february 13th, 2025 meeting minutes

Kensington Valley Civitan Club Business Meeting Minutes
02/13/25
Present: Diana Bolton, Thad Bogert, Karissa & Elijah Canfield, Cheryl VanVliet, Hal Hultman, and Theresa Furget.
Elijah called the meeting to order at 6:37 PM.

1. Additions & Corrections: None.
2. Approval of Minutes of January 9, 2025: Hal made a motion, and Karissa seconded it to approve the minutes. Motion passed.
3. Treasurer’s Report & Budget Committee Report-Diana: Diana went over the general and MP accounts for February 2025. It was discussed that both accounts are not taking in enough money to break even, and eventually this will become an issue. For now, it is ok as the club has been very frugal in expenditure and is able to cover all expenses. Thad mentioned that dues may need to be increased to $35 sometime in the future. Karissa made a motion, and Hal seconded it to accept the treasurer’s report. Motion passed.
4. Correspondence: The club received a thank you card from military personnel in Iraq that received a Desert Angels Miracle Box.
5. Member Recruitment & Retention (MRR) Committee Update-Thad: Thad stated no committee meeting was held; however, he did some research on a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program- Springly. He shared the link with Karissa, whose has been checking it out. The Springly program allows for registration, and tracking. With a contact database which allows you to send out emails that can be tracked and has an option for opting out (unsubscribe). It also helps with creating a newsletter. Karissa is still going through the tutorials for the program. Thad indicates that it costs about $49 per month and offers a lot. Currently the club has a Weebly subscription that costs about $10 per month. The best nonprofit CRM for your organization
6. Open Discussion:
   1. Blessings-Volunteer Opportunities at Centennial Middle School (CMM) & Millennium Middle School (MMS): Discussion was about volunteering at these events as an individual or as a group. Thad will check about group opportunities and report back. If you want to volunteer now, here are where they need the help and the links to volunteer.

i.Weekley delivery to CMS/MMS: Looking for volunteers to put food bags in lockers at CMS & MMS every Friday. Link:  Blessings in a Backpack: Weekly MMS and CMS Delivery.
ii.Monthly packing & delivery: Once a month packing larger food bags and delivering them to the students’ homes. Link: Blessings in a Backpack - South Lyon: February 15 - Monthly Packing & Delivery.

1. Scholarship Planning:  Cheryl reported that Maureen and Paige are in the process of updating the forms and will send them to the two high schools, S. Lyon, and S. Lyon East. Elijah will update the artwork and the website for the essays. The deadline to submit entries is April 16th and the club needs to notify the schools of the winners by May 16th. Discussion was how many scholarships ($1000 each) to award. The past two years the club has awarded four ($1000 each for a total of $4,000). The first year just two awards ($1,000 each) were awarded. It was decided to award just two awards this year, which can be discussed and modified if there are more than two students deserving. Cheryl made a motion, and Thad seconded it, that two awards of $1,000 each (for a total of $2,000) be awarded out of the MP account. Motion passed. Paige is coming back to assist with this event and will serve on the committee with Maureen and Cheryl. Hope I did not leave anyone off the committee. Just a note that the scholarship is the biggest expenditure from the MP account.
2. Brews & Chews May 17th:  Elijah stated that Larry Berg of the American Brain Tumor Association of MI sent him flyers of the upcoming BT5K Brews & Chews event to be held at the Kensington Metro Parks (4570 Huron River Parkway, Milford) with registration starting at 8 AM and the Brews & Chews at noon. There are various levels of sponsorship which would allow the club to have a booth at the event. Members did not seem interested in staffing a booth. It is not clear whether there are volunteer opportunities or not. They probably would take a monetary donation.
3. New Project Checklist: Discussion was that for each event there would be a point person/chair/person in charge that would coordinate the event. Karissa has prepared a google spread sheet for members to indicate their preferences. At this time, the spreadsheet is in ‘view’ only mode, she is the only one that can edit the spreadsheet. Just let her know what you would like to chair, and she will make the necessary changes. Here’s the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16xMMdHyLYQw7FizR2EnDEER2_kSXcbFO/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=113762036340398725003&rtpof=true&sd=true
4. S. Lyon Creek Clean Up: Thad indicated this will be held on May 4th. Members are interested in doing the hospitality booth and again provide the Biggby coffee and hot chocolate, along with granola bars and fresh fruit-bananas.
5. Winter Project Discussion (Goal: Decide by May for 2026):

i.Inspire Movement Project: Thad indicated that he will start working on this.
ii.Random Acts of Kindness Ideas: Elijah indicated that Cheryl produced a list of ideas that are included on the back of the agenda. Her examples are: delivering snacks to the local police fire and EMS; adopting seniors at local assisted facilities and give them a small holiday gift/birthday gift or sponsor an event at the facility.; leave monthly treats/cards for homebound seniors; work with Active Faith for children birthdays; donation of needed items to Blessings in a Backpack; sponsor a party for Special Olympics group; sponsor a craft/event for a special education classroom; and purchasing books for young kids to own. Karissa and Elijah talked about Civitan International’s (CI) Four Impact Areas: 1. Accessible & Inclusive Communities; 2. Education & Employment; 3. Health & Wellness; 4. Family & Community Support. They passed out a copy of the impact areas. Elijah talked about sponsoring a public exercise park (under Health & Wellness). Karissa talked about working with the Lyon Downtown Development Authority (DDA) with an ART Park/Mural, in particular a circular arch bench that would be paintable. The club would be able to collaborate with the artist and DDA to produce a design to be painted. It will cost about $12,000. Here’s the link that tells more about it:

Thad talked about sponsoring a clergy lunch and a lunch at the senior center.

1. Michigan Monster Dash-TBD: Karissa stated this will probably be held the third Saturday in October (18th??). Volunteers will be needed. Awaiting further details.

1. Project Updates: None.
2. Upcoming Projects:
   1. Adopt-a-Highway Cleanup: April 5th-13th; July 12th-20th; and September 20th-28th: Elijah will chair this event and will obtain additional bags. It was decided to meet at Biggby’s on April 12th at 10 AM. Rain date is the 13th.
   2. Youth Entrepreneur Market-Elijah:

i.2025 Dates: May 10th, June 14th, July 12th, August 9th, and September 13th.
ii.S. Lyon Superintendent Steve Archibald Letter-Cheryl: Cheryl is still waiting to hear back from the Superintendent concerning marketing the event on the school’s websites/calendars.
iii.Marketing Plan-on site attractions, flyers, other ideas? Need to increase the foot traffic for the YEM dates. Discussion was to buy ads in various community papers. Lyon Today, Hometown Herald was mentioned. Karissa indicated The Lyon Today Magazine has a much larger reach of about 21,000 homes. And would cost about $200 or .10 per home. She is waiting to hear back from them about the actual price and whether it could go in the May magazine. Karissa also talked about direct mailings with postcards. This would cost about $200 and go to about 600 homes and postage would be an additional $130. She could try to get a better price on the postcards if it were decided to go this route. Thad talked about sponsoring signs to be put up in the high schools’ fields on the fences. He thought it cost about $350, but it also depends upon the actual sport (football, baseball, etc.) Karissa has applied for two grants to get inflatables and yard games for two different YEM dates to help increase customers.

1. Charity Poker-April 3rd-6th & June 26th-29th:

i.Sign up Genius coming in March for the April event.

1. Training session at the March Meeting.

1. Brummer Elementary School Washer/Dryer (Just added)-Thad: This was discussed at the previous dinner meeting. Many of the kids come to school in dirty clothing and more schools (such as Detroit) are providing this for their students. It is estimated that the cost would be about $1,500 for the washer and dryer with additional costs for the electrical and plumbing.
2. Dinner Meeting:  February 28th at Teresita’s Mexican Grill.
3. Next Business Meeting: March 13, 2025.
4. Adjournments: Meeting adjourned at 8:08 PM.

Minutes taken by Theresa Furget on February 13th, 2025, and respectfully submitted on February 14th, 2025. Happy Valentines everyone!