CKSCP Emergency Board Meeting
March 21, 2022

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm by President, Bob Herring. Also present at the ZOOM meeting were Mike Burns, Bob Derge, Bob Derge Jr., Frank Clark, Jay DeWitt, Sasha Etlin, Steve Hirschberg, Ann Lampe, Gail Bason, and Susan Neaman.

Bob Herring previously distributed an agenda via email.

OLD BUSINESS

· None

NEW BUSINESS

Potential Fundraising Partners:

· Bob Herring introduced Brian Templeton representing Midwest Community Fundraising and Nate Wolf and Erin Wynn representing a Hiking For Kharkiv fundraising effort.

· Nate advised that he was working with Wes & Chris Adamson on a Go Fund Me fundraising effort which was directed at providing funds to Olga Fedchenko’s efforts in the Kharkiv region. He noted that Olga has been actively supplying aid in the form of medicines, food, and transportation to mostly Kharkiv and eastern Ukraine. The website has raised over $6,000 and Olga reports on expenditures via a spreadsheet tabulation. It was noted that Olga is Vladimir Bulba’s daughter. Vladimir has been involved in the Mayor’s exchanges and is a professor in the Kharkiv School of Public Administration. Most of the board members are familiar with both Olga and Vladimir.

· Nate introduced Erin Wynne as the founder of Cincinnati Hikes which is a Facebook group with 20,000 followers that facilitates and sponsors hikes in and around Cincinnati. They have developed a fundraising concept for a hike to benefit Ukraine. The concept is called 5,304 Steps for Ukraine, a take off on the fact that it is 5,304 miles to Kharkiv from Cincinnati. The plan is for hikers to donate $25 each to participate in the event either on their own, or as part of a May 13th hike with the goal of raising $5,000 for Olga’s efforts. A Milford outfitters store, Roads, Rivers and Trails, is also planning to hold a similar event. Hikers would receive a sticker recognizing their participation. They were hoping that CKSCP would spread the word about the event to our circle of friends. There were board questions about how the funds were being transferred to Olga. Nate advised that they have had success using PayPal with the GoFundMe page and would do the same with this fundraiser. After additional discussion, Susan Neaman made a motion with a second from Ann Lampe to support the Hike for Ukraine efforts. The motion was approved by unanimous voice vote.

· Brian Templeton introduced himself as a community fundraiser using Pledgedrive.net which is a mobile donation software program tailored to assist community organizations like CKSCP in fundraising efforts. He outlined a “Share-a-thon” program which was developed to raise $50,000 - $100,000 in aid from CKSCP to the Kharkiv Oblast Red Cross. The program would be an email based effort directed at our 270 friends who receive the Gazzetta. It would run for three weeks and seek to expand our donor base by asking the friends to share with their neighbors and friends. He presented a comprehensive PowerPoint slide show detailing how the program would work. Participants could donate using a wide variety of payment forms from credit cards to PayPal. Credit card fees of 2.9% would apply but could be lessened if CKSCP chose to absorb all or part of the fees. He would donate half the fees as his contribution to the fundraising effort. In such an instance, 100% of the donated funds would be directed to the Red Cross. It was noted that any deductions would be tax deductible to the extent permitted by law. There were several questions from board members regarding whether donations could be anonymous and how such a program might be received by our circle of friends. Bob Herring advised that friends could donate via two options. First, donations could be made directly to CKSCP, either by check or thru PayPal via the website. Second, friends could donate by participating in the Share-a-thon option and solicit their friends and colleagues to also participate. Bob Herring thanked Brian for his presentation and excused him from the meeting so that the board could discuss the proposal further.

· There were additional questions and comments form board members with regard to the proposal, some in favor of proceeding and some not too keen on the concept for a variety of reasons. Bob Herring asked everyone to get back to him with any other questions they would like answered. He would attempt to get the answers to everyone by Wednesday afternoon and then each board member could vote on whether they wanted to proceed with the Share-a-thon concept. Mike Burns put forth a motion to approve the concept subject to a board vote to be tabulated a 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 23rd. The motion was seconded by Jay DeWitt and passed unanimously.

UP NEXT

· Bob Herring reminded those who were going to join the discussion with Suzy DeYoung that the zoom discussion would take place at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 24th.

NEXT MEETING

The next regularly scheduled CKSCP board meeting will be 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 11th. The meeting will be virtual on Zoom.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 9:25 p.m.

Submitted by Michael Burns, Secretary