Agenda
Board Meeting
Feb 13, 2000

1. Election Results - Vote or NOT

 

Annual elections were held in early February. The President closed the nomination period after a week of quiet, when all open nominations had either been accepted or declined by the nominee. One Board Seat remains empty. The position of Internal Auditor remains empty, in spite of efforts to fill this position. A mid-year election could be held to fill these positions. 17 of the 32 members voted, with 1 abstention and 2 Board Members abstaining on their own vote - a majority of the membership thus voting on all nominees. All votes were affirmative. The roster of those elected is below.  The Bylaws require that the Board approve the Officers and Internet Comm specialist elected, thus appointing them.

 

President:	Nancy
Vice President:	Clipper
Treasurer:	Ron
Secretary:	Shirley
Board Seat:	Aron
Board Seat:	Gerard
Board Seat:	Geson
Board Seat:	Jurian
Board Seat:	Michel
Board Seat:	Pat
Board Seat:	Roger
Internet Comm:	Gerard

 

2. CPA Firm Review - Report by Treasurer

 

The 1st annual CPA Firm review was conducted during January, 2000. The Treasurer received compliments on the state of his books from the firm, and no irregularities were found. The Treasurer leanred some new methods of double entry to assist in tracking funds allocated to projects and withdrawn from designated donations. Weickgenant Accounting, Inc. does not work with nonprofits and stated they were not qualified to do audits, recommending Wagner LLP. This CPA firm, Wagner LLP, works with nonprofits and can help with tax form preparation in the future, as well as conduct official audits (done only at the $100,000 mark). The Treasurer has generated up-to-date Reports from the new Quickbooks 2000 software. The Treasurer has also prepared a year-end Balance Sheet and a Profit & Loss statement for 1999 to be included in the Annual Report.

3. Projects Progress Report - Report by Principals

 

Projects approved by the Board can be categorized by Media projects (alerting the public), Administrative projects (support), Short Wave radio project (network), headquarters Demos and Prototypes (sited), Non-Sited prototypes, and Educational material. The projects and their status are listed below.

 

Principal	Project	Status
Nancy:	97-001 The Passage Film	(promoted)
Geson:	98-004 TV Film Clip	(completed)
Roger:	98-002 Seed TEAM	(ongoing)
(board)	98-003 Admin & Ops	(ongoing)
Nancy:	99-001 Headquarters
	- cottage	(repaired)
	- NT Server
	- Streaming Video
Ron:	99-003 Short Wave	(operational)
Nancy:	99-001 Demos
	- Storm Shelter	(funded)
	- Family Garden	(productive)
	- Root Cellar	(funded)
	- Hand Tools	(collected)
Nancy:	99-001 Prototypes
	- Worm Beds	(funded)
	- Hydroponics	(funded)
	- Fish/Algae Tanks
	- Rain/Spring Distillation
Ron:	99-002 Prototypes
	- Windmill
	- Steam Engine
	- Water Mill
	- Wood Gas
	- Methane Gas
	- Smith Shop
	- Food Preservation
	- Chickens on Worms
	- Woods Survival
Michel:	98-001 Pole Shift Video	(storyboarded)
Nancy:	99-004 Solution Sets
Ron:	99-005 Backpack Survival

 

4. Annual Report Draft - Vote or NOT

 

By Delaware law, our Annual Report must be filed by March 1st of each year. Some items included in this Draft are subject to approval by the Board. These include the Balance Sheet and the annual Election results with new Officers.

 

5. November Corrections - Details by President

 

During the November meeting, a motion was made but overlooked and not put to a vote. A votecall was thus made via e-mail. Geson's TV Film Clip will be Distributed free to organizations requesting under a letterhead, and at a $5 charge to individuals.

 

During the November meeting, a preliminary Donor Log was posted for verification from the Gift Pool. The Donor Log is now finalized for 1999, with some changes.

6. Disbursement Issues - Vote or NOT

 

The Treasurer has requested the current Vouchering system be changed to a Purchase Order system. For those requesting reimbursement, the steps to be taken remain much the same, but the books are more readily followed by acountants and auditors when a Purchase Order system is used.

 

Those at the headquarters would also like to request that at least $100 of the $500 allocated for Admin & Ops for 2000 be allowed to be disbursed as a Petty Cash fund. Else each ream of paper requires a receipt and a voucher, etc. Along those lines, a $39.95 expense for US Search, spent in December to locate Diana's new address in Pennsylvania, is outstanding and waiting to be approved.

 

During the January meeting, $1,000 was set aside for the first CPA audit. Wagner LLP explained that audits are usually done at the $100,000 mark, and suggested a review of the books instead. (They also commented that by requiring a receipt, we in essence have a running audit, since a second entry exists for each expenditure.) The bill is expected to be under $300. $700 thus can be returned to the designations the donor specified, increasing the setaside of $2,900 for light duty farm equipment to $3,600. Ron has priced heavy duty Troy Bilt tiller adquate to work several acres or land, which can be rented or loaned to the nonprofit.

 

Local farm land suitable for Seed TEAM gardening has been offered to the nonprofit by Harley Vodak, whose farm is approximately 1/2 mile from the headquarters. This size of the garden would justify the purchase of the $3,600 Troy Bilt tiller and the approximately $700 required for a trailer to haul the tiller. There is approximately $1,020 in available funds in the bank, enough to cover the trailer expense.

 

To clear up these issues, approval is required to

1. use the Purchase Ordering system,

2. allow $100 of the A&O allocation to be used as Petty Cash and approve the $39.95 expenses,

3. return $700 of the $1,000 set aside for a CPA audit to the light duty farm equipment account, and

4. authorize the purchase of a Troy Bilt tiller for $3,600 and trailer for $700

7. Acceptance of $10,000 Gift - Vote or NOT

The President is pleased to announce that the $10,000 gift anticipated from her film producer, Nicholas, has been received. This gift was not designated, except for a comment that it should help with the contractors in getting the headquarters cleaned up and upgraded. In fact, the check was made out to Nancy Lieder of ZetaTalk, and had to be endorsed to the nonprofit. The President is thus recommending that outstanding (not yet authorized) expenses paid by Ron, Clipper, and herself to further the nonprofit projects and/or the cleanup and repair of the headquarters and headquarters infrastructure or guest cottage to be used by the nonprofit, be reimbursed. Additionally, funding other projects ready for funding and stalled until such funding is allocated is recommended. All these items, below, were in the new 3 year Budget presented in November by the President.

TV Film Clip (distribution)
	Duplication Costs	$500.00
Storm Shelter (completion)
	Backhoe, Shipping, etc.	$1,500.00
Streaming Video (preparation)
	Hardware, dual servers	$4,000.00
Worm Beds
	Antique wringer/washer	$250.00
Wetlands as Food
	Wild Rice, bushel	$120.75
Guest Cottage
	Travel to Wisco	$800.00
	Ship Mitre Saw	$55.00
	Repair Plumbing	$325.15
	Repair Electric	$327.15
	Trim Tree for Utilities	$100.00
	Install Phone Line	$76.80
	Replace Circular Saw	$108.90
Headquarters Maint.
	Electric in 2 Front Rooms	$1,022.00
	Paint, 2 Front Rooms	$103.50
	Lumber, 2 Exterior Stair	$126.66
	Map Gas Cutting Tool Supplies	$29.99
	Stain/Varnish 3 Ext. Doors	$44.13
	Power Washer for Exterior	$171.47
	Power Sprayer for Exterior	$149.99
		------------
	Total Authorization	$9,811.49