Call to order:  President Amy Teves called the meeting to order at 7:32 p.m. 

New club members:  Reid Kawamoto, Jocelyn Pagumo, and Leland Nakai

Correspondence:  a)  received bank notice that they are raising the fee for checking service  b)  AOS soliciting donations for conservation causes.   Chita moved to donate $25 but motion failed when members voted not to donate since the club needed the funds more than giving a donation  c) received letter from IRS that more information was required to consider our request for exemption as a non-profit organization.  If we did not reply by their deadline of 10/17/08, our club will be treated as a taxable entity.  Amy said that if this happens, the school will then charge $150 per night for rental for our meetings. The club would be eligible to file under IRC 501(c)(4) which states that our club is not organized for profit but for the promotion of social welfare, educational, or recreational purposes for the community as a whole.  Therefore, we need to amend our By-Laws to include the areas of  “educational and community” in order to comply with this ruling and resubmit to the IRS so our request for tax exemption can be approved.  Chita moved that we amend our By-Laws and motion was carried.  She volunteered to work on the amendment to our By-Laws and resubmit it to the IRS for approval for our tax exemption request.

Treasurer’s Report:   The President gave the treasurer’s report in absence of our Treasurer, Bob Lee.  Savings:  $2,802.05  CD: $1,109.92 and checking: $329.53 with a total balance of $4,421.50.  Treasurer’s report was approved as read, subject to audit. 

Minutes of  7/5/08 Meeting:  Dorothy brought up three items in the minutes: a) she wanted to correct the word “recommend” to “consider” raising the sellers’ commission from 15% to 20% at the Mother’s Day event.  b) change Christmas dinner to Christmas lunch  c)  she wanted to clarify that the suggested donation of $1.00 for the monthly plant giveaway was optional.  Minutes were approved as corrected.

Old Business:
a)  Vacancy for President:  Amy emphasized that the search is still on for the vacancy of President.  Mike Morano was asked to fill the position – his answer is pending. 
b)  Christmas party:  to be held on December 6th at 11:00 a.m. at the Palace Buffet located at the Mililani Market Place near Safeway.  Cost (with tax and tip) is: $19.20 but with 10% discount, the total cost is $17.28 per member.  Note:  At our previous meeting, it was decided by the club members that due to the decreased funds in our treasury, the club will no longer subsidize the Christmas meals – members will pay full cost.  Charijean also recommended that the raffle ticket price be increased from $1.00 to $2.00 per ticket and there were no objections from the membership, therefore, raffle tickets for the Christmas party will be $2.00 each.
c)  Field trips:  Dorothy suggested that since nurseries are getting scarce to visit, we could combine one nursery with a fertilizer company or some other kind of vendor that’s orchid related.  Charijean suggested that we could even consider visiting a lotus farm, etc.

New Business:
a)  Treasury transfer:  Amy said our checking is low again so we need the membership approval to transfer monies from savings to checking.  Gail moved that $1,000 be transferred from savings to checking to cover for our Christmas party expenses; motion was seconded and approved by the membership.
b)  Members’ monthly sale:  Mike Morano suggested that we continuously announce in the monthly newsletter that members can bring orchid plants, supplies, baked goods, etc. to sell at our meetings.  It was mentioned that the club did have this activity before but it fizzled out so now we’re trying to revive this activity so it can earn some income for the club.

Announcements:    a)  The Honolulu Orchid Society annual show will be held on Oct 10-12 at the Lanikila Elementary School. 

Adjournment:  The meeting was adjourned at 8:12 p.m.  Due to the Elections, the next meeting will be held on the second Monday, November 10, at the Mililani Uka Elementary School.