Log
Board Meeting
June 10, 2008

ROGER: Greetings Directors! It has been a while since our last meeting (in February) and though things have not changed much in the non-profit's activities, we should have a meeting on record. So please check your email over the next few days and let's get one in the books! The agenda will be as usual:
· approval of minutes from last meeting
· discussion of the projects
· seed
· booklet/CD
· server
· blog
· any new business
· and then adjournment
So without further ado, I hereby call a meeting of the Troubled Times, Inc. Board of Directors! Please review the minutes of our last meeting and reply with your comments/corrections or acceptance at your earliest convenience.

NANCY: I accept the minutes of the last meeting without objection.

STEVE: I also accept the minutes of the last meeting.

ROGER: Please use your Reply to All feature so that Nancy can capture the transcript of the meeting. I have responses from Steve and Mary, as well as Nancy's below. Gerard, do you accept the minutes as posted?

GERARD: Yes I accept them

ROGER: Thanks for the reply Gerard. The minutes are accepted and approved as published. Moving on to the next topic: Reports! The booklet and CD distribution is proceeding well. I'm still averaging up to 10 orders a month and the supplies are holding steady. I've been getting email solicitations from Princeton Disc about various promotions, etc. They cut the disks for us on the first run. I've filed a few, just to keep my contacts "current". The server project is on hold as before. I still maintain the domain name but have not had it on-line for several months now. I'm considering developing a web server for another project and if the software is more reliable, I may piggyback the TT-inc ftp site onto it. More on that as it takes form. This fall, when my time frees up a little, I will begin germination tests on the seed bank I've been maintaining. I expect low results but hope to be surprised. I don't have the kind of space needed to grow them out and re-supply our bank, but if the seed has reasonable germination, we can begin to look to other sources for seed in tandem with looking for space to grow it out. That's about the extent of the three projects where I'm involved. Nancy, care to add on? Any questions or comments from the rest?

NANCY: Regarding the seed bank. This year I am not growing for seed except for Indian Corn and Curley Parsley. My focus has been on a self sustaining garden here in Wisconsin because I anticipate becoming very busy due to an uptick in Earth changes and demand for interviews and all. I'm growing out Indian Corn because I discovered that the seed I saved last year had moldered, not being bone dry enough when stored. Indian Corn works as well if not better than the meal corn we had grown before, and had a hardier stalk, not prone to blow down during the microbursts which seem to afflict my backyard garden. I have only 1% or so germination from saved seed so bought some new seed and am growing for seed again this year. I planted Curley Parsley last year, a biennial, but was unsure if it would winter over. Despite the 7 feet of snow and relatively cold winter, it was green under the snow and healthy as can be! Going to seed this year. I will allow some seed to spill to setup a permanent patch in my garden. Permanent perennial, biennial, or self seeding annuals in my garden include: gypsy onion, leeks, garlic, buckwheat, Chinese cabbage, purslane, sheep sorrel, cilantro, oregano, mint, asparagus, sage, thyme, strawberries and raspberries. Herbal meds include: bergamot, lowland mallow, mugwort, echinacea, comfrey (which is very aggressive and a great medicinal herb), self heal, and camomile. I planet lettuce and tomato and save a bit of seed now and then from those too, but not bulk saving. My philosophy on saving seed has changed, due to our circumstances of all our volunteer hands being busy and the expectations of being busier still as the pole shift time arrives. I feel we have done our part to try to educate people, and are still doing what we can with the booklet and CD distribution. All our projects have been to that end. My hunch is that distributing educational material will be our sole mission going forward, because of how chaotic the coming few months and years are likely to be.

On another subject, related, I have developed and just released another video chip on Survival Tips. You will note how many of our nonprofit and Troubled Times projects are included in this clip! I emphasize seed saving and discuss moldering tomato seed. I emphasize plants such as amaranth and buckwheat which have lysine, a protein that allows them to equate to meat. I mention drying and keeping seeds cool, and thinking not only in terms of a family garden but of next year, when you might not be able to buy seed. Practice seed saving, etc. I've sent a special thanks to Mike Lob for his contributions over the years, as included in the video are his water distillation rig, easy to make and use, his demo units for water wheel and capturing motion via electric drill permanent magnets, and running bulbs on low voltage to avoid burning them out. Halcon fire starter techniques, which I picked up from the Troubled Times message boards, as well as a drop of chlorine for emergency drinking water, hand tools, Servonius wind turbine, making soap form ash water and animal fat, the outhouse and eating bugs. Got all that into a 7 minute video, plus a few Zeta tips on action plans and using junk for new housing.

I am no longer broadcasting on the BBS radio show. I developed 80 hours, essentially a lecture series, and then repeated them for the second year as I was too busy to develop a new hour every week. Then I started the newsletter, which takes about a day or two a week. Also started making videos, the Survival Video being number 21. BBS started charging for the opportunity to broadcast, so when I got an offer to have a radio hour weekly, at no cost, I switched. The Joe McNeil radio hour broadcasts to 58 micro am/fm stations and also webcasts. It is BBS radio and more. I on occasion mention the nonprofit media and the Troubled Times website, but not as regularly as I had on the BBS show. So I've included the nonprofit media in the traveling marque on my website, which newcomers are likely to notice and read, at least the first time they visit the website. Traffic to my website continues to be strong, 3 times as strong as it was in 2003 and holding at about 1.5 million hits per month. For the 20 videos produced before the Survival Video, a total of 163,103 people have viewed the 20 videos produced before this last one, the Survival Video #21, with 24,535 alone watching the prior video on Safe Locations and 11,201 watching #19 on the New Madrid. There is a possibility that a documentary on ZetaTalk and my life as a contactee will be developed also, appropriate for TV. Thus, I don't think we should fault ourselves for being older, busier, distracted with our own lives as the future unfolds. Educating the public will be our prime job, in my view, a job we are well positioned to do.

ROGER: Excellent work, Nancy! I agree that our mission has evolved from direct supplier to educator. Any comments or questions from the other Directors?

STEVE: I don't have too many comments except to say nice reports on your projects Roger and Nancy! It's amazing the traffic the ZT site is getting and also all the views of the videos Nancy is producing. I hear more and more people talking about how things are changing and casually throwing around the odd end of the world comment so I think things are definitely kicking around peoples conscious and sub-conscious minds. Steady as she goes!

NANCY: If there are no other comments I MOVE that we adjourn.

ROGER: I have a motion to adjourn. If there are no other comments or new business, then the meeting is adjourned after a 36-hour waiting period (for comments or new business).