Last year, the college took a break from its annual gala and instead offered Club 1941. Individuals, groups and businesses were able to buy a year and join the club to show their support of the scholarship.
Gail LaForce, executive director of the NJC Foundation, told the Advisory Council last week that while Club 1941 was ?very successful, it didn't tap into the same group of people that are attending the gala, necessarily.?
?It was very positive -- we had a lot of alumni from far away give money -- but we don't want to lose our local population's interest either.?
This year's theme will be ?An Evening in Tuscany? and the gala will be held at Plainsman Grill.
LaForce said they looked at having the event on the main campus; it has been held at the Bank of Colorado Events Center in the past. However the areas they looked at holding it were already taken by other events, like the State FFA Convention.
She noted that the facility has undergone some changes recently. NJC received money from a donor that allowed them to remove the old tennis courts, backfill the pool and cover it with cement. They're getting ready to make the former pool area usable with a 90 by 120 foot party tent set up there for the gala.
The college is focusing on making the facility a place where people will want to hold banquets, which is why they decided to fill in the pool and make it a patio area.
While giving an update on the Plainsman Grill, Tyler Kelsch, vice president of finance, talked about the patio, noting that ?looking at it and layouts, assuming that we get it the way that we want it, that can be a venue up to about 400 people.?
At this point the Foundation isn't sure how many people they will be able to handle at the gala. In the past, the most they've ever had was 500 people.
?We will probably not be able to have that many, but it will just depend on what we can make fit,? LaForce said.
Invitations to purchase tickets for the event will be going out by the end of February. There are seven corporations who have purchased tickets for every year of the gala, they will be the first to be invited and then they'll move on to other corporations and individuals.
In other business, LaForce announced that the Hoffman Honors House was sold earlier this month.
?Because of the market we were unable to sell it for what we wanted,? she said. ?But on the other hand, it had been up for sale since 2009 and it just became time to see what we could do.?
NJC received two cash offers. One was for $115,000 and after fees and all was said and done the Foundation received a check for $108,403.
The decision to sell was made in November 2009 and the honors students were moved to GRB Residence Hall.
?Five issues were identified that were going to probably preclude us from continuing to use it for our honors students,? LaForce said.
Those issues included lack of security, ongoing maintenance problems, financial problems, function ? inefficient design for the students and management costs.
It was proposed that when the house was sold the proceeds would be used to establish an endowment for honors scholarships and honors program trips.
Right now, there is an honors scholarship fund setup that money can be taken out of; this could help pay for larger trips.
As an example of one of these trips, LaForce mentioned one year when students went to Chicago. They knew what they were going to do when they got there, things that matched some of the students' interests and challenged them.
?Those trips are very difficult and costly, obviously, so I don't know that that will happen every year, but on the years it can happen it is certainly an enriching opportunity,? she said.
Additionally, LaForce provided information about a gift of land located in Fort Morgan, given to the college by a former student, Steve Shirley. The transaction took place December 2012.
She said land, located at 16098 County Road R, is an empty field, with the back abutted by a railroad track.
?We went out and looked at it to see what the problems would be, if there's something that would include the ability to sell,? LaForce said. ?We hired a lawyer to check into things for us to make sure we weren't getting land that we would never be able to get rid of.
The appraisal for the land was $25,000.
At the end of the meeting the Advisory Council went into an executive session to discuss matters related to the purchase of property for public purposes or the sale of property at competitive bidding.
Callie Jones: (970) 526-9286; cjones@journal-advocate.com. Follow @cjones_JA on Twitter.
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