Present: Eric, Arwen, Jane, Melissa, Marilyn, Aree, Don, Flo, Sylvia President Eric opened the meeting at 1:10 pm. We discussed the draft of the Education pamphlet assembled by Jane, and suggested several changes which she accepted. We are very grateful to her for all her good work on this important pamphlet which will further our aims as a source of education for the community on Pagan issues.

Old Business. There was no old business.

Officers Reports.

President: Eric presented his annual report. A copy of the report resides with the Recording Secretary's records; the complete text will also be published in the EPN Newsletter and sent to the EPN discussion list. His report was received with thanks.

Treasurer's Report: Aree reported our current balance is $1308.72. Due to a software problem, she was unable to produce summaries by category for the entire year, but she reported on a few key figures: we paid $656.24 in printing costs and $438.74 in postage, while we received $325 in advertisement income. Looking at all the festivals, fairs, and retreats we participated in last year, we expended $3270.41 and took in $3465.51, thus making a slight profit. Our annual directors insurance of $678 is due in April.

Arwen expressed concern that we were not going to have enough money to take us through to September, when the next large influx of member dues was expected. Marilyn reported that at last year's annual meeting our current balance was $2045.91. Eric commented that we were down from last year at roughly the amount we paid for the insurance, and that we had anticipated that this might be the case when we took on the insurance. Since each newsletter averages roughly $100 in expenses, it looks like we won't have enough money to last us through to September.

Aree noted that the deposit check we had given in last spring to hold our dates for Spring Thing at Hersey Retreat Center had finally cleared. Arwen said that the coordinator for the Center had been replaced by the previous incumbent, with whom we have had excellent relations in the past. We then discussed some possible ways to raise income, including Spring Thing, the Maine Arts Festival, and raising dues from $11 to $12.

Jane then suggested shifting the newsletter to a Web format which would be e-mailed to subscribers. It could still include ads, and we could do a limited number of paper copies. Since we are getting charged for the newsletters on a per copy basis, this would save us considerable amounts of money. Eric said we could continue to charge $11 for an electronic subscription and $15 for paper subscriptions, for those folks who want to continue receiving paper copy. Arwen stated that our subscriptions have gone down this year, and Jane wondered why that might be. Eric speculated that it might be due to the fact that we are no longer offering a "unique product"; there are now many ways for folks to locate the Pagan communities in Maine, and so we are now one of many options instead of (practically) the only show in the state. Marilyn pointed out that we would still need to maintain some kind of paper presence. She had a contact just this month from someone who does have Internet access, but who learned about us from a newsletter. She suggested changing the drop copies to simple "calendar and contacts" sheets. Arwen added that we could send one copy of these to our usual drop sites (roughly 17 at present) asking them to post the sheet and to let people copy it as needed. We realized that we needed to increase the number of sites where we leave copies of our material, and that by changing the drop copies to a single sheet we could afford to leave them in more locations. At present, we have no way of knowing whether the drop copies actually go out (as opposed to being thrown out), and how many contacts have resulted from the drop copies.

As a result of these discussions, the Board authorized the Newsletter Committee to investigate the above changes with an eye to saving money and improving our outreach to the community.

Secretary's Report: Marilyn reported that the minutes from the previous quarterly meeting had been published in the Mabon newsletter and posted on the EPN electronic discussion list. She also pointed out that with the change in EPN's by-laws which did away with group memberships, she no longer needed to do an annual census of groups, and so she had nothing further to report.

Interfaith Committee. Arwen announced that since the national Interfaith Alliance, a political organization, wanted $25 per person per year for any member groups, it was clear that EPN could not afford to participate as a primary contact for grass-roots organizing in Maine, even though we were well-received by the Alliance, and are in accord with its views and functions. They said they would facilitate any future networking by their organization in the state with us. She reported that the Maine SpeakOut Project had been soliciting participation from non-mainstream religious organizations to help them end homophobia through educational presentations in the state. However, with the failure of Question 6 on last November's ballot, Maine SpeakOut is currently regrouping from this unfortunate event. They want very much to work on larger issues of inclusion, but will not be ready to do so for a while. The Interfaith Power and Light project has not moved very far at present; there are still limited choices for energy in the state, and we were not welcome into the organization at the formative stage, so until such time as additional energy resources become available, there will be no scope for action by EPN in this project.

Vice President position. Since Jane's announcement that she was stepping down as Vice President, we need to appoint an interim V.P. until we can hold elections as scheduled in the Fall. We discussed several possible appointees, and then Arwen offered to take the post of Corresponding Secretary from Jane so that Jane could continue as V.P. until we could find another option. Eric then APPOINTED Arwen as Corresponding Secretary pro tem; her appointment will be voted on with the other positions due for election in the Fall.

Newsletter Editor. Jane had announced on the EPN electronic discussion list that she was resigning as Editor after the Imbolc issue. StarCat volunteered to take on the position, and this offer was well-received by all. The Board APPOINTED StarCat as the new editor of the EPN Newsletter, with grateful thanks to her and to Jane for all her hard work of the past few years.

Upcoming Openings. There will be several Board positions coming vacant at the end of this calendar year; we will discuss possible candidates to encourage their running for the posts at our next Quarterly Meeting.

Spring Thing 2001 Since Eric and Arwen will be travelling the week before Spring Thing (which will be held on Friday through Sunday, April 20 - 22, 2001), and will only return the night before the event, they requested some assistance in the advance work. Marilyn offered to open the Center that afternoon, and Don offered to take on the advance work for that final week. Both offers were received with thanks.

New Business Jane informed us that she planned to register earthtides.org as a domain name for the new EPN Web page. A new address is needed since Ann Marie had been maintaining our page on her Web site, and she has moved out of state. Jane also said that Psyonic One might be able to help us by making a Web-based event calendar which would be available for anyone to register events directly.

Next Meeting The next Quarterly Meeting will be held during the Spring Thing event at the Hersey Retreat Center in Stockton Springs, Maine, on Saturday, April 21, 2001 at 2 pm.

Blessed be!

Respectfully submitted,

Marilyn
Recording Secretary, EPN