SkillsUSA California Board Meeting
Adopted Meeting Minutes
May 15, 2010
10:00 a.m.
Courtney McLeod-Golden called the meeting to order at 10:17 a.m. at the California
Department of Education Board Room.
Attendees: Courtney McLeod-Golden (Chair), John Stokes (Treasurer), Tom Wilson,
Gene Streeter, Dan Garrett, Dennis Guido, Dara Dubois, Clay Mitchell, Jonathan Buyco
(State Officer)
Absent: Richard Lester, Nancy Wagner, Jay Winters
Guests: Virginia Martinez (State Coordinator), Chuck Felice (Region 2 Coordinator),
Lisa Meyers (Region 2 Coordinator)
Review Minutes from March 26, 2010 Board meeting. Approved as presented.
Treasurer’s Report
John Stokes gave the following verbal report
 Just over $105,000 in account
 Still owe ~$25, 000 in conference expenses
 Income from State Conference is approximately $44,059 after the expenses
Conference fees:
$86,000+ to hotel for food, Audio Visual, electrical ($9,000) needs and space rental
$15,700 - contests
$1,000 - T-shirts
$1,500 – Sports Pins (state medallions)
$826 – Plaques and awards
Courtney requested a written budget for conference.
Written copy of expenses to be included in the July 15th meeting minutes.
John reported the following:
 Bank of America account has approximately $1500
 Wells Fargo account has $103,443
 Most of the money from the Bank of America account has been transferred to the
Wells Fargo account.
 Credit card balance has been reduced from $13,000 to $273.00.
 One account at Bank of America has $330 – unknown what this account is for.
 John tried to close Bank of America credit card account, but because the card is in
Jay’s name, Jay must close the account.
 Jay charged $257.50 at Town & Country Hotel on 4/13/10 on the charge card. Do
not know what this is for. Dara will contact hotel to find out what these charges
are for.
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 POD rental fees are still being deducted from the Bank of America account. Clay
to provide POD information to John so that it can be transferred to the Wells
Fargo account.
 John is leaving a small amount of money in the account for automatic
withdrawals until we can change them over to the Wells Fargo account.
 John found records for taxes that have not been paid to IRS and EDD from
Kathy’s Bookkeeping Service. John also received notification from IRS in the
form of demand letters forwarded from Jay unopened showing amounts due of
$1501.54 and $1872.83 for unpaid payroll taxes. We also owe EDD sales taxes of
$630.58.
o EDD may revoke our license to sell items and our non profit status.
 John talked with the Branch Manager of Wells Fargo:
o In order to get a credit card on the account, we need tax filings. We do not
have these at this time.
o John cannot get a debit card if we have 2 signatures on checks. John
recommends not having two signatures on checks.
o Someone other than check signers should receive and open bank
statements. Both Courtney and John have signature authority on the Bank
of America account.
o John suggested establishing an on-line viewing in lieu of having 2
signatures on account for transparency
 Prior to State Conference, John could not cash a check for petty cash and state
officer per diems. Therefore, John wrote a check to his wife and she cashed the
check. John provided 2 sealed envelopes to Dara: one for petty cash ($1,000) and
the other $2,000 for state officer per diems. Dara distributed cash to state officers
and had them sign a statement saying they were receiving a cash advance for
monies received.
Courtney will contact Jay to close account for the charge card.
Gene and Tom expressed great concern over Jay ignoring certified letters from the IRS.
Clay informed the Board that when SkillsUSA CA applied for credit approval at the
Town & Country hotel, credit was denied due to credit history.
Discussion/Approval of Bylaws
No significant changes to the proposed Bylaws were noted by the Members. Dara
explained that there were several technical clean-up items that needed to be made, and
recommended that we postpone the final approval of the Bylaws to the July meeting.
The Members agreed, no action taken.
Review of Organizational Chart
Item postponed to the July meeting.
Insurance Policy for Board Members
Dara will provide insurance quote from the company recommended by the national office
for liability, Directors and Officers insurance and other recommended coverage for next
meeting.
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Review of SB70 and AB8/Perkins Contracts
Handouts were reviewed and a brief explaination provided by Dara on the contracts.
 SB70 – 3/1/10 through 12/31/10, $222,223.00 proposed
 AB8/Perkins – 3/1/10 through 6/30/10, $53.323.00 proposed
 BOTH used for operational expenses for the organization
o MUST follow state guidelines for use of funds, this was a problem with
the last Board and Executive Director.
Motion: Clay moved to give John Stokes signature authority for contracts.
2nd by Gene Streeter
Motion passed
Other Business Items
Competition Scoring System – Dara proposed that the Board approve expenditure of
$4,797.00 to contract for the SkillsSOS system.
 The Board members expressed concern regarding the ongoing costs for the
system.
Organization Name Change – Both houses of Delegates voted to change the name of the
Organization to SkillsUSA California, Inc.
Motion: Dara moved to officially change the name to SkillsUSA California based on the
vote of both delegate houses and to meet the national “Brand Standard”.
2nd by Gene Streeter
Motion passes with unanimous vote
Motion: Dara moved that John Stokes hire a bookkeeper to file tax records for 2007,
2008, 2009 and reconcile books and any outstanding records, fees and books.
Bookkeeper should be close to his residence for convenience of organizing our records.
2nd by Jonathan Buyco
Motion passes with unanimous vote
Tom suggests paying IRS for back taxes immediately.
Motion: Dara moved that Courtney send a certified letter to Jay Winters requesting all
credit cards, debit cards, outstanding checks, tax records and certified mail be forwarded
to John Stokes, P.O. Box 690, Santa Margarita, CA 93453. Any charges or expenses
incurred after receipt of this letter will be the responsibility of Jay Winters. cc to Tina
Collier and the Board.
2nd by John Stokes
Motion passes with unanimous vote.
It was suggested by Courtney that the Deputy Council from CDE review the letter before
sending it out.
Recess called at 11:50 a.m. to move to closed session and working lunch.
Meeting called back to order at 1:26 p.m. for Joint Session with Regional Coordinators
for Conference debrief.
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Additional guests: Tina Collier, Region 5 Coordinator; Lisa Schiro, CDE; Dave
Hubbard, Region 1 Coordinator; and Max Lizarraga, Region 3 Coordinator
Welcome and Introductions
Handled by Courtney.
Debrief of State Conference
List of medalists from State Conference have been placed on the website.
Chuck Felice noted that he had sent notices throughout Region 2 as well as his monthly
updates.
Press Release - CDE will prepare a press release for the Superintendent of Public
Instruction. Chuck and Tina stated they have media coverage from local newspapers.
Dara asked they send copies to CDE.
Gene stated he has local contact with media in the San Diego area and will start a
conversation with his contact for coverage for next year.
What went well, what we need to work on handouts were discussed.
The following comments were provided:
 Chuck stated that everything went smoothly.
 Tina stated that photography contest had logistical issues with high school
students.
 Lisa reported:
 ScanTron machine needs to be serviced
 Develop a process for registration and get it posted
 Needs to be more signage and add SkillsUSA California logo
 Use less advisors that are active advisors for contests to reduce perception
level of favoritism/cheating
 Use more industry members to run contests.
 Dave recommended that we not have one school provide all test materials,
supplies and judges for contests ion the future.
 Jonathan reported:
 State Officers were not given time to be ambassadors for the organization.
Too much time spent on things that should have been covered during training
(constitution).
 It was suggested that the knowledge test be a random test.
 Delegate sessions needed more planning. Students ran the joint delegate
orientation rather than the officer trainers and did not feel prepared.
 No ballots were provided for delegate sessions.
 Tell new officers at 1st training session about the constitution and the
importance of it.
 State Officer Community Service Project raised $1195.87 for American Red
Cross.
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Additional suggestions were given by attendees:
 Need to have Techspo and media
 State Officers must be the ambassadors and be out and about during
conference
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How to reduce costs of venue?
Need to have items to sell in the store.
Need to provide judges with gifts.
Need to have judges meeting for all judges, not just leadership.
Need to provide complimentary parking for judges that come in just for the
day.
Stagger office hours to serve members rather than just shutting the office
down.
Food needs to be available for breakfast everyday (cash cart) for participants.
More information on transportation and things to do in the area in the
program.
Tools are an issue to bring on the plane (this has always been an issue, but
more so with the cost of luggage over 50 pounds).
o Tom suggested that Lowe’s will work with SkillsUSA California to
help provide tools that are hard to carry on the plane then possibly
sell/raffle them after the conference.
Need to develop a courtesy corp.
Use Twitter account.
Innovative ideas
 Brand identity
 Twitter
 Facebook
 Want everyone to get something “perceived value”
 Raffle at event with price of admission
 Marketing organization with state officers
 Courtesy Corps to increase student involvement and participation
Tom suggested completing a Lowe’s grant for event sponsorship.
Next Year’s Calendar
Regional conferences will be scheduled for January 29 and February 5, 2011
2010 National Leadership and Skills Conference – June 21 through 25, 2010, Kansas
City, MO.
Future Board Meetings Scheduled:
 July 15-16, 2010 – San Diego with Board Training by Tim Lawrence
 October 22, 2010 – Sacramento
 February 16, 2011 – Sacramento
 May – TBD
SAC Meetings Scheduled:
 July 8
 October 23
2011 State Conference – April 28 through May 1, 2011, San Diego.
Announcements
Not Covered due to time limitations.
Meeting adjourned at 3:20 p.m.
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