Following is a late winter update from MY Neighbors:
Our first ever annual meeting will be held at the Yancey County Library in Burnsville from 10 am- noon on Tuesday March 13. We invite all Members and Volunteers to join us! We aim to keep the business to a minimum so that we can enjoy a presentation by Tal Galton of Snakeroot Ecotours. Tal’s topic will be, “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: The Ephemeral Flowers of Appalachian Spring.” Can you imagine a more delightful topic for mid-March? We will serve finger food and sandwiches at adjournment. If you would like to contribute food or beverages bring them along but I’m confident we will have plenty. We look forward to seeing you on March 13 and celebrating our (nearly) first year as an organization.
As of early March, 47 Volunteers are providing services to 60 Members. We have gained 16 members since late December, so our Member Intake folks have been staying busy. We also oriented eight new Volunteers and a new Call Manager in late February.
Where’s the money going? After nine months of operation we are getting a clearer picture of what our annual budget will look like. As of this writing we have taken in $4100 in Membership fees. As promised, on occasion we have reduced or waived fees if the fee was an obstacle to membership. Our largest expense by far is supplemental insurance for our Volunteers, which cost $2534 in 2017. Other significant expenses were for Meetings and Seminars which included a Board retreat ($670); printing materials and incidental costs related to orienting Members and Volunteers ($653); and membership in the National Village to Village Network ($425). While we will run slightly in the red during our first year of operation, we opened with more than $15,000 in the bank thanks to the generosity of the Deters family who donated of a piece of undeveloped real estate to us. We still anticipate becoming financially self-supporting sometime during 2018 once we grow to approximately 65 paying Members. A dollar goes a long way at MY Neighbors since we are an all-volunteer organization with no office and no paid employees.
Since opening in May we have logged 340 service requests. We filled 29 requests for services in February; 62% were for transportation, mostly rides to and from the Burnsville area. Still we receive calls from Volunteers asking why we never call them! So Members, remember: operators (Call Mangers) are standing by. Please call us and utilize our services! Our Volunteers would love to help you.
Our Membership Committee--Florence Yaffe, Stacy Oates, Karin Rolett, Carol Sasek, along with help from Gay Rose-- is off to a great start organizing social events. Jacqui Trienan led a collage-making event at the Yancey Library on February 13 that over a dozen people attended. On February 28 we hosted, “Get a Little Spring in Your Step,” a barbeque lunch and line dancing at Arthur Morgan School with Susan Smith. About thirty people attended. Check out the photos on our web site myneighbors.cc
Comings and goings: Our recording secretary David Johnson retired from the Board in January. We are so thankful for his guidance, good humor, humility and deep knowledge of Yancey County as he helped MY Neighbors get started. David remains an overachieving Volunteer who assists his Pensacola neighbors and transports Members from the far reaches of the county. Penni Powell has agreed to serve as our new recorder.
We are delighted to announce that Johnny Riddle has joined the Board. In addition to his work running a local business Johnny serves on the boards of several local nonprofits. He is also currently the Chair of the Yancey County Board of Commissioners. Welcome Johnny!
Thank you for your continued support of MY Neighbors.
Chip Poston
Board Chair