MINUTES OF CHAPTER MEETING

Partners of the Americas

Colorado, USA – Minas Gerais, Brazil Chapter

Date: June 4, 2006

Location: Brown residence, Greeley, CO

Present: Francis Wardle (President) Roger & Betty Brown (Treasurer)

Stephen Waechter (VP) Linda Nedved *new work # 720-913-0730*

Mike & Rhoda Rogers Jan Brummond

Bryan & Carolyn Cooke (Sec’y) Jon Monson

Stephanie Palm Neves Sophia Waechter

Meeting was called to order by Pres. Francis Wardle. Attendance taken. Minutes of the March 5, 2006 meeting reviewed and approved.

Discussion of Travel Grants: Betty & Roger will attend Partners convention in November and go on to Belo Horizonte. Work is progressing on the Chapter website. Steve requested that they visit the 2007 convention site.

Dates of this year’s convention: November 16-18, 2006 in Belize.

Rhoda moved that the chapter sponsor Roger & Betty to International Convention.

**Motion seconded and passed.

Report on Coffee Project: Stephanie described the school & community center sponsored by Socially Conscious Coffee of Denver with an affiliate in Bahia. The center serves Afro-Brazilian coffee harvester families in the border communities of Encruzilhada, Bahia, and Mata Verde, Minas Gerais. Ongoing programs are supported by Rotary Foundation and other private donors. Partners could be involved through a $5,000 grant to begin a music program as a joint project between Colorado-Minas Gerais and Pennsylvania-Bahia Chapters. A proposed grant application letter was presented. Linda moved that the chapter support the grant.

**Motion seconded and passed.

Report on Character Counts: Jan has been invited to attend. She needs training, but can get it here in Colorado. Alice Cordiero is the contact person in Minas Gerais. Francis moved that we support a travel grant for Jan.

**Motion seconded and passed.

Report on Iracambi proposal: This is a research project in the rainforest to develop alternative products, etc. Francis has advised Binka (MG Partner?) that this board will only sponsor travel grants for people who have been members of Partners for 6 months or more. The Washington DC office could send Mervyn Tano on their own if he hasn’t joined.

Photo exhibit at Red Rocks CC: Francis thanked everyone who attended his photo show. It will be on display until June 16. Photos may be shown at convention. Linda suggested we might expand it to include photos of Colorado.

Treasurer’s Report: Betty reported $6521.83 in treasury.

New Business:

Roger & Linda requested assistance with fees for convention in Belize. Bryan moved that we pay the early registration fee for any Colorado Partners who attend, with reimbursement to be made upon presentation of the receipt.

**Motion seconded and passed.

Discussion about whether Washington will send some Colorado people to help with next year’s convention in Ouro Preto (travel costs & registration).

Discussion about fund raising. The last fund raiser was the Brazilian Naïve Art Exhibit in which the pieces were auctioned after the show. This could be done with Francis’ photographs. Other suggestions were for note cards &/or calendars with photos. There will be a fund raiser at the Ouro Preto convention using local products. We could also do something around Carnival time in Denver.

Information item: Betty has applied to go to training for Partners officers.

Volunteer hours are being counted by Partners International. Award certificates were presented to Steve, Betty, Roger and Francis for their volunteer work. All members were encouraged to keep a record of their volunteer hours either by hand or online.

Many thanks to Jon Monson for the tour of water/sewer facilities before today’s meeting.

Next meeting: (originally scheduled for September 10) Due to unavailability of several board members, it was agreed to change the meeting date to October 1, 2006, 3:00 pm at Francis Wardle’s in Denver.

Meeting adjourned, followed by social time.