We’re in exciting times, Primetimers.
As you know, in January and February we took our beloved Primetime to the next level, and officially created a formal umbrella entity for our group – the Primetime ATX Foundation, a 501(c)(7) nonprofit corporation. For the last few months we’ve been getting the mechanics of establishing that group in place. In addition to getting our one-time legal requirements satisfied, we’ve established bank accounts in our name, created basic by-laws for the administration of the group, and started streamlining procedures to make sure this will be possible to maintain long after your current board has exited the picture for whatever reason. There’s still much preliminary and ongoing work to be done, but once complete, we’ll have an easily sustainable structure in place to allow Primetime to thrive well into the future.
So I really hope you’ll be able to join us on Lake LBJ on May 17, 2025 at my father’s place in Sunrise Beach, Texas, for our annual picnic and the first official annual meeting of the members (meaning you) of the Primetime ATX Foundation. The location is a little over one hour outside Austin. Once there we’ll take a few minutes to take care of a little business, (such as formally electing your first Board of Directors for the coming year), but mostly we’ll just have fun. My father has a nice, privately gated lake house on a private peninsula on the lake. There we’ll have several acres and over a thousand feet of private lake front to enjoy the afternoon, including both inside and outside activities. They’ll be BBQ from Pok-E-Jo’s. They’ll be swimming and lawn games outside for those of us who want to kick off our summer right, as well as activities indoors, including table games, darts and billiards in my father’s game room or just enjoying sitting and visiting with old and new friends in the air conditioning if you prefer that.
If you have some yard or table games you’d like to bring, feel free. I’ll bring my cornhole set and giant Jenga tower. Others are bringing Frisbees and other outdoor stuff. If there is interest and everyone agrees to abide by some simple rules, we’ll even open up my Dad’s garage and let you take a picture of you sitting in a mint condition Delorean or classic Corvette. The Delorean hasn’t been started in awhile, so I’m afraid we won’t be able to go back to the future just yet. But you’ll come away with a fun photo keepsake.
As mentioned, Pok-E-Jo’s will cater the affair, including BBQ, sides, iced tea, and cookies, but you should feel free to bring some other stuff of your own to share if you want. We should have plenty. If we have any vegetarians/vegans attending, let me or another board member know and we’ll come up with appropriate alternatives for you for lunch. The house has a full kitchen and an empty refrigerator/freezer, and we’ll probably serve all the food from indoors. We just need to make sure we clean up after ourselves.
As always for Primetime, its BYOB.
Our proposed schedule follows. This is of course subject to change, and if the weather looks threatening, we’ll obviously reschedule for another date.
The Primetime ATX Foundation First Annual Picnic and Gathering of the Members
Saturday May 17, 2025
Sunrise Beach, Texas
10:00 am Gates Open and Registration
10:00 am to 12:00 pm Activities / Free time
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm Lunch and 2025 Annual Meeting and Election of Board of Directors
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm Activities / Free time
3:00 pm Adjourn
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm Clean Up; Please stay to help if you can
4:00 pm Gates Close
Leadership Board Election Information
Most of the current Leadership Board is standing for election to your Leadership Board for the coming year. As this is our first official Board, and we would like to ensure that there is always some institutional memory on the Board each year, we are going to stagger elections. Generally, everyone who has a seat on the Board will serve for two years. However, to properly stagger the seats, for this first election three Board members will serve for one year and be up for re-election next year, and two seats will serve for the standard two years. All seats will be “at large”.
If you’ve been following these newsletters, you’ll remember that as with any corporation or non-profit, there is a distinction between the “Board” and the functional “officers” or “directors”. The easiest way to keep them straight is that the membership elects the five member Leadership Board (which is what we’ll do on May 17), and the Leadership Board appoints all of the functional officers or “Directors”. Board members and Directors are not necessarily the same people, although they are right now.
As of right now our organization recognizes 5 director positions. They are:
Executive Director – The equivalent of a Chief Executive Officer responsible for the administration of the group.
Financial Director (Treasurer) – Handles the finances of the group, including administration of our bank accounts and deposits and disbursements approved by the Board.
Membership Director – Responsible for recruitment, retention, and handling members and of general membership issues.
Event Host Director – Responsible for recruitment, retention, and support for our heroic event hosts, without whom Primetime would not exist.
Community Outreach Director – Responsible for the coordination of charitable and community volunteer events, as well as the “Members Helping Members” program that provides assistance for our members who may need occasional help for various issues.
In the future we anticipate adding other director positions for various areas. However, the Leadership Board will always have five members, and we fully anticipate that eventually people will serve on the Board and yet not have a director position, just as most corporate Boards of Directors often do not involve themselves in day-to-day operations of their organizations, and simply provide leadership in steering the organization through policy creation and appointment of directors.
As mentioned, most of your current Board is standing for election on May 17. I am preparing a written ballot for those who are are attending the meeting out at the lake, but on May 8 I will have available an early online voting system for those who cannot attend. Because of that, any nominations for the Board beyond the current membership will need to be in my hands by Wednesday May 7. After that, the slate will be locked, and voting will begin. Early online voting will end on May 16.
Unless someone else beyond the current Board decides to stand for election, all of this will be a formality. However, we wanted to establish a procedure to follow in future years and set up the staggered terms.
So again, the deadlines are:
May 7 – Nominations for the Leadership Board Received by Gregg
May 8 – Early online voting begins for those who are not attending the May 17 picnic
May 16 – Early online voting ends
May 17 – First Annual Meeting and Election of the Leadership Board at Lake LBJ
Thank You Event Hosts!
We want to congratulate and thank all of you who have stepped up in the last couple of months and hosted events for Primetime. You are the reason this is such a great group, and we couldn’t do it without you. If any of you (or anyone else) needs assistance with hosting an event be sure and send our Event Host Director Patty a message. Her email address is patty@primetimeatx.org.
But for now, thank you Miki, Louise, Andy, Jeffrey, Jeannie, Pablo, Greg, Anne, Barbara, Michael, Peggy, the other Greg, Mireya, Julie, Joanna, Stan, and Frank for all your efforts in hosting events for the last couple of months. I hope you’ll be at the picnic so I can thank every one of you personally.
As I said, Primetimers…exciting times. But until next month…keep on truckin’.
Gregg, on behalf of Andy, Patty, Frank and Tom