SFC Board Mtg Minutes – August 11 2020

Final Board Meeting Minutes August 11, 2020 – 4:30 p.m.
Zoom Meeting

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The Draft Board Meeting Minutes are as follows:

1. Prayers/Moment of Silence

President Jim DaRin brought the meeting to order at about 4:35pm.

2. Approval of Previous SFC Board Meeting Minutes

The draft Board Meeting minutes of the June 16, 2020 were accepted and approved by the attending Board Members. These minutes will now be distributed in their final version with any attachments in a PDF format to not only to all the Board members but also to the entire SFC membership as a means to continuously inform the entire SFC membership as to the scope of activities conducted by our organization. They will also be posted on our new website. 

3. Financial InfNew Zoom Format for SFC Board Meetings 

With this new Zoom format for meetings the need to have numerous Boar Members gather together in Syracuse is now unnecessary. Board Members from any location can now easily attend and the future SFC officers, e.g., the President, could be from anywhere instead of just central New York State. Also, Board meeting could be easily opened up to non-Board Members. 

4. SFC Bylaws

A discussion ensued about the status and whereabouts of the SFC Bylaws. A written copy of the Bylaws is available from Cliff Ensley and John Cherundolo. Later Rusty Mills found his hard copy of the SFC Bylaws. Jim Jerome noted that these Bylaws were also used in the application for the Not-for-Profit 501c3 . It was recommend that a committee be formed to review these over a decade old Bylaws and edit and revamp (up-date) them accordingly. This committee would be led by Warren Harvey and includes Cliff Ensley and Rusty Mills. Everybody should get a copy of the Bylaws so as to enable them to provide suggestions to the committee. 

5. Financial Information-Money in Savings and Checking Accounts 

Jim Jerome provided the Board with the following SFC financial balances; A combined checking account and saving account balance of $72,444.47 for cash on hand with $49,885.08 in a checking account and $22,559.39 in a savings account. 

6. Upcoming SFC Events 

As mentioned at the previous Board Meeting, the SFC will by necessity cancel all its 2020 events including the Zunic Award Dinner, the Golf Tournament and reception as well as the Tailgate Tent. All proposed Tailgate activates will also be curtailed this year. Syracuse University and the Athletic Department have likewise canceled all social events related to the football season. According to Jenna Rodgers all fall sports are scheduled to occur as the student athletes are on campus or coming back soon. 

7. New SFC Website Development – Skip Dalrymple

The website development is currently under the guidance of SFC member and now also a member of the Board Skip Dalrymple and his Website Developer Andy Poystila. The address for 

our new SFC Website is still; syracusefootballclub.com. Almost 900 football alumni have been sent emails on the availability of the new site. However, only about 200 at this time have filled out their profiles and Jim suggested that the Board members attempt to fill out their profiles as soon as possible. 

8. National Veterans Resource Center – Veteran’s Memorial – Jim Jerome 

Jim Jerome mentioned that the SFC members continue to have the opportunity to make donations in support of the Captain Ben Schwartzwalder’s Hall of Honor to be included in the new National Veterans Resource Center just being completed at SU. Jim noted that SFC will be able to hold events at this new facility. Right now every dollar donated through the SFC will be matched up to $100K by an anonymous former Orangeman’s generosity and all donations are tax deductible. Donations can be made at the new SFC website. For more detailed information about the National Veterans Resource Center just being completed at Syracuse University go to: https://veterans.syr.edu/news/nvrc/?redirect 

Cliff Ensley also described how a section of the Veterans Memorial is going to be devoted to SU veterans of Vietnam and the more recent Middle East conflicts. SFC should survey the membership for military veterans to make sure they get their names on the Memorial Wall. Cliff also described the status of the Dome Construction. 

9. New SFC Board Members – Warren Harvey 

Warren introduced four new SFC members and is advocated their becoming Board Members. The first to be introduced was Keenan Hale “15, who is lobbyist with a law firm in the Washington DC area. Then Chris Williamson “14 is a Sports Anchor on the Sports Network. The third new member was Lavar Lombdell “09 BA and “14 MS who is with Under Armor in the Baltimore-Washington DC area. All of the above had a chance to speak. The forth individual to be brought on was Brian Ishman “80 who worked for NYS and is recently retired. Unfortunately Brian was unable to be present today. These four individuals were subsequently made official SFC Board Members by unanimous voice vote of the attending Board Members. 

10. Mentoring

Rust Mills noted that although nothing has happened since the last Board meeting, a meeting of the committee is scheduled for next week. The focus will be on the graduating seniors i.e., those players whose college eligible is over. Cliff Ensley noted that all our mentoring has to done in compliance with all NCAA standards. As discussed with examples, there appears to be a real need for some mentoring for these former ball players to help them in their search for meaningful employment. 

11. Next Meeting 

The next meeting date has tentatively been set for September 15, 2020. 

Prepared by Kevin McLoughlin