Board 2008 10

When: Oct 8, 2008
Facilitator: oso
Scribe: jon
Attendance: richard, oso, anne, seamus, curt, jon, leanne, matteo (late)

COMMITMENTS

oso didnt find lawyers to recruit, but we got one anyway (anne)
mary kate recruit accountant, but hasnt... richard (commit!) will talk to her about it
marie talk to tim about staying on board -- but tim not re-elected anyway (done)
staff do work on improving budget process/stuff - seamus sez its looking good
talk to first tech about money - carryover (jon) - lucky procrastination? (re: financial meltdown of economy)

BUDGET

seamus: this quarter projecting to lose a little money (< $3k) but instead we made +11k curt: why? s: recycling income, cash donations up, expensive conservatively estimated

richard: talking about changing staff (adding few hours to front desk, more hours in store on saturdays, budgeting for opening store on sundays around end of year)

expect beginning of year to be sketchy due to e-waste legislation, economy, etc ... coming up with plan B re: bldg funding etc (see: economy) renegotiated monitor fees, so its now cheaper to drop off ($7) do we need to clarify if we should move our money around (fdic insurance) 100k limit?

some discussion about pay increases for staff - pay raise vs more staff, health care and generally balancing more people / more hours / more money.

adoption of budget: pushed to list decision? agreed. adoption will be via list.

ELECTIONS

officers? marie and laurel re-elected (secretary, chair), even though both are absent, pending their approval (take it to the list, if not) seamus will continue as treasurer, with caveat that we find accountant to take over as treasurer asap

END OF LIFE PLAN

seamus: BAN has requirement for material not ending up in landfill if money runs out and free geek shuts down. need a formal plan. adopt conservative (placeholder) plan now to get application going. requirement: how long to empty building and what would it cost (e.g. staff costs). seamus estimates one month to find vendors to take everything.

proposed as a placeholder plan: if cash on hand drops under $75,000 shift to "shutdown mode" to clear out hazardous e-waste from building. approved. also approve one time budget expense of $1000 to have staff to estimate/refine cost of shutdown (in 3-6 months), and policy.

OUTREACH PROJECT MUSINGS

seamus: believes it is important to build connection between free geek and tech world employees. e.g. develop way to have them help out, work with staff to find ways to do this then go to industry and present about free geek. provide some way for them to get involved with and help free geek rather than (or in addition to, or as a first step towards) just asking for money and/or equipment.

richard/oso: talked about previous brown bag lunch idea.

oso: idea to have android/google engineers set up phone app development project using free geek.

jon: idea to possibly develop a list (wiki) of things free geek needs done to show to experts looking for ways to help.

NEXT MEETING

jan 14
scribe: seamus
facilitate: curt

COMMITS

richard: talk to mary kate about recruiting an accountant, which she was going to do but has not yet. (aka free seamus of bonds of teasurer)
jon: talk to first tech about better use of money - carryover.