Board 2009 07

When: July 8, 2009
Facilitator: seamus
Scribe: jon
Minutes Checker: (none)
Attendance: seamus, debra, ali, marie, anne, laurel, sayer, richard, jon, michael, mary kate (only briefly, to get board signatures)

COMMITMENTS

• oso promisary note (anne) - discuss in reports
• contact oscpa (seamus) - not necessary (marie found sayer)
• coordinate with staff for first tech mtg (jon) - carry-over ask mary kate
• talk to wells fargo (anne) - "stalled" (revive at later date)
• put curt in touch with providence/dave (marie) - initiated, but curt unable to be involved now
  dave: ignoring providence right now, asking too much - asking free geek to do too much tracking. fg trying to develop a written partnership program to better present our idea of what a partnership would be. not really a problem now cuz we have too many computers (despite giving away at record pace). county interested in fg. deborah kafoury very interested wants to be pet project.
• examine corp dissolution debt (anne) - done
• write letter to greenwall (laurel, liane, rfs) - done
• find accountant (marie) - done!

REPORTS

• greenwall - richard
  • updated on greenwall debt situation

• bear - anne
  • bear sold bears truck to cream
  • oso has first check, when agreement is signed, turn over payment to us
  • how do we want to restructure the agreement with bear? (vs original proposal)
    rewrite as "monthly payment" for entire owed amount, but can pre-pay with truck money.
  • marie has concerns on it getting restructured again and dragged further out.
    new agreement will be divide total debt by 35 months, and can repay in annual lump sum with truck money. 18602.72 = 6000 each july for 3 years, + 16.67 / month ---- otherwise its 533.41
  • will attempt to set up automatic withdrawl.

• budget
  • new format with help from sayer!
  • general idea: break into primary income streams to look at over time (compare to other quarters etc)
  • bigger picture, but board can get more details upon request
  • overview + memo from C7 with highlights, likewise from staff. provide condensed form for board.
  • proposal to move board meeting days to 4th wednesday so we are able to see real budget #s
  • proposal to have more charts to give visual info
  • richard also provided some graphs of sales of gizmo types and money from sales, and how we are getting more data out of database for this sort of thing
  • marie asked how much should free geek focus on sales versus other sorts of fundraising.
    • ali said sales is working on bringing volunteers into store.
    • richard said we know from past experience that sales is a primary income stream so it gets focus, as a proven thing.
    • sayer pointed out that sales would never buy a building, so we needed to have fundraising a concern for capital campaign.
    • marie is concerned that we keep in mind fundraising and other income streams.
    • richard hopes some of americorps volunteer time toward managing

• saif audit
  • july 22nd, mary kate has details (sent to list)
  • never had one before, big unknown
  • anne will talk to colleague about it

• unpaid hours
  • staff came up with policy about logging hours and eliminating overtime:
    • staff reports, hr reviews and finds people who are working more than they are being paid
    • trying to solve with time management, helping shift work to volunteers
    • http://wiki.freegeek.org/index.php/Logging_hours_and_limiting_overtime_related_problems
  • ideas: base salary on 40 hrs (not 37)
  • marie has concern of hours running over with no way to control.
  • anne asked if HR is addressing, richard said they are reviewing hours, but not weekly.
  • anne suggested that overtime should be justified (whats causing it), some feedback needed from staff.
  • michael said staff is committed to helping free geek, not drain budget; staff will find ways to avoid it.
  • marie asks how far back would be obligated to pay, anne will investigate.
  • debra asked about staff volunteering; response that hours would count most likely under law.
  • ali addressed other time management issues, with respect to quality of work done in amount of time, fairness of salaries, etc.
  • concerning unpaid logged hours the board resolves that: (1) endorse staff hours review; (2) adopt headroom hours into salary basis, implementation to be determined (anne will consult colleague); (3) pay people for hours logged; (4) send a message to staff stating importance of adherence to policy
  • marie: commit to writing message, draft will go thru board
  • richard said revisiting 3-tier structure of pay, which is based on category not quality of work, as ali had brought up.

• board elections
  • coming up at sept council meeting
  • 3 seats up: curt, seamus, sayer
  • marie will ask curt if possible about continuing.
  • seamus is not planning to run for re-election
  • board (and council) should consider new board members

• meeting frequency
  • marie pointed out that fundraising didnt have room/time on the agenda tonight. freegeek size has grown considerably and budget is bigger, board has a lot of responsibility, and that quarterly meetings are inadequate.
  • discussed coordinating meetings with budgets (and if it was necessary). sayer talked about marie's idea of committees (e.g. budget committee), seamus said there was a little history of this in the past (e.g., budget).
  • laurel proposes another meeting before next scheduled meeting to discuss committees and other topics, to be determined.

REMAINING COMMITMENTS

• jon will follow-up with mary kate and get to first tech
• marie write message about importance of hours/pay
• anne will investigate: back wage issues (overtime), who is exempt, what can employees volunteer for, issues with part-time employees (and unpaid hours), headroom hours

Next Meeting

• Facilitator: laurel
• Scribe: anne
• RT Jockey: seamus
• Minutes Checker: ??
• Date and time: Sept 9, 2009