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Log
Board Meeting
Jul 21, 2007
ROGER: I had planned to hold a meeting on the 24th, but my scheduled changed before I could announce this. An email meeting is perhaps the best as then we can be sure to get everyone's input and vote without too much delay waiting for a weekend when we are all available. I will work on a Agenda and get that out as soon as I receive notice that all are agreed to this type of meeting.
NANCY: Lets whack together an Agenda and GO.
MARY: E-mail board meeting is great with me. Send away.
STEVE: Email meeting sounds good to me.
GERARD: When will this boardmeeting by email start. Today?
ROGER: Greetings and apologies for not getting this out sooner. The agenda is fairly simple with two main issues along with the regular project updates. I will deliver my report below and Nancy can chime in with her information in her response. Comments, questions, etc. from the Board can then be fielded. The CD/Booklet project is chugging right along. We are very short now on booklet inventory. I am swamped and have not had time to collect bids for reprinting yet, but I will need to very soon as I have only 10 booklets left after this week's orders! The CD's are still numbering around 400 so we have some time before seeking bids on reproducing them. I will need an updated master set again before we can proceed with reproduction anyway. As soon as I can get some bids, I will place an order for more booklets. I will report the cost to the Board as we will need to consider a price change this go around. Postage is now $2.31 for a booklet and cd set; $1.65 for the CD alone. International shipping rates have also increased though we have no easy way to collect the difference in rates so we always take a loss with those orders. Unless I can find a printing company that will print the booklets for around $2.50, we will need to raise the price. Funds are holding well for the production costs, I have just over $2200 here to access and Nancy may have some funds as well. So, the issues are that we need to print booklets asap, and we will need to consider bids for the CDs soon as well. Also, we need to consider raising the price to reflect the increase in postage and, perhaps, an increase in printing cost. We can differ the price issue to a future meeting. With a motion, second and accepting vote from the Board, I will find a printing service in earnest! I have no new information on the remaining Projects.
NANCY: Regarding funds available for a reprint of the booklet. The checking account currently has $1,089.07. The annual administrative expenses which are paid from this account are:
- The Company Corporation as Delaware rep $215
- State of Delaware annual report $65
- State of Wisconsin Registration annual $15
- PO Box 10 rental $70
- Checking Account fees at $10/mo = $120This checking account gets occasional checks from those who don't want to use PayPal, keeping it floating at about $1,000 despite these payments. But we should probably not take the account below what the expenses for this next year are expected to be, to be on the safe side, assuming that no one pays by check and all use PayPal during the forthcoming year. Current Balance $1,089. Expenses $485. Available $604 Therefore, I MOVE we allocate not more than $600 from the corporate checking account toward the booklet reprinting.
Regarding the effort preparing a new CD to be burned. A CD upgrade team composed of Mike, Gerard, and myself have been working toward this goal.
- Mike has been providing updates to the website, matters that had been discussed on the tt-forum but not included on the web pages and the like.
- I have also added the survival items list that the tt-forum produced about 6 months ago, as the 50+ most pertinent steps a group should take for survival, to the web.
- A complete audit of the external links was done by myself a year and a half ago, but Gerard is going over the entire website again, checking.With 400 CD's in hand, we should wait until the booklet is reprinted before moving to burn any more CD's. But assuming we are pressed to do this sooner than later, here are the remaining steps to be done:
- Complete external link audit
- Update web pages with the last of Mike's changes
- Ensure the Slovenian mirror site, where large MB items are stored, has relative referencing links rather then external links. This is an effort on my part to not link to the Slovenia site for these large MB items, but link internally within the same site. When worked on a PC not connected to the Internet, the CD then links around the Troubled Times pages without hitting the wall, needing to connect to the Internet.
- Once the Slovenia site is setup with relative addressing within the site, Mike and his friend Eric then whack the Solvenian site onto a CD to be used as the Master.
- The cover for the CD's is designed, perhaps using the last cover with updates. Mike and Eric have these.I would like to ask Roger what the rate is on CD demand, per month, lately. We should bear in mind that if there are sudden Earth changes, and/or I get on C2C and OutThereTV as I did this last Spring, for both, there can be a sudden strong demand on the inventory. I would like to suggest we keep pressing on getting ready for a reburning of the CD's, to be ready should that prove to be the case. Mike is on vacation until the end of July, at which point I want to be ready to whack the Slovenia site. This is what I'm pressing for, in any case.
MARY: I second Nancy's motion to expedite the printing of new booklets.
NANCY: Since my MOTION was to limit the checking account funds for the reprinting to $600, I take this to be another MOTION altogether.
I, Nancy, second Mary's MOTION to expedite the printing of new booklets.
I'm going to check as I think when we first printed the booklets, all board members were sent a dozen. I still have almost all of mine, and will be mailing them to Roger who is down to 10, and via mail yesterday we just got an order for 2 combos. He'll soon be OUT!
ROGER: I have a motion and a second to expedite the printing of revision 1 of the booklet (which will be drafted
this weekend). All in favor...
I also have a motion to limit the checking account funds for reprinting of the booklets to $600 in order to reserve enough funds for operating expenses. Before anyone seconds this motion, I should mention that we should not need the checking account funds for printing. We may need additional funds for CD reproduction, but this won't be known until we have quotes. I suggest we table the motion until a subsequent meeting.
NANCY: YES, I Nancy am in favor of the expedited printing per Roger's votecall.
I concur my MOTION does not need a vote and can be tabled.
MARY: YES, I Mary am in favor of the expedited printing per Roger's votecall.
GERARD: Yes, I am in favor.
STEVE: Yes, I am in favor of the expedited printing per Roger's votecall. I would also be in favor of considering increasing the cost of the book to cover the extra expense of postage if need be. Although it would be nice to keep the price the same I think anything less than $10 is a very reasonable price.
ROGER: I have obtained some quotes for consideration. Metcalf Mail & Copy Center will produce the booklet for $6.25 each. Kinko's is now $6.04 each. Copy Express will do it for $5.00 each. These are for 100 count lots (there may be deeper discounts for larger quantities, but my storage space is limited and these stores are very close). With the additional cost in postage, I propose that we raise the price to $7.50 for booklets and either $9 or $10 for the combo. I don't have quotes yet for the CD reproduction, but I believe this increase in the combo price should cover any increase in that cost as well.
Do I have a motion? Or any questions?
NANCY: I MOVE that we raise the price of the booket to $7.50 and $10 for the combo, and that we authorize Roger to proceed with the printer of his choice in reprinting the booklet in 100 count lots.
On another note, I have been working on inserting relative addressing in web pages that point directly to the Solvenia website, so that those using the CD can do so offline, branching within the website on the CD. This should be completed by the end of today, July 17. Mike will be returning from vacation at the end of July, and by this time I should have the last of his changes in place, also. This means a web whack of the Solvenian website can be done at that time, end of July. In case I get busy, my work on the updated CD will be done.
MARY: I second Nancy's motion.
ROGER: I have a motion and a second to increase the booklet price to $7.50 and the Combo price to $10. All in favor...
NANCY: I vote YES.
GERARD: I vote yes.
STEVE: I vote yes.
ROGER: With Mary and Gerard's votes, the motion to increase the booklet and combo prices passes. I will make the changes at Paypal later today.
NANCY: There appears to be no further discussion needed in order to expedite the reprinting of the booklets, and no other issues before the Board having been mentioned. Would the President entertain a motion to adjourn?
I MOVE that we adjourn.
ROGER: If there is no further business, I will accept Nancy's motion to Adjourn. All in favor indicate with an email reply of "nothing further" or equivalent.