Irish Cultural Society of San Antonio

Irish Cultural Society

of San Antonio Texas

MINUTES 17MAY09

IRISH CULTURAL SOCIETY MEETING - May 17, 2009

The May meeting was called to order at 3:20pm by President Bob
Slattery. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and
approved as read.
The treasurer reported that we have not quite $10,000 in our
account right now, and that this year we made a bit of money
on the dance, but again lost money on IHD.
Membership chair Kay Delaney announced that we have 26
members here today, with several new members in ICS.
Program chair Sheila Carolla announced that for the first time
the Irish Echo is hosting a dinner in Texas. Ten others besides
Joan Moody will be getting awards at the June 5th dinner. If you
are interested in going, please see Sheila for information. At
this point Bob Slattery apologized to Joan for not getting this
information into the May newsletter. On the topic of future
get-togethers, Sheila wondered how we were feeling about having
a "little Christmas" dinner in January instead of
a holiday party in December. We missed the window of opportunity
to get an early December date at the Old San Francisco Steak
House. No one present seemed opposed to a January dinner, so
Sheila will move ahead with the plans for January 8th. Nora
has already been contacted about getting SAC’s Loftin Center
for the 2010 Irish Heritage Day. The date of that event will
be Feb. 28th. The dance is tentatively set for March 21st.
Sister Carmel said she will check on the availability of
St. Gregory’s Hall for the dance and get back to Bob about it.
Sheila reminded us that Cherish the Ladies is
coming to town in two weeks. Please see her for more
information if you have an interest in attending the dinner
and concert.
The social committee chair, Ethna, said that the food table
at IHD was very popular and people were quite good about
putting something in the donation jar. She said that Waxy
O’Connor’s donated a pot of Irish Stew to us for Irish
Heritage Day.
Public Relations Chair was absent. Sheila said that Sister
and others made bread to take to the SAHGA event and it went
over well. She will look into the possibility of making and
selling baked goods at next year’s games, checking with SAHGA
board members.
Scholarship announced that as of Friday afternoon a winning
essay was chosen from the three that were entered this year.
No advertising was done – the information could be found only
on the ICS website – and yet, three essays were received by the
deadline. The chair did not announce the winner’s name at the
meeting, because she had not yet been able to contact her or
leave a message over the weekend, and felt uncomfortable
announcing her name at the meeting without talking with her
first. Also, since the last general meeting, through e-mails
and a board meeting it was explained by Lou Kelley that
although we voted back in August at a board meeting to dissolve
the scholarship chair and fund, doing so did not dissolve it.
The whole matter must be discussed and voted on by the general
membership per the articles of our ICS constitution and the
by-laws. That discussion and voting will be tabled until the
fall of 2009, since we are actually awarding a scholarship in
June.
Bob Slattery asked if everybody was okay with meeting next
month on the 14th of June instead of the 21st, because of
Father’s Day. The only dissenter was new member, Bob Burke,
who plans on attending the Liederkranz concert on that day and
at that time. However, nobody else saw a problem with a change
of date, so we will meet on the 14th.
Bob also announced that he had received a thank you note from
the sisters for the Green Santa afternoon in their meeting
room at the convent. He proceeded to read the note out loud.
Bob also told the membership about Joan and him meeting back
in March with some people from the Irish speaking television
network in Ireland who were in San Antonio filming a special
about the Irish at the Alamo.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:55pm, followed by refreshments,
and an informative talk about the Irish in San Antonio given
by Joan Moody.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan S. Feeley

Secretary