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PRINTABLE VERSION
An FCC-Long Island Interim Advisory Board meeting was held on Friday, September 25,
2009. It was called to order by co-coordinators, Mandee Zapken and Beth Laxer-Limmer,
who restated that these meetings are open to everyone within the FCC-LI community.
There were 26 people present, including board members, committee chairs, and several
waiting families and general members.
Welcome from New Co-Coordinators:
Beth Laxer-Limmer introduced herself. She said she loves FCC-LI and volunteered to get
more involved because this is such a supportive group and FCC-LI helped her get through
the wait.
Mandee Zapken concurred that FCC-LI is a wonderful group. She described herself as
diplomatic and said she is always ready to listen to everyone’s questions, concerns and
suggestions.
Both coordinators stated that they want to carry on the great work that Jayne Hirsch and
Kristen Hayes have done. Thank you Jayne and Kristen! Both Jayne and Kristen were then
presented with bouquets, as a token of appreciation for their hard work over the years. Even
though they are stepping down as regional coordinators, they will continue to be an active
part of FCC-LI.
Attendance of Board Members and Committee Chairs:
Attendance was taken, and all board members, committee chairs and members introduced
themselves. A motion was passed and Kate Dlugozima was introduced as the new recording
secretary. Mandee Zapken explained to all that board members and committee chairs are to
attend at least 4 of 6 board meetings held throughout the year. It was discussed that if a
board member of committee cannot commit to attend 4 of the six meetings that the position
would be relinquished.
Open Board Position: We are still looking for a treasurer to keep and manage the books
and bring the financial report to the board at meetings. This person will also be responsible
for working a budget for events. We will also be happy if someone offers to be interim
treasurer until a treasurer is found. Jayne Hirsch will maintain the books until someone
volunteers for the position.
Address from Outgoing Coordinators:
Jayne Hirsch and Kristen Hayes both thanked the group for the delicious pot luck dinner.
Jayne stated that for ten years, she has gotten so much out of FCC-LI. She has made so
many friends here and you all really feel more like family than friends. Kristen said thank you
for your support, help and passion. Since 2004, FCC-LI has been such a huge part of her
life and she also thanks Jayne for all she has done over the years.
Chinese Heritage and Language Program Update:
We lost our location last year for this program, and had to find a new location. We finally
found a new location, but have not raised enough program fees to pay for it, due to low
numbers of registrants this year. So far, we currently have 16 children registered for this
year’s program vs. 42 who registered last year. We hope for more children to register.
Otherwise, we may have to put this program on hold for a year to regroup and reorganize the
program (perhaps change the format and focus of this program). As of this moment, the
Chinese Heritage and Language Program has been canceled for this year. Please contact
Danielle Gallagher with any concerns.
Planned Events for the Balance of 2009:
Autumn Moon: The author of Moon Goddess is coming to this event! We have exceeded
the maximum number of attendees for our original location, and have moved to Butler Hall at
Dominican Village. We now have over 200 people coming. There will plenty of fun things to
do at this event, including arts and crafts activities. We will also have raffles. Autumn Moon
is a good opportunity for members to open up conversations with their children regarding
their roots. Thank you to FCC-Greater New York for helping us get this venue at Dominican
Village. When we were scrambling to find a new location to accommodate all of us, they
provided us with a grant to subsidize the cost of this location. All members of FCC-LI should
renew membership of FCC-Greater NY if they haven’t done so already.
Book Revue:
The author of Lucky Girl, Mei Ling Hopgood, is coming to us on November 6. This event will
be held at the United Methodist Church in Amityville. This is a terrific book, and is most
recommended for children ages 12 and over, but you know your child best. Registration for
this event is only $5 and registration is online.
Holiday Party:
We are taking a break from having a formal holiday party this year. Instead, we will do a
cookie exchange on December 13, 2009 at the Methodist Church in Amityville. We will start
researching venues for a catered holiday party next year (2010). One idea that was
discussed was possibly looking into some of Long Island’s culinary school catering facilities
as our 2010 venue, or as a venue for mom’s nights out, etc.
Welcoming new members and new families:
It would be greatly appreciated if board members, committee chairs and families who have
been members of FCC-LI for a while can branch out and get to know new FCC families. We
should all make an effort to mingle, and sit next to people within our group community that we
have never met before. The upcoming Autumn Moon Festival would be a great opportunity
for all of us to do this!
Fundraising at FCC-LI Events:
Fundraising such as raffles and 50/50’s will be necessary at some events. Our fundraising
efforts will not only benefit various charities and orphanage assistance but FCCLI as well.
Since 100% of our dues go directly to FCCNY, and not all events will be grant approved by
FCCNY, we need to generate revenue for our organization. We have a lot of ideas and the
fund raising chairs welcome any volunteers to the committee. It was also discussed that
members in the past use our events to sell their goods and give a percentage back to the
organization. An idea was brought to the table to have a day where members can “buy a
table” and set up a store for a day rather than sell at parties. It would benefit the members as
well as the organization.
Use of Yahoo Site for Board Members and Committee Chairs:
Jayne, Kristen and Danielle put together a Yahoo group site that should be used by
committee chairs. Mandee and Beth will be producing an online calendar to keep track of
event and meeting dates, etc. Committee chairs should always check with our regional
coordinators, Mandee and Beth, to clear dates for events. It is necessary that Mandee and
Beth always receive dates, so that they can coordinate the calendar.
Address/Update from Committee Chairs:
Updates were given from the following committees:
1. Lunar New Year (Missy-Kenny Carron, Beth Laxer-Limmer, Lisa Hochberg)- The
tentative date for our Lunar New Year (CNY) celebration is March 7th at Stony Brook
University’s Wang Center. We were able to get sponsorship for this space from the university’
s Asian student organization and faculty groups. This event will concentrate on the cultural
aspects of the Lunar New Year, and different programs will be offered than in the past. We
will possibly open this event up to other Chinese cultural groups and organizations. The
committee is looking for ways to cut down on costs for members. We first need to figure out
the schedule of events. Once the schedule is set, maybe by offering lighter refreshment
options, we can make the event more affordable to all.
2. Educational (Kristen Hayes, Donna Sadowsky, Danielle Gallagher)-. The Director of
Education at the Long Island Children’s Museum contacted Mandee with the possibility of an
FCCLI day for the upcoming “Monkey King Exhibit”. More details will follow after a meeting
has been set.
3. Youth Group (Barbara Fischthal, Lisa Burke, Joni Mazer)- The FCC-LI Youth Group
is for children, ages 8 and up. It is open to adopted children within the FCC-LI community,
and to biological children and siblings as well. We would also like to open up this group to
children adopted from other Asian countries. Group meetings are held every other month,
with the next meeting being on October 24, 2009. The theme will be “making friends”, and
the children will be making friendship bracelets. Youth Group meetings will alternate between
social and adoption-related educational events. The committee will also be varying the food
offered at these events.
The question was raised: Should there be specific boys and girls subgroups, or gender-
specific activities? This was opened for debate and a motion was passed, where the
attending group as a whole decided that all activities should be co-educational and not
gender-specific.
4. Waiting Families (Lori Halop)- There are currently 13 actively participating waiting
families. We have one family who is coming home from China and another family getting
ready to travel in November. Our upcoming picnic on October 4th is open to the general
membership, as well as to waiting families.
It was discussed that there is a need to coordinate so that there is space between Waiting
Families and General events, because it is difficult for families to commit a whole weekend to
FCC events.
We could use more volunteers to help out with the Waiting Families Committee. It was
discussed that a person who volunteers to help with this committee does not necessarily have
to be “waiting” to join the committee, but rather can be someone who has gone through the
adoption process and can empathize with what waiting families are going through.
As a whole, we need to work on bringing Waiting Families and General Membership closer
together. The question was raised: As an organization, are we maybe becoming too
separate (like two separate FCC-Long Island groups: Waiting vs. Non-Waiting)? Many
“general” members do not know who the waiting families are and vice versa. One idea for a
possible solution is to have some “waiting-only” meetings and some combined meetings with
Waiting and General membership. Maybe “mom’s nights out” events, open to all members
(without children present) will bring us all closer together as an organization. Everyone
understood the need for Waiting Families to have separate meetings (the longer wait etc) but
the general membership wants to help support these families anyway they can.
5. Special Needs (Vicki Van Nostrand, Lauren Schilling, Lisa Casamissina, Sheila Shea)
- Sheila Shea has volunteered to help chair this committee. The next Special Needs group
meeting will be held on October 17th at 7 pm at Lauren’s house.
6. Web Site (Danielle Gallagher)-We will likely be changing the registration process for
our events, so that it is done completely online.
7. Fundraising (Teresa Baldinucci Greenberg, Mandee Zapken)- The Fundraising
Committee is accepting digital submissions for our FCC-LI fundraising calendar. We will also
be having a raffle next weekend. We are open to any and all fundraising ideas. Some ideas
currently on the table include: pancake breakfasts, raffles/gift baskets sold at holiday parties,
etc
8. Membership (chair position available)- We are still looking for someone to chair the
Membership Committee. This person would work on recruiting more members/ making our
organization more visible to potential members, seek out inactive members and would also
assess how we can meet our current members’ needs to encourage more active
membership.
9. Men’s Group (Duncan Fieldsa-Fowler, Andrew Kressel, Paul Hellman)-The Men’s
Group is planning on organizing “Father and Child” activities. They would also like to
organize Fathers’ Nights Out.
10. Lending Library (Kate Dlugozima)-We have hundreds of Chinese culture and
adoption-related books, vidieos and dvds available for lending (for both children and adults).
Anyone interested in borrowing something from our lending library should contact Kate or
request an item through the FCC-LI website.
11. Welcome Home (Joanne Nix, Donna Sadowski, Michele Mugavero)-We are always
in need of volunteers, so that we can be consistent with welcoming home families returning
from China (by decorating their houses, sending cards, etc.) Joanne and the other Chairs
will coordinate with Waiting Families to make sure we are always on top of this information
(who is traveling, etc).
12. Holiday Party (Barbara Kressel, Anne Donovan, Mandee Zapken)- As stated earlier,
we will not be having a formal holiday party this year, but rather a cookie swap. This is to be
held on December 13 at the Methodist Church in Amityville. Chairs will look into the Culinary
School for possible future parties that would be less expensive and more economical for our
members.
Communication about events should be posted to various local publications and to the FCCLI
website and Yahoo groups by committee chairs.
FCC-LI Property for Rent:
We have the following items available to borrow/rent: A cotton candy machine, sound system
(for rent), megaphone, 2 dragon heads, craft supplies, serving tray racks and artificial
poinsettia plants (for borrow).
Security/ Privacy Concerns:
The subject was raised regarding the anonymity of board members and committee chairs on
the FCC-LI website and Yahoo group sites. It was asked whether or not there is a way for
only first names to be displayed on our Yahoo group and website. There is high security on
our Yahoo site, since the privacy settings are set as “members only”. This means that only
members can see the names and email addresses of board and committee chairs. As a
group, a motion was passed and it was decided that: If you are on the board, people should
be able to contact you, so it is therefore impossible for board members and committee chairs
names to be anonymous. However, FCC-LI email accounts will be set up for board members
and committee chairs, so that personal emails are not publicized. In addition, one of the
reasons why we may go entirely to online registration for events (through a secure server) is
to increase security for both our board members/committee chairs, and our members. This
way no members addresses need to be published for registrations.
Upcoming FCC-LI Board Meeting Dates
(open to all in the FCC-LI community):
Our meetings are to be held every other month at 7 pm at the Methodist Church in Amityville.
They will be on the following dates-November 13, January 22, March 19, May 21, (no
meetings over the summer), September 24 (election night for 2010 Board), and the
November date will be picked by the new Board.
The meeting was adjourned by our co-coordinators and all were thanked for attending. We
hope to see more FCC-LI members at our next meeting.