Agenda
Board Meeting
Jan 24, 1999

1. Annual Report - Draft by President

 

By Delaware law, our Annual Report must be filed by March of each year. Some items included in this Draft are subject to approval by the Board. These include Place of Business, Balance Sheet, and the annual Election results with potentially new Officers and Board members. A final Annual Report will thus be presented to the Board in February, for approval.

 

2. Place of Business - Vote or NOT

 

When securing nonprofit status during IRS consideration of our Form 1023 submission, we changed our Bylaws to state that we would not disburse project related funds unless a Place of Business was associated with the project. During the September Board Meeting, the President presented a pending personal purchase of a home and land in Wisconsin where space would be dedicated at no charge to the corporation. The Site offers the potential for solution demonstrations, and the two Front Rooms, with their own entry, will be available to the nonprofit as entry and Office Space. Since we are at the point of disbursing funds to the Troubled Times Seed TEAM growers and hubs to cover their postage, a Place of Business needs to be established. The President is now the owner of the site due to a closing in December, 1998, and is formally making this Offer.

 

3. Year End Balance Sheet - Report by Brand

 

The Treasurer has prepared a year-end Balance Sheet. If accepted, or as amended, this will go into the Annual Report. The Balance Sheet will reflect the current Budget prepared by the President.

4. Seed TEAM Postage as Petty Cash - Vote or NOT

 

A $100 gift by allocated by the Board to compensate Seed TEAM growers and hubs for their postage. As the average voucher would be around $3.00 or less, reimbursement from a petty cash fund seems appropriate.

Change 1

The Bylaws for grant disbursement do state that Petty Cash can be used as the method. For the Seed TEAM project, approval by the Board to use a petty cash method for the project is thus needed.

 

Change 2

The Bylaws for grant disbursement state that no disbursement will occur unless a binding agreement has been signed by the beneficiaries, giving the nonprofit any patent or trademark rights. The Seed TEAM project does not require a binding agreement on potential patents or trademarks, as it does not involve a product, per se. Non-hybrid seeds are currently in the public domain and cannot be patented. The Seed TEAM project needs to be amended to state this.

 

Motion and Amendment

This was distributed to the Board as an e-mail voting issue during December, but was virtually ignored except for a Motion by Clipper. Should this motion be seconded and approved by vote of the Board, the Seed TEAM grant proposal would be Amended.

 

Change 3

The Bylaws for funding state that either reimbursement for receipts or as petty cash can occur, but petty cash is implied as an admin function. This description needs to be expanded to include disbursing via checks from the Treasurer, and not be restricted to Credit/Debit cards or it is in conflict with the Grant Disbursement bylaws by this omission.