LitvakSIG Board Meeting, IAJGS Conference
Salt Lake City, Utah
July 15, 2007 Minutes

President Howard Margol called the meeting to order at 12:00 noon MDT. Judy Baston, David Hoffman, Michael Posnick, Aaron Roetenberg, and Olga Zabludoff were present . Ada Green was not present. Also present in a participating but non-voting capacity were Gene Alpert and Eden Joachim.

1. The general purpose of this meeting was to make preparations for the LitvakSIG luncheon and General Meeting on Tuesday, July 17, 2007.
2. Mike indicated that any decisions made during our Chat Room meeting on July 8 were not legal, since simultaneous communication was required. A motion was made to ratify everything noted in that meeting and this motion passed.
3. Aaron gave a very positive treasurer's report:
   1. Including cash in the bank and in interest bearing CDs, the total amounted to $77,319.00 Almost the entire amount is in restricted funds designated for several specific projects. Almost all of these restricted funds are designated for the translation of District records, vital records, as well as for several other projects. Howard commented that with records being translated at a furious pace, even this amount does not provide the “cushion” that we need.
   2. There was a discussion about how to respond to questions regarding the report, and how to explain the concept of “restricted-designated funds” at the General Meeting.
4. David reported on the election which is “in progress.” More than 100 of the 350 members responded with votes within the first 24 hours and they have continued to come in daily. Larry Hamilton had advised us that the Iowa Code on Nonprofits required participation by a minimum of 10% of qualified members in a vote on Bylaws Amendments for them to pass, and we have far exceeded this number. The election committee was co-chaired by Jeff Miller, Nancy Biederman and Gene Alpert [Gene did not participate in counting votes.]

Four Amendments to the Bylaws relating to Elections were on the Ballot. Two of the four amendments would apply to the election of candidates, if passed. The other two would not affect this election. The two that did, a) reaffirmed our use of electronic voting and voting at conferences for members who had not participated in electronic voting, and b) established staggered terms (to be determined after the election.)

The other two Amendments, which would not become effective until after this election eliminated proxy voting (except under special circumstances set by the Board), and allowed Additional candidates who are dues-paying Members in good standing as of July 1, in addition to those who had been selected by the nominating committee, to submit their names and biographical statement at least 15 days prior to the election to be included on the ballot (replacing Section J: Nominations from the floor.)

Numerous emails from members have been received expressing satisfaction with the election and the opportunity to participate in approving the Bylaws.

5. Records acquisition and translation have been very impressive. Howard reported that our initial goal of translating 100,000 records during the first 12 months of our tenure had been achieved in eleven months. The majority of these new records are not in the ALD yet but will be added in the next six to ten months.
6. A brief discussion was held about addressing the question of charging a single fee to qualify for records, regardless of the quantity of records or number of donors. Howard said that in many cases it is simply not possible to know how many records there will be and gave an example of a set of 4000 prisoners from the 1930's, where many Jews were mixed in with the general population. It isn't until the translator works through the file that the number of Jewish records can be known. It was decided to put this issue off for a future discussion with the entire new Board.
7. Judy and Olga reported on preparation for the LitvakSIG luncheon. 74 Litvaks have registered for the luncheon. There will be ten tables with a facilitator at each, and at least one table set aside for new members. Facilitators have brought maps, laptop computers (or laptops loaned for the luncheon) and other resource materials will be on hand. Howard will welcome the group and turn the meeting over to Judy. Judy will explain the goals for the meeting.
8. Status of the T-shirts. They have arrived and will be sold in various places during the Conference.
9. Status of the Website Webmaster. Howard reported that Dave Lewak has indicated that his new circumstances make it difficult for him to continue in this role. Ernie Fine, had previously indicated that he might take it over again, but now is busier than ever. We are therefore in the process of searching for a new webmaster. It was suggested that we might advertise on the Digest [a new Webmaster has been identified since this meeting.]
10. Possible uses of www.litvaksig.com were discussed. A consensus of opinion was that we find a way to use it as a Members-Only website, as an incentive for membership.
11. A tentative agenda was planned for the July 19th meeting, including Donations required for District records, and arranging times for teleconferences which would include time zones from California to Israel.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 MDT.

Respectfully submitted,

David Hoffman
Secretary
LitvakSIG