THIMBLELENAS BOARD MEETING
FRIDAY, May 15, 2026
8:30 Sewing room
Attendance:
Carol Myers, FaceTime Linda Wickline Sue Devaney, FaceTime
Kathy Foster Lesley Monroe Georgine Smith
Sue Garcia Susan Radk. Not present: Bertha Medina
Agenda Items: Add item regarding website changes.
Meeting called to order at 8:30. All present in person or via FaceTime except Bertha Medina.
A letter was delivered 5 minutes prior to meeting start time by Bertha Medina: The letter’s content was… “Dated May 15, 2026. Dear Thimblelenas Board: Please accept this letter as formal notice of my resignation from my position as Purchasing Agent/Co-Treasurer for the Thimblelenas Board, effective immediately, May 15, 2026. I appreciate the opportunity to have served in this role and to have contributed my time and efforts to the organization. After careful consideration, I have decided that stepping down is in my best interest. I wish the organization continued success moving forward. Sincerely, Bertha Medina.”
Carol stated she needed to update the board on the situation that brought about Bertha’s resignation. The following is a synopsis of what has transpired. In March, Carol was approached by three board members, and one non board member, and was told that the serger thread that was ordered for Casa Amigas, was in error, and that these people saw it in the free box, or that they know it was thrown in the free box. Normally, Carol would not worry about something like that, but the thread amounted to $38, which equates to 7.5 people’s dues. And it was fiscally irresponsible to not return that thread and toss it, but because there were three board members involved, Carol was not going to go talk to Bertha personally and get the ‘he said she said’ story. Carol brought the subject up at the March board meeting, and asked Bertha to please explain what happened to that thread. Bertha denied that she threw it into the free box. Carol stated at that meeting she would go back to the Casa ladies to verify the threads were in the FREE box. When Carol did, all said the serger threads were in the free box. At the next meeting (April), Carol again asked Bertha to explain why the threads were in the FREE box and Bertha would not explain it. Bertha became very evasive to questioning. Bertha then asked for a meeting face to face with her accusers.
At April’s meeting Carol felt it was not appropriate to bring these people’s names forward at that point, and Carol stated she was not sure she would do that. Carol did not deny her a meeting. In fact, in the April board meeting, Bertha stated she wanted the meeting within the next day or two, and Carol stated, it was not possible, because Susan Radka, the vice president, was not in town (Bertha stated she wanted the Vice President at this meeting). Carol told Bertha that the meeting could not be in the next day or two, but will consider it.
After many conversations with the people involved, Carol called a meeting, and because there were three board members, the meeting notice was posted in the Sewing Room. Carol felt that she wanted to be as discreet as possible and that inviting the full board, there were things that would come out that would be detrimental to Bertha, so Carol opted to call the meeting with those parties involved. Carol sent Bertha email and text message with a date and time – please Bertha, acknowledge yes or no, and Bertha did not acknowledge any communication. The special board meeting transpired May 11, 2026 without Bertha because she never responded to Carol’s communications. There were four opportunities for Bertha to respond to the meeting, without any acknowledgement from Bertha. This morning, Bertha sent out an email to all board members with untruths in the matter. Also, Bertha spoke personnally to General Manager of SCOV, Sandy Seddon, with her story. The jist of that meeting was the Sandy asked Carol to let Bertha speak in today’s board meeting. Carol responded to Sandy’s email with the facts as the board knows them, and stating that Bertha had many opportunities to come forth with the truth. No, the board will not allow Bertha to speak. Sandy stated that she (Sandy) will speak to Bertha.
Since Bertha gave a formal written resignation, the topic on today’s agenda will not go forward. However, according to Thimblelenas’ ByLaws, Article 4, Section 5, it indicates that someone who creates issues as this, the board can basically eliminate their membership. The board did not think that was good for Bertha. Bertha can still communicate and participate in her craft’s clubs’ activities by remaining a member of Thimblelenas, just no longer hold an elective office.
A motion was stated and voted on: Effective immediately the Board accepts Bertha’s resignation and that she still retains membership in Thimblelenas. Motion by Sue Radka, second by Kathy Foster. Motion carried. Sue Radka suggested that Thimblelenas Board send a thank you for your service to Bertha.
President’s report. Carol stated the long arm purchase has been approved by the board, having been a long six month process. The SCOV Foundation contributed their $5,000 to it. We had an anonymous donor for $500. We had $1,500 from the board, and the SCOV board had to approve it because the purchase was over $10,000, which is a new rule as of their November meeting. SCOV needs to sell the current long arm machine. A couple of the members of the board as well as Carol priced out the machine, price of $3,600, which is fair for that machine. And all the equipment that goes with it. Randy Trenary said to date he has not had any inquiries about it. But he is going to put it on TWISCOV one more time and give the community the opportunity to purchase it. And if that doesn’t draw any interest, Carol suggested to him to put it on Facebook Marketplace and see what happens. Randy said that would be fine, but let’s give the community one more opportunity to purchase. Sue Radka suggested she also put a blurb in TWISCOV under the Thimblelenas banner to offer the unit for sale, more than one spot showing the machine for sale. Carol suggested that it would not hurt to show the sale in a different place, to go ahead, the extra advertising doesn’t hurt. Sue R said she will continue to show it in TWISCOV and then Tipster if nothing transpires, but she’ll contact Randy to double check.
Discussion about asking SCOV people who may know people at Saddlebrook as well as the Highlands at Dove Mountain, if there could be interest in purchasing the existing long arm. Carol said she has all the information on the machine if there is an interest, please contact Carol for more information or if you have contacts she can reach out to.
Printer: Carol needs to contact Chris Pachinko (IT guy) because the printer still is being utilized by people within SCOV and has not been renamed.
Carol has had a ZOOM meeting with Robin Coulter and Chris regarding the IT needs at the Copper Center. During that meeting, Carol saw a preliminary sketch of the sewing room layout at Copper Center, which was done by the architect. Since the new drawing by that architect totally missed two clubs within Thimblelenas, we are back to the drawing board. The SCOV board is awareof the fact that Thimblelenas needs more space.
Sue Garcia, Lesley Monroe, Donnas Stephens, and Linda Wickline took advantage of the reduced pricing training at Cathey’s on the new long arm machine that has been purchased. Cathey’s offered one free seat at their handy quilter training class, and then they offered a reduced price for any other Thimblelenas members who wanted to attend that. Ellie Anderson was going to contact Sue G to set up training with Sue G on the new long arm, as of this date, has not happened.
There are no formal meetings now scheduled June through October 16th, for the board. Carol will continue working with the Copper Center Committee and the President’s Media Committee, which held a meeting the other day. Carol sent out a note to all the leads of the different clubs notifying of this committee, asking for their input. They are looking at writing up a script for the Thimblelenas section, which is the biggest section because we have seven clubs, and the other ones are just one. So, let’s take advantage of it. This media committee is going to do a video, promoting and educating on what each club does.
Carol was informed that the Tapestry club moved their things from the back room to the front room, getting ready for the rearrangement of the room when the new long arm comes in.
Vice president’s report: Susan Radka. Sue submitted an article for the June Tipster, thanking the SCOV board for their generosity in allowing us to get the long arm. Sue will be adding TWISCOV articles about the sale of long arm every week until sold.
Secretary’s report: Minutes from April 16th meeting had no changes. A motion by Sue Devaney, second by Lesley to approve minutes. Motion carried.
Linda also reported on the 40 & Fabulous Committee. She attended a meeting on May 4. So far, the 22 clubs in SCOV, only one club has said no, that they will not donate. Each club can determine what they want to give to be raffled off. September 1st, there will be a letter sent by Carol Sallmon, who’s the coordinator, explaining there is a deadline by November 1st for each club to submit or have a picture of what they’ll be submitting. On November 1st, Carol will contact each club personally to get their donation or the picture. She said that she has a place where they can lock it up at Copper Center. Marketing and Financial groups are now working on how they’re going to get money to do this event because they’re talking of cheese and wine and cookies and punch, etc. to be offered during the Art and Raffle Walk. Discussion about event with Georgine stating some clubs wanting to combine their item with others, possibly making a group basket. Sue Devaney will contact each club to help coordinate this event. Sue D will report back to Carol on her findings. Motion by Sue D to coordinate the clubs’ items what they will donate and report back to Carol. Second by Kathy, motion carried.
Membership chair: Kathy Foster. Paid memberships through April is 170 members. Room usage for April, 331. April 2025 is 393, a little down. Georgine has been able to train people (monitors) on how to access the roster/lists on the computer with good success.
Discussion about if or when the physical book that the lists/roster is in may possibly go away the end of the year. To be determined.
Treasurer’s report: Sue Garcia. April 2026, Treasury report showed balance starting of $4,106.90. The income was $6,905.71, which includes a deposit of $5000 check from the Grant. Total expenses were $7,368.56, which reflects a $7000 check to the HOA for the long arm. Ending balance was $3,644.05. The CD (13 months) is maturing May 25th of this year. And right now, balance is $3,090. The CD was purchased with $3000, $90 was the interest over the 13 months. Nothing can be done with it until the day after it matures (26th) and then have 10 days to decide. Sue G asked for directions since this is the last meeting until October.
Discussion: what to do with existing CD. Sue R will check Capital One, Linda will check Wells Fargo, Sue G will check with Pima Federal Credit Union. If other members bank elsewhere, please investigate, find out rates and if minimum, if offer a 6-month CD, within next 10 days, contact Sue G with information on respective banks and she will determine best fit for the $3000, the $90 interest will be deposited into checking account. A motion to accept the treasurer’s report was by Lesley, second by Georgine, motion carried.
Member At Large report: Sue Devaney. Sue D met with clubs, no concerns.
Sue had volunteered earlier in the meeting to coordinate the 40 & Fab donations for the clubs. Sue questioned the development of computer training and TV instructions now that Bertha has resigned. Georgine will contact someone she knows to help with writing up information on the computer to see if they are still willing to help.
Co-Monitor Chair report: Lesley and Georgine. Georgine stated she has not trained any new monitors since previous month. Monitor duties are doing good, no major issues. Lesley stated that people do not seem to be signing up to be monitors because there’s not so many people here? but some people are doing it still, and she will tally it up at the end of the month and put it in the book.
Donation Committee: Susan Radka. Committee met on Wednesday, April 29th, and cleaned out everything. There are a few new donations now, not much.
Comment Cards: none.
Website changes: Carol stated Paul Sherwood, (Tech club’s webmaster) is closing his Go Daddy account, the website for Thimblelenas, and this GoDaddy account is under Paul’s account. So what he’s saying is, is that we need to take over our own Thimblelenas website, and pay for it ourselves. Carol wanted to bring it to the board’s attention, and to know Paul does not have the exact dollar amounts yet on cost but he’s assuming that if we pay for 12 months at a time, it’s going to be about $130 to $140 somewhere in that area. If Thimblelenas pays this amount now, it probably will go to a normal contract, which is about $240 a year. Carol asked if there were any other expenses and he said, at this point, no. Is the Board in agreement that we’re willing to take on that expense? We’ve got a website and put a lot of work into putting it up and running. It does take some time for people to get used to going there for information. But we need to know that we’re committing $132, which, at this point, is about 14 people’s dues, or $240, maybe in the future, which is 24 people’s dues, just for the website. It’s a good website, and maybe not being utilized enough. Sue R said that she should put blurbs in TWISCOV to get people to utilize the site, that may help. Question was asked if Thimblelenas can go under SCOV’s web, and Carol stated they will only put a link to our website from SCOV’s website.
Carol felt that there is some time to think on this, but she wanted to make everyone aware of it. Carol said Paul said, in the past, he would help us redevelop the same website, so that we can do it. Carol said she’d research this and see if she can get more answers.
Old Business: Kathy reported on the quilt sizes based on the Art League’s restrictions. Kathy said the League was only accepting quilts 45 X 45 for new hangings of the Honor Quilts for July, which will be hung for three months. Kathy challenged them and Susan Taylor of the League agreed to expand the size to 45 X 50, it helped a little, but that’s their final offer. And so, anything that’s going to be hung in the Activity Center, starting July, will have to be within those dimensions. Susan Taylor did say that she would address it again in the fall when the board meets again, to see if the quilts that are larger could be hung.
New Business: Carol stated that each club with a treasury should follow Thimblelenas Bylaws. Some clubs have substantial treasuries, and they don’t have any guidelines in their charters, and they don’t have Bylaws for themselves to indicate what happens if there’s an issue. Linda offered to investigate revising the By-Laws in next couple of months and send out drafts for each of the board to review and comment on. Linda hopes that changes can be agreed on in time for the Annual Membership Meeting, November 11.
Since Bertha resigned, Carol needs to appoint someone to fill Bertha’s position. Sue Radka had volunteered prior to the meeting to take on this role as well as continuing to work on the 501c3 paperwork. Carol officially appointed Susan Radka then as interim purchasing agent. Sue will also be working on the 501c3.
Carol also informed the board that at the November Annual Meeting, the board should have candidates ready for the general membership to vote on. Carol stated that Sue R’s Donation Committee, as in the past, acted as the Nomination Committee, canvassing members for candidates. Carol suggested canvassing begin soon, that when canvassing, many members are not aware of what the functions or duties are of each position. May need a chat on what the positions entail while speaking to people.
Motion to adjourn meeting at 9:35am by Kathy, second by Lesley. Motion carried.