ORDER SONS OF ITALY IN AMERICA – Mercer County Lodge 2799

General Meeting Minutes
February 16, 2011

Opening:

The General Meeting of the OSIA Mercer County Lodge was called to order at 7:08 PM on 11/8/10 at the Hamilton Library.

Present: Maria Ferris – Recording Secretary, Cynthia Genovese – Treasurer, Janet Parrotta – Trustee, Donna-Maria Ratico – Trustee, John Ratico – Trustee

John Ratico, Sr. was in attendance.

Al emailed his agenda to board members to follow as he was unable to attend this meeting as was Marc.

A. Minutes

The minutes from the 11/8/10 and 12/5/10 General Meeting were made available.

B. Open Business

· It was decided that the March General Meeting will be held at the Dorothea House on March 20^th at 3:00 PM. The meeting will be in conjunction with an Italian movie. There may be another group there as well. This group attends regularly to watch movies at the Dorothea House. The February movie at the House was cancelled. Cindy will confirm the details with Anna, who is the main contact with Dorothea House, and let me know so that I can cancel the room at the library reserved for March 14^th. The March 20^th meeting will be publicized on the website, Facebook page and mentioned during the “call campaign” (see below).

· Al emailed the membership list of old and new members to the board for the purpose of initiating a “call campaign.” The purpose is to try to get members who haven’t renewed membership to do so and tell them able the 3/20/11 meeting. The list was divided between Cindy and Donna-Maria. Donna-Maria knew many of the names. Janet was willing to take some of the list but due to her upcoming trip couldn’t begin immediately. I (Maria) told the board I would not be making calls so Cindy and Donna-Maria volunteered to begin making calls soon.

· It was suggested that “Mercer County” be removed from the name of our lodge and replaced with another name following “OSIA.” The board was asked to come up with some suggestions. Perhaps those living outside of Mercer County would be more interested in joining a lodge they felt was not limited to Mercer County residents. The State lodge needs to be consulted about rules involved in changing a lodge’s name.

· The amount of the dues needs to be finalized as some feel seniors should be offered a discount. Notices need to go out to members. Membership forms come from the state.

· Having the picnic will depend on how many members are in our lodge.

Adjournment:

Meeting was adjourned at 7:43 PM and was followed by coffee and dessert.

Minutes submitted by: Maria Ferris

2/19/11