Opening
The monthly meeting of the Organ Transplant Recipients of SWFL Inc. was called to order at 11:40 a.m. on 1/2/2020 at by President, Shamie Kelly.
Roll Call: Jenniene Moran, Paul Lewis, Frank Tutay, Carlene Brennan, Shamie Kelly, David & Janet Weinstein, Rick Keatley, Mariann Jefferson, David Ortiz and Melissa Tuff
Announcements
- Anniversaries: Paige Ulrich (Pancreas) 1/3/2009, Jeff Jansen (Liver) 1/31/2002
- Visitors: None
- Member Updates: David Ortiz has returned, his received a kidney on August 26th at Largo Hospital. He is doing well but still struggling with the BK virus.
Reports
Secretaries: No report for last month as it was our holiday meeting.
- Fletcher Fund: Donna Williamson was not in attendance so there is no Fletcher Fund report available.
- Treasurers: As of 12/1/2019 we had a balance of $12,267.70 with $8.00 in deposits coming from the monthly 50/50 drawing. There were $164.32 paid out in expenses for the holiday meeting food leaving a balance of $12,111.08
Old Business
Please remember to RSVP for food sake! We have been over/under purchasing food for meetings and unable to acquire speakers when we have less than 10 people in attendance. Shamie Kelly is in contact with Tampa General to see if they will provide a speaker for the February meeting. Since we are in-between locations for our meetings, we have not finalized any speakers. Melissa Tuff will reach out to Joe Karan from the National Kidney Foundation of Florida to see if he would like to come and be a keynote speaker at one of our meetings. He can discuss the benefits the NKFFL has to offer kidney patients.
New Business
We are looking to change our meetings from Thursday midday to an evening gathering in hopes to grow our group membership. We are still open to locations with the Center for Spiritual Living Cape Coral being one of which that was made available. As of December 30, 2019, we have received $23.70 from Amazon Smile so please continue to encourage friends and family who shop online. Our social media presence has increased, and we now have over 100 followers on Instagram and so Melissa Tuff will create a poll on social media to see how many of our followers would be interested in a night meeting. We also may consider boosting some of our posts in order to increase our following and attendees. January is the month to renew membership so please make sure to pay your dues. Rick Keatley is arranging his annual transplant recipient picnic for March and Melissa Tuff would like to propose that our group help sponsor the event. We will vote on whether the group will make a financial contribution or sponsorship for the picnic next month. There will be no discussion about fundraising endeavors until we are able to raise our membership numbers. This topic is considered to be tabled until enough members begin attending to warrant staffing and holding a fundraiser. Our March meeting location will be decided after we receive and compile the feedback received from the SurveyMonkey poll that will be emailed to our current member listing. We have two positions open, treasurer and secretary which will be delayed until next month’s meeting since there was not quorum to vote this month. Next month’s meeting will be held at the Downtown Fort Myers Library in meeting rooms A & B where we will be deciding where we will meet and on what day going forward. This year we are focused on making connections and building our membership. Paul Lewis proposes that our group get together more often socially to attend functions, events, or social gatherings while wearing our group shirts to bring more awareness to the group. The group would not be responsible for paying for the individuals in attendance as that would be the responsibility of the attendees.
50/50
$15.00 to the group and $15.00 winner
Upcoming Events
- LifeLink Volunteer Meeting – Thursday, January 30
- Horse & Pony Festival (possible tabling event) – Saturday, March 21
- Kidney Walk – Sunday, March 22
- Rick Keatley’s Organ Recipient Picnic – Saturday, March 28
Adjournment
Meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m. by President, Shamie Kelly. The next general meeting will be at 11:30 a.m. on February 6, 2020, at the Downtown Fort Myers Library Meeting Rooms A & B
Minutes submitted by Melissa Tuff, Secretary