Board 2008 07

When: 9 Jul 2008 6pm
Place: FG meeting room
Facilitator: Marie
Scribe: laurel
Minutes Checker:
Attendance: Marie, Jon, Oso, Seamus, Mary Kate, Richard,
Last meeting:

COMMITMENTS

• Marie - will contact Tim. DONE by seamus
• Laurel and Marie - jump start Building Committee DONE, maybe find time for workshop with Julie NOT DOING
• Board - hash out & approve budget DONE
• Everyone will think about their 10 hour commitments - NEEDS WORK
• Tim will followup on various insurance policies (with Jeff and Shawn) - NEED TO REASSIGN; see below
• Tim will go to First Tech - carryover - NEED TO REASSIGN; see below

BUSINESS

Budget: RFS/MK

• Anomalous payroll number: There's an anomalous number for payroll that we think is just a mistake for last month; they are still tracking down the problem.
• Ewaste legislation: Estimates after the end of the year are guesses based on predictions of what might happen due to the ewaste legislation.
  • MRM agreement: Oso - we've signed a statement of intent to participate with MRM (manufacturer-run recycling program), which will start in Oct. (See last week's email from Dave on signing.) This may allow us to start taking computers for free and getting $.03/lb for computers. Oso says we can participate in both. One benefit of participation will get us advertising funded by the mfrs.
  • If we agree to the MRM project, we need to be sure that it still allows us to do our own marketing.
  • We are expecting a drop in donations because we won't have the cue of the monitor fee to get people giving us money.
  • Flexibility will be the order of the day for the first couple of Qtrs 2009
• Expenditures: Improving things like tech infrastructure
• Budgeting for fuel: overestimating the miles and price of fuel currently. We may expect some increase in mileage after the public becomes more aware of our ability to do pickups.
• City agreement: When are we going to start getting computers from the city? We need to hammer out the arrangement first.
• Tax penalty: Paid fees because of our tax mistakes; the preparer thinks we may get some of this back but we're not budgeting that.
  • Seamus: When will we be done with repairing our taxes for '06-07? MK: Hopefully, it'll be done by the deadline of August 15. If not, we can file for another extension. Marie: how does this reflect on our auditability? Well, we have secured ourselves the help of a professional to help us with the taxes.
• New proposed one-time expenses
  • Classroom revamp - $5000 requested; request a more detailed plan and budget before approval
  • Front desk revamp - $3000; floor has become dangerous. Volunteers are providing materials and a crew. If they can do it, it may be free, but if they are not available, the money is backup. MK's boyfriend, a contractor, can take up the project for cheap if they can't do it. approved
  • Store revamp - $1000; wants to get more professional-looking shelving. Time frame: between now and December. approved
  • New HVAC for receiving - $6000; want to be able to climate control in receiving without cooling all of PDX. It's unclear whose responsibility it would be to fix that system, ours or the landlord. need more information and research before approval
• Budget accuracy: Seamus - there are several items that seem to be consistently overbudget. It would be nice to see the staff being more budget-conscious when spending. We should be getting notice when spending is going to go >10% over budgeted amount. Part of the problem is that the budget is not necessarily being tracked until after the fact when the budget is drawn up.
  • How accessible is the budget? The staff all know who to ask/how to get it. But committees may not be aware of what their current budget situation is at any given time. Oso - is there a way to make committee budget info available live? Board asks staff to explore ways to manage committee budgets more accurately and report overages in a timely fashion.
• Advertising budget: in the past this has been set according to requests. Proposal to allocate salary difference between full and part time marketing person to marketing projects. This proposal is not integrated into this budget; between now and the next budget, marketing projects can be approved via email.

Meet the new guy: Kevin

Background: 3 degrees in theater, legal, marketing. Looking to support things he believes in; needs a part-time position because he already has a part-time position. This is his 2nd day working at FG.

Priorities: RFS

The priorities group has come up with a timeline of proposed changes that takes many elements into account. Minutes have been published to priorities list & [Overview Time Line] will be presented to council next week. Priorities group meets monthly; next meeting will be 5 Aug.

Sublease agreement: Ian

There's been discussion about the sublease to Ken on the list. An agreement has been prepared.

• Is there an issue with getting Maguire approval for subletting? They're ok with it.
• The agreement lacks a description of the space in question; Ian will revise the agreement and arrange with Seamus to get it signed.
• Note that Ken would need 3 or so months to move. We should put 90 days notice in the document.

Approved

Board membership

Seamus: How's Tim? After email conversation, Tim will rescind his resignation and take a hiatus as long as he needs to. He'll be standing aside on decisions for now. He's currently the Treasurer; we'll need to appoint a new treasurer at this meeting.

Proposal: Seamus can step down from Chair to become Treasurer; Marie will take on Chair-ship. Approved

4 board members will be up for re-election in October:

• Tim (intention unknown)
• Marie (will decide by end of the month whether she's running)
• Laurel (will run)
• Jon (would like to run)

See Board Election Checklist for the timeline for board elections.

Marie would like to see accountant and attorney skills. We are willing to expand the board in order to keep the members whose terms are coming up and add those skills.

• Marie will talk to Tim about whether he's interested in staying with the board after Oct.
• MK will ask the non-profit accountant who's working on our taxes if she'd be interested.
• Oso will ask lawyers.

Tim's commitments

1. We were reviewing all of our insurance, and it's been pretty much taken care of. We can drop that commitment.
2. Someone needs to stop in at First Tech and talk to them about better investing our savings. Jon will do this.

REMAINING COMMITMENTS

• Oso will talk to law firms about potential board members
• Marie will talk to Tim about whether he's interested in staying with the board after Oct.
• MK will ask the non-profit accountant who's working on our taxes if she'd be interested.
• Staff will explore ways to manage committee budgets more accurately and report overages in a timely fashion.

Next Meeting

• Facilitator: Oso
• Scribe: Jon
• Minutes Checker:
• Date and time: October 8, 6pm
• Place: FG meeting room
• List of unfinished business for the next meeting:
  • all report on 10-hour commitments