The Board of NOLAA met on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at Aladdin’s Eatery at 6:00PM. In attendance were 7 Board Members including Charbel Biri, Nicole Gove, Pierre Chelala, Joe Khadige, and Paul Daher, Rick Ganim and George Nassif.

Heritage Ball: The board members all received great feedback about this year’s Heritage Ball. It has become clear that next year will focus on some type of exclusive heritage performance. Remember to request spotlights on the dance floor. Mary’s hours for the Heritage Ball were approved. Mary will send an appreciation letter to anyone that gave a donation for this year’s event as well as all Sponsors, Mayor Kleem, Dr. Kikano and Sister Judith – Joe & Nicole will assist with this.

Member Update: Joe will email the members the November and December Board Minutes. He will include a summary of the Heritage Ball as well as a Thank You to everyone that supported it. He will remind everyone about the upcoming Christmas party as well as the City Mission and Feed the Homeless.

Christmas Party: Pierre B is heading this up and George N is assisting. This will be held on December 20^th from 1pm-5pm at Kan Zamaan. Board approved $700 for gifts for the children and $1300 for food. We will have a donation box at the door with proceeds going to St. Herman’s House of Hospitality. We will also be accepting clothing for the City Mission.

Feed the Homeless: December 20^th at 5pm at St. Herman’s House of Hospitality. Need approx 8 volunteers. Army is getting permission to co-sponsor this.

Membership: Mary will track the list of past honorees and send them Membership Forms along with a letter that thanks them for their contribution to the community and encourages them to be more involved with NOLAA.

Building: MOTION by Pierre, 2^nd by George to offer $375,000 with $150,000 down and $2,000/month for 3 or 4 years; and the balance due at the end of 3^rd or 4th year. Approved by all board members present (Rick, Paul, George, Charbel, Nicole & Joe)

ByLaw Committee: Paul will schedule a meeting for next week.

Website: Add a link to the Heritage Ball video that Noel produced - Joe will follow up with Noel to get the link. Joe will work to get the 2009 Heritage Ball Platinum and Gold Sponsors on the website homepage. Platinum should be listed for 6 months and Gold should be listed for 1 month.

Honoree Committee: The Honoree Meeting went very well. The honorees expressed excitement and pride at what NOLAA has accomplished. They agreed to meet with the board quarterly to discuss how we can continue to move forward and build momentum.

Scholarship Committee: We discussed ideas to get the scholarship recipients more involved: giving them each 5 years of complimentary membership, encouraging them to assist with the newsletter committee, hosting 2 events a year that would appeal to this age group.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:30pm

The next Board Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 5, 2009 at 6:00pm.