Meeting called to order at 7:01 by Jon Pearce
Attendees: Jon Pearce, Frank Romeo, John O’Connell, Tony Starr, Michael Pecorini, and Al Arrison
No previous minutes.
Full board approval of the board members, Mike made the motion and Tony seconded. Approved unanimously.
Articles of incorporation approval postponed by request of Al for further review. Jon mentioned that he used a standard form template and kept it as simple as possible, removing any amount of officer compensation other than possible expenses.
Bank account opened per informal discussion that Jon Pearce and John O’Connell will open an account in the foundations name at Republic Bank. Jon Pearce and John O’Connell are the signatories and hold debit cards with an initial balance of $1000. Mike Pecorini made the motion and Tony seconded. Approved unanimously.
Voting of the board members. Jon Pearce President, Frank Romeo VP, Mike Pecorini as Secretary, and John O’Connell QA as treasurer. Tony Starr made the motion to approve, Mike Pecorini seconded. Approved unanimously.
Old Business None as there is no previous business.
New Business Expenditures Jon Pearce mentioned all expenditures should be approved by the board. Frank Romeo mentioned that a budgeted item list should be had for business expenditures. Most purchases would likely be a high dollar value and should be discussed and voted on the board. Jon Pearce proposed anything over $100 a full board vote to discuss and vote.
Motion to approve $100 threshold for expenditures without prior approval. Tony Starr made the motion and Mike Pecorini seconded. Approved unanimously.
Al Arrison asked about cash vs durable goods. Jon Pearce clarified that goods donated can be tax deducted as fair market value. New is easy as it’s what is paid and used is more complex. GCARF will have to issue a letter accepting the donation. Tony Starr said that the donor must declare the value not the recipient. John O’Connell clarified we will document exactly what was donated with as much information as possible. Mike Pecorini mentioned this is what Goodwill does and can be considered the benchmark.
Al Arrison also brought up the liability issue for durable goods. We would not want to own towers due to liability and ownership. Jon Pearce said the foundation doesn’t want to split ownership ala we own antenna and the club owns the tower. Club is insured for disaster and we are not. John O’Connell mentioned for radios we can look at ARRL insurance. Jon Pearce mentioned the hypothetical that the foundation put up a tower and the 4H wasn’t pleased we could run into issues. Tony Starr questioned that if someone donated a tower can we pass it to the club. Jon Pearce clarified that we cannot pass goods to anything that isn’t a 501(c)(3) with a similar exempt purpose. Frank Romeo mentioned a grant for opex for the club could also be nebulous. We continued a deep dive on fair market v expenditures for the foundation and seemingly reasonable to charge the club for fair market only and not ancillaries. Tony Starr mentioned endowments being a concern. Jon Pearce discussed pre tax IRA donations vs taxed donations to the club. John O’Connell mentioned we do not want to accept estate gear. Tony Starr is worried it is possible someone could donate without telling us. John O’Connell and Jon Pearce said we do not have to accept as it would be a burden for the board. Jon Pearce said we should propose to the membership that the foundation would like a check to the foundation and we buy or pay the bill directly.
Jon Pearce also mentioned Jim Wright contributed to the tower fund and that they might be interested in contributing to this foundation. There may be some money coming from Jim’s family as an unrestricted donation.
Proposals: Jon Pearce, Frank Romeo, and Al Arrison reviewed what the equipment and tower proposal could be. Reference document of proposal posted to Mattermost. Mostly referencing the station equipment.
Jon Perarce believes we shouldn’t request 100% of the amount to show that we will self fund some amount. Frank Romeo believes that we should request the entire amount and see where we end up. He mentioned that many of the other approved grants are open ended and vague and were approved. Jon Pearce mentioned that for ARRL we did mention we had $10,000 self funded donations. Al Arrison said there could be a perception issue for proposing an incredible station.
Frank Romeo said that equipment is not all of it. There is installation, labor, and people. How do we legitimately justify this? Jon Pearce is focusing on VHF and above as it is the most educational and experimental. Skunkworks website is a good example of education.
Tower proposal is from the club not the foundation and must be ready for April 1. $500k grant with $25k each. Must be presented at the next board meeting as a concept. Tony Starr wants the proposal ready to be approved at the board meeting for the club. Jon Pearce counterproses we have the framework and ask ready and not the 100% complete proposal. Frank Romeo mentions that the list will be generic but encompassing all. If Al Arrison can create a high level list, Frank Romeo can make general contractor and resource calls and estimates.
Al Arrison asked Frank Romeo if John Hill has the remote station running. Frank Romeo reported, after a 3 hour phone call, that he was happy with the operation. There were issues with the amp and CW, Frank Romeo told him the correct settings, John Hil found the correct settings. John O’Connell blocked the calendar off for a week while John Hill troubleshoots. John O’Connell mentioned that instructions must be posted for how to switch from remote to local.
Tony Starr questioned John O’Connell and Frank Romeo about general member meeting Zoom. Frank Romeo requested Tony Starr bring his laptop as well just in case.
Tony Starr motioned to adjourn at 805 and John O’Connell seconded.
Meeting adjourned at 8:05.