Notes/minutes from 2009 October Board Meeting.

Location

  • Time: Saturday, 3 October, 2009
  • Space: Small Meeting Room, West Branch of the Manchester Public Library, 76 North Main Street, Manchester, NH

Attendees

Board Members

Absent Board Members

Others

Notes

Meta

  • Meeting formally started at 1:40 PM
  • All expected Board Members are in attendance
  • Ben Scott acting as Secretary in absence of Bill Sconce
  • Meeting formally ended at 2:41 PM

Regular meetings

Heather Brodeur reports on her experience as Nashua meeting coordinator

  • Heather had work obligations for six months
  • She asked for someone to take over during that period
  • Nobody stepped forward
  • Thus, meetings did not happen
  • Nobody appeared to care
  • After six of none months, she did not see point in trying to restart if no one cared
  • Heather remarked some people may have fallen into the habit of expecting to be "catered to"

Ted Roche reports on Peterborough meeting status

  • Charlie quits effective EOY 2009

Ted Roche reports on Concord meeting status

  • Ted is trying to find help from attendees, but volunteers are not forthcoming
  • Ted would like to retire from coordinator role
  • Has remarked on this to attendees, but hasn't pushed hard

Ben Scott reports on discussion of possible new Manchester meeting

  • Several people have inquired about such
  • Ben asked Cole Tuininga if he would be interested in coordinating
    • Cole said no, but did say he would ask an associate
    • Ben was then contacted by one Chip Marshall (said associate)
    • Chip asked what to do
    • Ben responded with various suggestions, haven't heard back since
    • This was a little over a week ago
  • Ben Scott will contact Chip Marshall, ask status
  • Ted okay with folding Concord into a Manchester group

Brief discussion of how to hold meetings, how to secure speakers, etc.

Ted, in regards to timid coordinators (poss. paraphrase): "people hate having to ask speakers to drive a long way to meet that might only have a few people"

Arc Riley reports PySIG has backlog of potential speakers due to coordinator overload

NH registration

GNHLUG must file to renew before EOY 2010

  • Arc will submit proposed new articles to gnhlug-org discussion list before EOM Oct 2009
  • To submit, we need 5 signatures; 6 is recommended
  • We will submit come 2010

Board meeting frequency

  • Formal proposal: Amend articles/bylaws, board only required to meet once per year
  • Accepted without objection
  • Additional meetings are still allowed

501(c)(3)

Ted reports:

  • The IRS application has an "essay question" for justification
  • It needs to be comprehensive and copious
  • Believes GNHLUG mission should qualify as educational organization
  • Previous plan to handle no money was a problem
  • Tried to put together budget plan based on regular meetings
    • Time spent by coordinators organizing
    • Time spent by presenters preparing and speaking
    • However, this proved difficult to quantify, and nobody was interested

Discussion of budget and finance followed

  • Ben asks if there is a minimum dollar amount
    • Basically, no
  • Ben then proposes
    • Don't worry about meetings or stuff like that
    • Legal entity should be concerned with legal entity stuff
    • Server hardware ownership
    • Server hosting
    • Domain name ownership and renewal
    • This is sufficient for a small and straight-forward budget
  • Arc remarks that books are property donations

Maddog reports:

  • He knows of other similar LUGs which have successfully obtained 501(c)(3) status
  • He will see if he can get a copy of their paperwork
  • Will have a status report before EOM Oct 2009

Brief discussion of why are we bothering again?

  • In short, many things want an official 501(c)(3)
  • The difference between non-profit and tax-exempt is not well understood, even when it should be
  • Arc gave example: Manchester city assembly permit, for Software Freedom Day
    • Non-profit org: Free
    • Commercial: $3000 insurance bond
    • Lack of 501(c)(3) confused process quite a bit

Arc volunteers to coordinate 501(c)(3)

Board membership

Current board membership has served 3 years

  • Time to renew

Bill Sconce has had trouble making meetings

  • Formal Proposal: Offer to release him from his obligations
  • Emphasize no prejudice against him; we all understand about the demands of real life
  • Agreed without objection

Arc Riley volunteers as board member

  • But he will only be in NH part-time for next year or three
  • All others agree he can serve anyway
    • Most business can be done online
    • Only one meeting per year is plan

Seeking new blood

  • Heather will ask Kenta
  • Ben will ask Rob Anderson, Cole Tuininga
  • Ted suggests Bill McGonigle

Some people would like to retire from Board

  • Ted
  • Heather

Officers

  • Arc volunteers to be next Secretary
  • Kazin volunteers to be next Treasurer
  • Ben volunteers to be next Chair
  • No formal appointments at this time

Misc

Ted remarked that books can be got for free from publisher if you promise to submit a review

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Topic revision: r4 - 2009-10-05 - BenScott
 

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