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The South Atlantic Shrine Association
               

The S.A.S.A. Spring Minutes - March 30, 2019

 

SOUTH ATLANTIC SHRINE ASSOCIATION

Minutes of the 46th Spring Business Meeting

March 30, 2018 - 9:30am

Meadowview Marriott, Kingsport, TN

CLICK HERE TO VIEW/DOWNLOAD A PDF VERSION OF THIS DOCUMENT

 

President Greg Diffenderfer (Jericho) called the meeting to order at 9:30 am establishing protocol in due form. Jericho Legion of Honor posted colors and then led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. The President then recognized the Jericho Legion of Honor who has 4 members on the SASA Legion of Honor line, those being Noble Bobby Smith, Noble Kenny Collier, Noble Darrel McFerrin and Nobel Bud Campbell.

SASA Chaplin, Noble Todd Monroe (Jericho) opened the meeting with an invocation, noting we have lost two SASA Past Presidents since we last met. Ill Sir Doyle Simmons, PP (Oasis) and Ill Sir Harry Bryant, Sr., PP (Oasis) and that we remember those families in our prayers.

President Diffenderfer then introduced the SASA Director Generals for 2019, Ill Sir Pete Rambo (Jericho) and Noble Rusty Watson (Omar). He then praised their work to make this Session a success and for their support to SASA.

President Diffenderfer introduced the 2019 SASA officers who were present.

Ill Sir Donald Ratliff, (Kazim) Secretary/Treasurer and SASA Past President
Ill Sir Thornton Holt, Jr., (Acca) 5th Vice President
Ill Sir Jim Wilson, (Amran) 4th Vice President
Ill Sir Ralph Calhoun, (Omar) 3rd Vice President
Ill Sir David Juergens, (Kosair) 2nd Vice President
Ill Sir Douglas Stalnaker, (Nemesis) 1st Vice President
And Ill Sir Greg Diffenderfer (Jericho) President.

President Diffenderfer introduced Ill Sir Chuck Blair, Potentate of Jericho Temple for his remarks. Ill Sir Chuck welcomed us to Kingsport and to Jericho.

President Diffenderfer then introduced our Imperial Officers who were present, Imperial Sir Mark Hartz, Imperial Outer Guard from Boumi Shriners and Imperial Sir Jim Cain, Imperial Potentate from Al Menah Shriners in Nashville. He noted that we would afford them the opportunity to make remarks later in the program. President Diffenderfer made the comment of why the Imperial Officers were sitting in the back of the room noting they must be Baptist with the Imperial Sir Jim Cain responding they were Southern Baptist.

President Diffenderfer then introduced the Past Presidents who were present.

Ill Sir Jack Richardson, (Beni Kedem) 89-90
Ill Sir Paul Gregg, (Jamil) 02-03
Ill Sir Bob Gray, (Omar) 06-07
Ill Sir Ray Fields, (Amran) 07-08
Ill Sir Donald Ratliff (Kazim) 13-14
Ill Sir Steve Tucker (Jamil) 16-17

President Diffenderfer then recognized our Secretary/Treasurer, Ill Sir Donnie Ratliff (Kazim) for roll call. Noting we have 7 officers and 6 SASA Past Presidents present. The number beside each Shrine Center represents the number of Representatives present at the meeting.

ACCA 6
Alhambra 4
Alee 4
Amran 7
Beni Kedem 5
El Hasa 5
Hejaz 3
Jamil 8
Jericho 12
Kazim 7
Kerbela 6
Khedive 3
Kosair 3
Nemesis 8
Oasis 9
Oleika 2
Omar 7
Rizpah 6
Sudan 3
Yaarab 1

He reported a quorum was present and to proceed with business.

President Diffenderfer then called on the SASA Secretary/Treasurer, Ill Sir Donnie Ratliff to read the minutes of the previous meeting. A motion was made and properly seconded to dispense with the reading of the minutes and the vote was unanimous.

President Diffenderfer then called on the Ill Sir Ratliff to present the finance report for the past year on the SASA accounts, which runs from October 1 through September 30. He reported the data for both the checking and savings account. He reported a loss in the checking account of $10,076.30 and a gain of $22.18 on the savings account. A question came from the floor “was the loss from canceling SASA at the Beach this past September” and the answer was yes noting that we incurred a loss of $3,973.61 from this past September, but due to it taking longer to close the books for 2017 fall SASA due to the Hurricane, part of the loss from 2017 was reflected in this past fiscal year. We lost $14,303.56 at Fall SASA 2017. A motion was made and properly seconded to approve the financial report as presented. The vote was unanimous.

Ill Sir Ratliff then ask President Diffenderfer if he could proceed with other items that we needed to discuss and vote on and he was given permission to proceed.

First, he noted that we had all new Potentates and several new Recorders and we were not being consistent in reporting SASA Representatives. We have one temple that sends me 3 names and one that sends me 25 names as representatives. In Article III of our Bylaws, Section 1 states;

“The Representatives of the Association shall be composed of Potentates, Chief Rabbans, Assistant Rabbans, Recorders and two additional Representatives to be elected by each member Temple. All elected officers of the Association, all Imperial Officers, and Past Imperial Potentates within the jurisdiction of the Association shall be Representatives at large with all rights and privileges. All Past Presidents of the Association and all Past Potentates shall be Representatives “Ad Vitem” with all rights and privileges. Those who have served as Representatives for ten (10) years and have been elected to Emeritus status by the Association shall be a Representative with all rights and privileges for life.”
He also mentions we have no way to track those Representatives who have been so designated for 10 years and that each Shrine Center must track that and report those who have served for 10 years as an Emeritus Representative each year when they report to SASA their updated list.

Ill Sir Ratliff noted your SASA officers met in Greensboro in February of this year and approved a SASA Fraud Policy. This is now required by our Insurance Policy, it basically covers how we will conduct business going forward and how we will monitor our finances and what happens if we have banking irregularities or money mishandled. It will provide us a path should something happen. It also requires an approved “Expense Report” to be completed, with receipts attached and signed off by a SASA officer to get reimbursed for cash spent out of pocket for an event. A motion was made and properly seconded to approve the Fraud Policy as presented. The vote was unanimous.

Next. he noted during the Officers’ meeting in Greensboro in February we worked on updating the SASA Officer Policy. The policy conflicted with our newly approved Bylaws. Normally we don’t bring this before the body as it serves as a guidance document for the officer’s responsibilities, ie, the way we compensate for rooms, how we handle meeting expenses, when the fall and spring meetings are held and responsibilities of the Director Generals as well as officers. A motion was made and properly seconded to approve the SASA Officers’ Policy as presented, and the vote was unanimous.

Ill Sir Ratliff then announced the temples who would be placing names for consideration for 5th Vice President to the Nominating Committee and they are as follows;

2019 Beni Kedem
2020 Oleika
2021 Alee
2022 Oasis

And he noted he had run the list through 2055 and each officer has the line up in their officer’s book for this meeting if any temple wanted to see when their temple would be eligible, all they had to do was ask.

Ill Sir Ratliff then reminded the Representatives that he had emailed each Shrine Center a month ago asking each Shrine Temple to bring 5 lapel pins from their Potentates to Kingsport, that would be placed on plaques for our special guest at the Fall Business meetings and he could accept those lapel pins anytime during this meeting.

Next, he asked the Representatives to provide him with the names and contact information for the SASA Associations that operated under our Bylaws. These associations operate under our Bylaws and report their financial affairs under our tax ID number, and we must have a line of communication with each of these associations.

Ill Sir Ratliff asked the group to wish Ill Sir Paul Gregg, PP Jamil and SASA Past President 2002-03 a Happy Birthday and the whole room sang Happy Birthday to Ill Sir Paul.

President Diffenderfer then called on 3rd Vice President, Ill Sir Ralph Calhoun to present the Finance and Audit Report. After reviewing the financial records of the South Atlantic Shrine Association here are the findings of the Audit Committee to report to the Association.

1. Business Checking Account $120,324.61
2. Savings Account $ 55,933.36
3. Total Accounts $176,257.97

This figure does not reflect expenses incurred for the Mid-Winter meeting. It is the recommendation of the audit committee is that the books are in order based on all facts and figures presented. The audit committee would like to make a motion to the Associations members that we move $75,000 into the Eastman Credit Union for a 9 months CD at 3.7%. This would give us a better rate than we are currently receiving. As approved at the Fall meeting minutes that the signatures on the account would be Ill Sir Greg Diffenderfer PP (President SASA), Ill Sir Doug Stalnaker PP (1st Vice President SASA), and Ill Sir Donald Ratliff PP (Secretary/Treasurer SASA)

A motion was made and properly seconded to approve the audit report as presented, and the vote was unanimous.

President Diffenderfer then called on the 5th Vice President, Ill Sir Thornton Holt, Jr to present the Credential Committee report. Ill Sir Holt reported we had 7 SASA officers present. We have 6 Past Presidents, 108 representatives. We have 122 registered for the ladies’ luncheon, 112 registered for Representatives’ luncheon, 133 have registered for the tour of Bristol Motor Speedway and 191 registered for the Presidents’ banquet. A motion was made and properly seconded to approve the Credential Committee report as presented, and the vote was unanimous.

President Diffenderfer then called on the 1st Vice President, Ill Sir Doug Stalnaker for the Time and Place Committee Report. Ill Sir Diffenderfer reported

2019 Spring March 28-30 Kingsport, TN
Fall Sept. 19-22 Myrtle Beach, SC

2020 Spring March 26-29 Parkersburg, WVA
Fall Sept. 17-20 Myrtle Beach, SC

2021 Spring March 25-27 Claremont, KY
Fall Sept 16-19 Myrtle Beach, SC

2022 Spring ? Charleston, SC
Fall ? Myrtle Beach, SC

Ill Sir Stalnaker offered this as his report and made the motion for adoption. A second was made to the motion to approve the Time and Place report as presented, and the vote was unanimous.

President Diffenderfer is chairman of the Nominating Committee and he announced the next Shrine Center to place a name in nomination for 5th Vice President is Beni Kedem and we have a resolution form Beni Kedem signed by the Divan on December 13, 2018, to place Ill Sir Jason Hinkle as their recommendation for the next 5th VP. This is resolution is read at this meeting for information only as Ill Sir Hinkle will be voted on at our annual Business meeting in Myrtle Beach in September 2019.

President Diffenderfer invited the candidates for Trustee for the Shriners Hospital Board and we had 2 candidates present, Ill Sir Anthony West and Ill Sir Chuck Pittman. Ill Sir Ralph Calhoun spoke on behalf of Ill Sir Mack Griffith. Each candidate had 5 minutes to speak.

President Diffenderfer then asked each Director General for announcements. Ill Sir Pete Rambo had nothing to report but Noble Rusty Watson gave us an update on our status in Myrtle Beach. He reported the electronic registration was working great. It made registration much easier and much faster and it made reimbursement for the beach last year happen within two or three days. If anyone has any suggestions as to make things better. In Myrtle Beach, it is important for us to capture everyone that comes to SASA. The Shriner pays for registration, but his family pays nothing. To be eligible for the A Tax money we need to account for everyone that comes with us, so it is important to register your wife and family. Please register any visitors and family that comes to the beach as their registration is free.

President Diffenderfer then called on Imperial Sir Mark Hartz to speak. Imperial Sir Hertz gave a presentation on our Shriners’ Hospitals and the challenges we had before us. Imperial Cain spoke up to further explain our challenges with the hospitals as well as membership. Both Imperial officers thanked the President and the SASA officers for their hospitality. He said they were delighted to be here in Kingsport. He offered to answer any questions we might have on the hospitals and the fraternity.

President Diffenderfer called on our Director General, Noble Rusty Watson, to proceed with the drawing for parade positions for the Annual Meeting in September 2019 at Myrtle Beach. Noting we have drawn in alphabetical order for years, this year we are going to draw the Shrine Centers out of a basket and then they would draw for parade positions in order your Shrine Center is pulled out of the first basket. As each temple was called forward in order of their name being drawn out of the first basket to draw for parade position out of the second basket. The following is the way the parade will line up. The number beside each Shrine Center is the number they drew for the step off position in the parade.

ACCA 20
Alhambra 8
Alee 4
Amran 12
Beni Kedem 7
El Hasa 15
Hejaz 6
Jamil 3
Jericho 1
Kazim 10
Kerbela 17
Khedive 18
Kosair 14
Nemesis 16
Oasis 5
Oleika 11
Omar 19
Rizpah 13
Sudan 2
Yaarab 9

After the parade drawing, Ill Sir Diffenderfer adjourned the meeting at 12:03pm
 

Respectfully submitted

Secretary/Treasurer
South Atlantic Shrine Association

 
               
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