for contributions from each endowment, which may be any of the categories provided in subsection 1, above.

 

6.         At any annual or quarterly meeting of the Board, the Board may change the categorization of any organization.

 

7          At any annual or quarterly meeting of the Board, , the Board may instruct the Treasurer to make a contribution from an endowment to any organization which was, immediately prior to that meeting, categorized by that endowment either as eligible and currently nominated, or as eligible and permanently nominated.  By a two-thirds vote of the Trustees present the Board may authorize a contribution to an organization in any other category.

 

8.         Any organization which was eligible and currently nominated for a contribution from an endowment to which a contribution is approved shall automatically be recategorized as eligible but not currently nominated for a contribution from that endowment.

 

9.         Any organization shall be automatically recategorized as not currently evaluated after expiration of an ad hoc committee report.  An ad hoc committee report shall expire after five years after its presentation to the Board unless the Board shall specify a shorter period for its expiration; however, a report that an organization provided insufficient information for evaluation shall expire in three years.