Welcome: President Duane Clark called the meeting to order at 7:07 pm and welcomed guests and new members. In the minutes of the June 1, 2006 a correction was made by Willy Evans: Page 2, under Town Crier, second paragraph was corrected to read: “On June 2, Judy will be giving a cry at the start of “Capidalgo” – a weekend get-together of members of Capital City Yacht Cub (based in Sidney) and Fidalgo Yacht Club in Anacortes. The event is held annually, alternatively in Sidney and Anacortes, and this year marks the 25th anniversary.” Suzanne Harris moved that the minutes be approved as corrected. Motion carried.

Duane read the obituary of beloved member, Dan Harbaugh. His memorial was held on July 1 at the Westminster Presbyterian Church, Anacortes. Dan Harbaugh will be remembered for his loyalty, his keen response to humor and his sweet smile.

Announcements: Jo announced the need for homes for 14 of the 30 Chinese students that will arrive in Anacortes July 20 – August 14. If you want to homestay a Chinese student, age 14 or 15, please call Michelle Slater, 421-5436. She also announced the need for a home for the teacher of the Japanese students that will be arriving July 13 – 30th. Contact to homestay this teacher is Cheryl Gilman at 299-4581.

Jo also announced the 50th Anniversary Conference of the Sister Cities International “on line” Auction. Go to: www.sister-cities.org and join the celebration.

Duane reported on the 2006 Doyle Geer Golf Tournament. There was an increase of Sponsors and Players over the 2005 tournament. He distributed framed pictures of the students that are going to Kisakata along with the names of members who were hole sponsors. He then thanked all who made the tournament a great success.

Treasurers Report: Mark Lijek gave the treasurers report:

Significant Items: The Golf tournament net income stands at $13,273.37, although there are still some expenses to be paid.

We received a grant of $3000.00 from the Anacortes Arts Festival for the Kumpanija performance. Diane and Rick Davidson sponsored Kumpanija at the $250.00 level, while the John Sarich fundraiser made an additional $375.40 for the Kumpanija reserve and $90.00 for the Vela Luka student exchange. We paid $520.00 for public relations expenses in connection with the Kumpanija visit. Mark established a separate account to track ticket sales income.

The cookbook fund increased by $100.00 due to continuing sales of the books.

The City of Anacortes reimbursed $215.88 in Town Crier expenses. We paid Judy Jewell (Town Crier) $609.09 for the additional expenses, two-thirds of which will eventually be reimbursed by the City.

Thanks to the hard work of Sharon Horak and Suzanne Harris, the ASCA audits for the years 2004 and 2005 have been completed. The audit report is attached to the end of these minutes.

Vice President: no report

Assistant to the President: Don Lapworth announced that the preparation meeting for the Romanian trip will be held on July 15, 10 am to 12 am at the City Library. He received an e-mail from Angela Nasulea of Comarnic, Romania – a member of the sister city group that will provide dinner for our travelers on September 15, 2006.

Sam Gebala read the e-mail to the members.

Sidney, BC: David Rapella reported on the July 1 “Canada Day” trip to Sidney and the Sidney members who came to Anacortes to celebrate the 4th of July. He reviewed the services provided by Jayne Davis, Regional Operations Manager – North Washington State Ferries and reiterated the deep appreciation. He reminded members that the next trip will be at Christmas time to again march in the parade and support our Sidney Sister Cities group.

Kisakata, Japan: Cora Lijek reported that 12 students, 4 chaperones and 7 other adults will depart on July 27th for Kisakata. A Car Wash is scheduled for July 15th at 1:00 pm at the Skagit Bank. (This will be their last fundraiser.) The students and parents were very active in making the Doyle Geer Golf Tournament so successful.

Tenth Year of the Signing of the Sister city Agreement with Kisakata: On August 3, there will be a ceremony in Nikaho (formerly Kisakata) commemorating the signing of the documents 10 years ago to establish our sister city relationship. Nikaho has asked Mayor Maxwell for a statement commemorating this event. His words will be written on a monument that will be unveiled at the ceremony in Japan. City Councilman Brian Geer will represent the City as well as ASCA at the ceremony. Kisakata Co-Chair Cora Amburn-Lijek and Hospitality Chair David Rapella will also be there to represent ASCA. Representatives of and students from Nikaho's other US sister city, Shawnee, Oklahoma, will also be at the ceremony.

Lomonosov, Russia: Suzanne Harris received a letter from Marina who informed her that they now have 31 members. They also went to their German Sister City and sent a warm “greeting” to all ASCA members and a “Happy 4th of July”.

Shipwreck Day: July 15 is the date! The committee will be receiving donations of various items that members have received/bought in various countries at the Earthbound Book Store on July 14th before 5 pm.

Maria Papritz read an interesting letter from a member of Kalinka.

Vela Luka, Croatia: Nikki Lovric announced that the WA State Arts Commission is sponsoring Kumpanija. You may click on the Kumpanija website to see a complete list of sponsors: www.Kumpanija.org The Mayor of Vela Luka will, hopefully, come to Anacortes with the Kumpanija group.

Nikki then introduced the 5 visitors from Vela Luka, Croatia: Ante Borovina, Nina Andreis, Ivana Gugic, Ivana Ljubic and Jan Nypl. She then introduced the Anacortes students going to Vela Luka on July 11th: Stephen Hudak, Sonja Kasa, Brianna Bikker and Krys Lijek.

Program: Duane introduced the Power Point presentation that depicts the happenings of the last two weeks….the Golf Tournament and the various activities of the students going to Vela Luka and the students from Vela Luka.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Jo Fuqua, Secretary

Suzanne Harris and Sharon Horak performed an audit of the Sister Cities Financial Records.

In the course of the Audit, we did the following:

1. Reviewed year end financial statements

2. Compared categories on the year end statement with individual accounts

3. Verified checks paid out to invoices

4. Reviewed deposits to bank accounts

5. Reviewed major categories:

a. Golf tournament

b. T-shirt sales

c. Vela Luka Fundraising

d. Lomonosov Fundraising

e. Cookbook sales

Findings:  All expenses and receivables are well documented.

    Only two minor discrepancies:

       One typo – corrected

       One deposit – actual deposit was made in 2006, but showed in 2005 receivables – corrected

Recommendations:

There is not a good audit trail for money deposited by the Treasurer.  Both the treasurer and the person turning in the monies should sign off.  Mark will create a form to track this.

Respectfully submitted,

Sharon Horak & Suzanne Harris