President Galloway opened the afternoon business session at 1 pm.

President’s Report

Website:  President Galloway discussed DSA’s new web address, www.deafseniors.org, which talks about and explains this conference including its officers and board members.  The President urged the membership to see our beautiful web page for themselves.

Banner:  President Galloway reported the DSA Board felt the huge DSA banner was too bulky to lug around from conference to conference.  Since as yet no banner was made, she suggested that the project to be placed on hold.

United We Stand Fund:  DSA collected $4,000 after the 9/11 tragedy during the DSA Minnesota 2001 Conference to the United We Stand Fund, which was added to similar funds from both the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and National Fraternal Society of the Deaf (NFSD).  Currently, the Fund has $54,000.  There is a need to develop some sort of criteria to administer the fund.  Also, DSA is considering developing an emergency fund, to cover such issues as hotel and conference insurance coverage as well as, for instance, earthquakes (California ’05) and hurricane (Florida ’07). 

Conference Income:  Finally, the President explained that beginning with the Atlanta Conference, the 50/50 division of profits created problems for both the host and national organizations.  Since the hosts did most of the work, a change was necessary, and so perhaps a 70/30 percentage would help ease the problem, pending membership agreement.

Vice President Cook’s Report, including the bylaws, would be discussed in another section of the meeting.

Secretary’s Report

Secretary Danis stated that the minutes of the last DSA meeting had been approved by the board.

 Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer Hirano reported that as of May 16, 2003, DSA now has $53,708 on hand as compared to $17,000 in 1997.  Money that DSA had left in CDs that started at $30,000 is currently collecting $3,746 in interest, which brings our treasury report to $74,882.65 after expenses.  (Note: the $4,000 United We Stand Fund is not included in Mr.Hirano’s report as it is now in the care of NAD and NFSD, above).  Submitted to and audited by three individual members.  All monies are with the Bank of America in San Francisco.  The treasurer’s report was accepted.

The President then asked for a replacement for Mr. Alfred Sonnenstrahl who had previously worked with both CNN (Consumer National Network) and AARP (American Association of Retired Persons), and had asked that someone else represent DSA.

DSA 2005 Conference Report

Mr. Hirano, chairperson for the San Francisco 2005 DSA Conference, followed with his report.  He compared the beauty and benefit of San Francisco with that of Boston, including the fact that San Francisco’s hotel costs two years from now would be just $3 more.  He also stated that more than 800 combo tickets had already been sold, thanks to the committee’s marketing efforts.  Questions, like parking, accessibility, restaurants, and so on, all received mostly positive responses from the chair.

Bylaws Committee Report

Robert Cook, chair, introduced members of the Bylaws committee:  Mr. Jim Jones and Ms. Jan Wallace.  Mr. Ron Williamson, also on the committee, stated that since the term “bylaws” as it appears in the dictionary contains no hyphen, none will be used.  There was no opposition.

Also passed without any opposition was that the name Deaf Seniors of America(DSA) remain the same.

On the issue of membership moving down from age 55 to 50, this passed unanimously.

Ronald Nomeland moved that all of the issues dealing with Article III and Sections 1 and 2 regarding hearing and associate membership, be referred back to the bylaws committee.  Carried.

Proposal was made to modify Artice IV and then tabled until the 2005 conference in San Francisco.

New Business

On the issue of regionalization, it was moved to withhold a vote for or against the idea at this time, and forming an ad hoc committee to review same.  After a discussion, the motion to revive regionalization was defeated 124 to 83.

A proposal for DSA support of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and its safe driver program was voted on and passed.

Also passed was the 70/30 percentage agreement that now gives the conference host 70% of the receipts and 30% to DSA.

It was voted and passed that DSA would establish a committee to help deaf senior citizens and to look at options and report to the board to make decisions.

The poem, “Hail to the Senior Citizens,” by Robert Panara was unanimously voted upon to become DSA’s official poem, and to be printed and distributed at each conference hereafter.

Although the vote in support of free parking afforded conventioneers during future DSA conferences was defeated, it is expected that the host organization would certainly try for reduced costs in other ways as well.

A lengthy discussion followed as to whether “New Horizons.” DSA newsletter, should also have a life on web site as well.  However, the motion to refer to the board for review won out in the end.

Another proposal to brainstorm the regionalization concept was turned down by President Galloway’s exercising executive privilege due to time constraints.

The President moved that a group of individuals to develop a networking strategy plan for connecting with deaf seniors across the country.  Carried.

A motion to close new business was carried.

In opening the election of officers, Julian “Buddy” Singleton introduced the candidates for office: with herself again as President; Robert Cook, Vice President, NancyRarus, Secretary; Ron Nomeland, Joe Rose, Joe Cohen, and Stephen Kugel, Treasurer.  For the board positions are: Jim Potter, Richard Scofield, Ruth Stern, and LillianMittauer.  A last-minute motion was brought up to vote by ballot instead of standing, owing to the time available, presidential privilege was involved again and the motion did not carry.

President Galloway, Vice President Cook, and Secretary Rarus were unanimously elected into office.

The four Treasurer candidates were asked to leave the room while the voting took place.  Joe Rose was elected and re-entered to a huge welcome as the new DSA Treasurer.  The four candidates for the 6-year position as a member of the Board of Directors left the room, and Jim Potter returned as the newest member of the Board.

Following the election, the membership was entertained with a skit by the Palm Beach County Aviation of the Deaf, the only organization bidding for DSA’s 2007 Conference to be held in Orlando, Florida.

Receiving the required $1,000 deposit, as her final act before closing the 7^th Biennial Conference. Boston 2003, President Galloway wished PBCAD a successful program in 2007 and the entire membersip a safe and happy trip home.

Taras Denis, Secretary

Tamarac, Florida 21 June 2003

Redone:

Nancy B. Rarus, Secretary

Gertrude S. Galloway, President

Austin, Texas 29 October 2004