August 1, 2023 FCB Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

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FCB Executive Committee Meeting
August 1, 2023

A meeting of the Executive Committee was held on Tuesday, August 1, 2023.  The meeting began at 7:02 PM. Those in attendance were: Sheila Young, President; Mikey Wiseman, 1st Vice-President; Cassandra Jessie, 2nd Vice-President; Sally Benjamin, Membership Secretary; Mark Lear, Treasurer and Mary Tyson, Recording Secretary. Also in attendance was Kati Lear, FCB Administrative Assistant.

Minutes of the prior meeting were not yet available for review and approval.

Mikey had a question on whether or not there had been a deposit on the 2024 contract.  Mark will research this.  Mikey said that this would be when the contract was originally signed in 2018 or 2019.

The contract with Southbank for convention 2024 has been signed and deposits paid.

There was a brief discussion regarding the last meeting with the Sheraton staff, explaining the problems we had with the Director of Sales who was inflexible and did not want to honor our contract.  The manager did his best to make things right.      

We have concerns about state financial forms that need to be filled out by our accountant which have not been completed. Any fines that we may incur due to the lateness of the submission of these forms will be the responsibility of the accountant. Sheila has all emails that document our attempts to get these tasks accomplished.

Mikey asked if we were going to follow up on the mortgage payoff on the Pensacola property. Mark will reach out to see if the individual is still interested in purchasing the property. If he is we will obtain the payoff amount for him.  

New Business:

Host Committee for ACB consists of Sheila Young, Cassandra Jessie, Kati Lear, Cachet Wells, Barbara Brown, and Gloria Simmons. Their first meeting is scheduled for August 15, and they will meet monthly until convention in July.

Discussion of possible Code of Conduct violation by some members of FCB who happened to be members of the Miami Metro chapter. Anthony Corona felt that he was treated disrespectfully and threatened by several individuals.   

It was decided that the Code of Conduct would be read and discussed at the August Presidents meeting.  Further, an opportunity will be provided for Anthony to explain the incidents from his perspective and find out what he would like to be done to avoid such situations in the future. Also guidance will be provided as to what is required to file a Code of Conduct complaint as regards identities of those involved, if possible, documentation of any incident that occurs. He also recommended that we provide sensitivity training to the leadership. Effort will be made to find a professional who specializes in this topic and it was suggested by Sheila that a presentation be made at the November Midyear Meeting. It was noted that the session could be recorded and shared with any chapters who were unable to attend in person.

Sheila contacted Anthony and he shared his perspective of the incident at convention. He advised that there was more than one instance over the course of the weekend.  At the Awards Banquet he heard two women making disparaging comments about the LGBTQ lifestyle.    On the night of the convention banquet there was a second incident regarding seats at his table with these two women and one additional person where it was suggested that any problems they had could be handled on the streets of Miami. This was considered to be a threat to him. He would like an apology from those involved with a pledge from the leadership that this type of comment is inappropriate and such behavior will not be tolerated.              

Mikey said that an attempt would be made to identify the person who made the threat. Also, the issue of seating will be addressed so that assigned seating will be available in the future.          

The Board was all in favor of the sensitivity training proposal and Anthony was happy with this suggestion.  

Kati will send out the Code of Conduct prior to the August Presidents meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 PM.

Respectfully submitted by
Mary Tyson,
FCB Recording Secretary