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Agenda
Board Meeting

Mar 12, 2000

1. Project/Admin Status - Report by President
 
Projects and administrative efforts that have seen activity over the past couple months are listed below.
 
Principal ProjectStatus
Geson: 98-004 TV Film Clip(BetaCAM, NTSC and PAL and new CD-ROM received from Geson. $190 USD due Geson for costs. In Madison being duplicated. 1st formal request for copy received from group in Germany.)
Roger: 98-002 Seed TEAM(Troy Bilt purchased and received. Headquarters garden tilled and cold weather and root cellar crops set out. Loaned land to be tilled soon. Roger to visit on Mar 20th.)
(board) 98-003 Admin & Ops(Conditional User permit granted by the Village of North Freedom, so using residence for nonprofit headquarters is permitted use. Shingle yet to be secured and set out. Mailing permit, i.e. free mailing by US Postal Service, specs gathered - is $100/year and requires 200 pieces at a time, so volume is needed before it will be cost effective. Nonprofit must register with the State of Wisconsin, form requested, and then can avoid paying sales tax.)
Nancy: 99-001 Headquarters
- cottage(Nancy repairing cottage, cost of $5,000, during upgrades to the main house. Issue of how to reimburse costs may be on a per-use basis of $20/night for approved nonprofit guests. $1,843 already compensated to be so allocated first, as 92 such nights.)
- offices(Electrical upgrading being completed by homeowner. Issue on how to reimburse costs and expenses such as heat and light may be on a monthly rental basis of $100/month for use of the two rooms starting Jan 1, 2000. $1,648 already compensated to be so allocated first to cover 16.5 such months.)
Ron: 99-003 Short Wave(Classes on web established. Sessions and chats held regularly. Application for Building Permit for antenna submitted.)
Nancy: 99-001 Demos
- Storm Shelter(Application for Building Permit to install storm shelter applied for.)
Nancy: 99-001 Prototypes
- Worm Beds(Plan to purchase materials and build them during Roger's visit Mar 20th. Plumbing and drain to support the beds completed at homeowners expenses. Costs to be reimbursed to be determined later.)
- Hydroponics(Equipment purchased and received. Plumbing to support hydroponics completed, electrical upgrade in process, at homeowners expenses. Costs to be reimbursed to be determined later. Plan for use of hydroponic lab, in conjunction with worm beds and fish tanks on the web.)
- Fish/Algae Tanks(Priced as 2 cow watering tanks, $218 total. Not yet purchased.)
- Rainwater Collect(Cistern examined and in good shape. Hand Pump remains in place in upgraded kitchen sink area. System may need repair to become operational.)
- Wetlands as Food(Dam to raise water level 18" to foster wild rice has been completed.)
- Recipes(Kitchen sinks upgraded to stainless steel at homeowners expense. Kitchen area clears so purging and preparing worms with hydroponic and fish tank produce for recipes appropriate for survival camps can be developed. Kitchen is a recipe lab.)
Michel: 98-001 PS Video(Michel has provided a new Vivo Clip for review.)
Nancy: 99-001 Video Servers(Ernie is formulating cost overview. Reduced cost anticipated. Jurian created mailing list for review committee.)
 
2. Expense Review Means - Vote or NOT
 
During the early days of the nonprofit, when funds were few and a physical headquarters was not yet established, every expenses was reviewed by the Board before payment was approved. The Seed TEAM postage was the first Petty Cash project, with this and a portion of the Admin & Ops budget the only Petty Cash accounts at present. Most funded projects require some ad hoc or maintenance items, and increasingly the Board is asked to approved every quart of oil or extension cord purchased. An alternate means of addressing such expenses, besides cluttering up the Board Meeting agendas, is needed. Suggestions are to
- appoint a committee to review and approve minor project related expenses
- assign a percentage of a project's funding to be used for such related expenses
- group minor expenses on a page and continue Board review, voting approval as a single votecall