Feb 14, 2026 | J-KOA February 2026 National Board Meeting

Attendees: Koya, Toni, Eric, Danielle, Oscar

Excused: Andrea

Notes

• Icebreaker: Happy Birthday Toni! (Everyone is sharing a memory/appreciation + making a wish for Toni)

  • Eric

    • Core memory: PIFA - literally telling everyone about it + KBBQ and Ross Run

    • Wish: More tenacity and strength to keep going for the year

  • Danielle

    • Core memory: Lunch last Christmas!

    • Wish: That you get to pursue an adventure this year whether thats travel or a hobby, etc.

  • Oscar

    • Core Memory: really appreciate what you do for J-KOA and all the behind the scenes things you do

    • Wish: Hopefully the algorithm brings you blessings

  • Koya

    • Core Memory: professional level - came with the website and had the foresight to have it before we need it; personal level - took me to your church and they were collecting money for a cause I wasn’t expecting

    • Wish: That you’ll be able to travel this year and that you have the bandwidth to do so

• National board member updates

  • National president

    • The science fair is next week!  Good luck to all our mentors and students!!

    • Talked with Koya and Ana this week about a partnership opportunity (to be discussed later)

  • National Historian

    • Website walkthrough

      • Current link: https://jkoaoutreach.wixsite.com/home

      • Need to make links to our socials on the website

      • Need to make “Support Us” Page

      • Contact Toni for notes/adjustments needed on the website

    • Media Release Forms

      • Cross referencing a few media release forms in my arsenal to have a final form for J-KOA to use!

    • Needs:

      • Funds to purchase domain

      • Any president newsletters + supporting images

      • ADA Compliance

      • Update images with students with updated media release 

  • National treasurer

    • Still working on our org SOPs (goal: end of year)

    • Potential donors kept on track online

    • Needs:

      • update our budget spreadsheets with incoming donation information

      • Need to deplete DMRSEF Funds so we are only pulling from our accounts for funds

      • Need to create donations tracker/how funds are being used for future donors should they ask for records

    • Eric to send over inventory list

  • Branch Presidents

    • Oscar

      • Mockfair on Tuesday!  We have some awesome support for practice fair

      • Select number of spots financially reserved for students so all of our students are attending for free! Thank you Kayla and DMRSEF

      • Time for our full-send!

      • Needs:

        • Abishek sent out reimbursement requests to Danielle

        • Tracking line-by-line items for all spending of our DMRSEF account for auditing in the future (all tracking with ACC will absolutely be required so it’s good practice)

  • National Director updates

    • Donors

      • Met with Phil a couple of weeks ago (donor looking to invest into Colorado!) Is asking for a slide deck to share to his LinkedIn so that he can help attract us donors in his network.

      • Grant applications to start in may

    • Partnership

      • “The goal of a non-profit should be obsolete; to fill a need until it no-longer becomes a need”

      • Goal: to become a supplement to education versus a whole separate entity 

    • Outreach

      • Koya met with a director of our community hub schools who relayed some Aurora Public Schools needs

      • Eric and Ana met to brainstorm ideas for how our Outreach branch could potentially fill some of those APS needs!

      • Idea: set up 3-part modules that would tie in cultural importance to science topics that all support literacy goals within the district!

        • Think like case studies! Kits!

        • Allow for outreach without the hands-on experience of our mentorship program

        • Diego with his current science fair project can be our first scientist!

• APS partnerships discussion

  • Proposal: partner with teachers in the district wanting to run their own science fair clubs

  • they would be responsible for paperwork and contacting parents, etc. and mentors would provide their expertise and help students with their experiments

    • Mentors working with students partnered with teachers would have to be mentors with 1-2+ years of mentor experience; all other mentors would receive some type of training 

    • Small groups setting could change from like 1-3 students to 1-10 students

    • Test bed: APS Science Fair

    • After School vs. in-class science fair meetings?

    • Create a post-fair mentor briefing to gain input from the boots on the ground (current mentors)

• Discussion 501(c)3 application

  • Koya to get started on this process, looking to find a pro-bono lawyer to help and look over the paperwork

• City of Aurora discussion

  • City of Aurora wants to revamp one of its districts, concerns by the community on what this process is/that community needs are being met

  • City proposing starting a non-profit to oversee the revamp process

  • A lot of community expressed that voices are not being heard

  • Koya requested information on data collection during this meeting and data received was kind of all over the place (primarily meaning not collected in the way that scientists would)

  • Kind of out of our scope BUT we could potentially serve as a conduit to help relay accurate information + point out gaps in data

  • Questions: What would our time and energy commitment look like? Aurora KOA vs J-KOA commitment? What would outreach look like?

    • Maybe 1-2 volunteers, people from the advisory committee?

    • Consideration: third-party partnership since this feels more like a sociology study versus our usual scope

    • Town Hall setting?

    • Sees the potential and the community support need but weary of it potentially being too far outside of our scope

    • Koya to collect more data on this for the next month meeting