Legion of Tech

8/12/2010

Logistics:
Thursday 8/12/10 at 5:45
ShopIgniter Offices
411 NW Park Ave
Portland, OR 97209
Third Floor

Present: Amy Farrell, Christie Koehler, Jason Mauer, Chris Pitzer
Absent: Josh Bancroft, Dawn Foster

Finance and banking update

Chris to email numbers to group tonight.

[Update: Commerce Bank: (7/30/2010 statement) 5319.26 ]

Christie still needs to be set up with access to accounts so she can review.  Chris and Christie will go to bank to do this tomorrow.

Chris: find out what it would cost and what we’d need to provide to have the bookkeeper send us reconciliations before each meeting — this is done and was approved via email: our bookkeeper bills in 1 hour increments ($35/hour) and if she doesn’t use the full hour she can carry the time over to the next month.

Chris will set the bookkeeper up with an account at the bank (”read-only” if possible).

Tax update

Chris has talked with the accountant three times since last meeting; accountant took a vacation and still hasn’t gotten anything to us. Apparently needs to put more pressure on them.

Still to do: Chris to submit online form to correct our organization type with the State.

Debit card and DreamHost Billing

Chris: Need to get email from DH going somewhere that people look. [Josh did this, see email] DreamHost is paid up for three months in advance.

[UPDATE: I couldn't find the email in question, so I looked up our DreamHost panel settings. Unless I misread the profile, we still had mail going to the legionobackup address *only.* I've added my own gmail account as a recipient for Billing, Domain Registration, Account Related, and Announcements email. If anything of interest comes through, I will forward it to the BOD list. -Amy]

Still need to get a debit card from Commerce Bank (to do, Chris can do tomorrow)

Legal update

Josh met with Amy and Christie and provided background info, legal paperwork to date, etc.

We discussed whether we have the numbers laid out in an official manner. We should take the numbers listed from the latest minutes/email.

Notes: loan is a reducing annuity (fixed interest rate).

Amy will review minutes/email for latest figures, and will check in with Adam in case there was a writeup.

Ignite Update

Sponsorship: at 2K with a $500 “maybe”. About to do a second wave of sponsorship requests. Have paid Bagdad and have not yet bought insurance. Current total is in black forecast / pledged.

Announced selections last week. About to announce changes.

Need to approve paying back Sherri for handstamps, $45-ish. Board voted to approve this.

BarCamp Update

We have a quote from the Eliot Center, including the amount for a childcare room should we be able to use it.

Have had two planning meetings. Yuetsu has volunteered to work on childcare, coordinate volunteers. Don Park is looking into wifi.

Next meeting is this Monday, August 16, at 6:30.

Need to get sponsorships pledged for Eliot center deposit.

Chris approves the expense for the venue deposit: $1697.20

Christie will do another blog post.

Coder’s Social

Date is set: August 29 at Laurelhurst Park

Listed on Calagator, link to signup is there.

Do we want to pursue sponsorship for charcoal, park reservation? Yes, Christie will ask around.

Miscellaneous

Old AI: Amy: look into kickstarter terms: Kickstarter is all-or-nothing, takes 5%, is supposed to be for starting a creative project. Doesn’t seem like an appropriate fit for, say, funding lunch at an event!

Might be an interesting way to put on an entire (new) event.

Opens

Request from Audrey Eschright — as part of a project to understand better how to work with local government, and with hopes of getting a community center for geeks, wants to get together a tally of which sponsors are contributing what.

Discussion needs to include Dawn and Josh, will go to email.

Possible issues:

• Do we really need to share which company did what? If it’s not needed, would prefer not to.
• We don’t have sponsorship levels and companies contributed with the expectation that this information wouldn’t become public.
• All contributors need to clearly state and agree to their limitations on the use of the data.

Action Items:

• Chris to email numbers to group tonight.
• Chris: set up Christie with access to accounts so she can review. Chris and Christie will go to bank to do this tomorrow.
• Chris: submit online form to correct our organization type with  the State
• Chris: get debit card from Commerce Bank
• Christie: ask about event insurance requirements at Eliot.
• Jason: look into legal requirements on childcare. (No requirements from Eliot)

7/8/2010

Logistics:
Thursday 7/8/10 at 5:45
NedSpace Old Town
117 NW 5th Ave
Portland, OR 97209

Present: Amy Farrell, Dawn Foster, Christie Koehler, Jason Mauer, Chris Pitzer
Absent: Josh Bancroft

Action Item Review

• Chris: send IRS confirmation that we are a non-profit. DONE
  BUT: Dawn received notice that we need to do corrective paperwork to change our organization type. Chris to submit form (online, yay!)
• Chris: bring bank balance info to next meeting. DONE
• Chris: set up Christie with access to accounts so she can review.
• Chris: give Christie access to bookkeeper. DONE
• Chris:  Check into the status of our tax return. Checked, they  are almost done.
• Chris: Set up DreamHost to take payment from our checking account.
  Done, but learned that DreamHost doesn’t auto-bill checking accounts. We need to get email from DH going somewhere that people look.
• Christie: follow up with Brad Smith regarding possible space for BarCamp at PSU. Also will look into the Eliot Center. (Eliot Center contacted)
• Dawn: follow up on possibility of space at Olympic Mills building for BarCamp.
• Amy: look into kickstarter terms. (still to do)
• Christie: start coders’ social planning. SORTA
  Sam Keen said he’d help co-organize, CK needs to call parks & rec  to find out what’s available on Saturday.

Agenda:

VOTE: Should we get a debit card from Commerce Bank? (This was
prompted by a desire to set up automatic billing for things like
DreamHost.) The board approved getting a debit card; Chris to do this.

Finance and banking update

US Bank Loan: 12570.18 as of 5/16
US Bank Acct:  3241.67 as of 6/30 (two payments made to loan)
Commerce Bank: 5661.45 as of 5/28

Tax update

Tax preparers’ report almost done, Chris to follow up.

Legal update

Josh needs help with this. Amy and Christie are willing to help and
will meet with Josh within the next week.

Ignite Update

We’re behind on soliciting sponsorships and on talk submissions. Now
is when the real work begins.

1:00 Friday meetings at eSan are weekly as of tomorrow.

BarCamp Update

Christie arranged meeting at Eliot Center (Buchan building). Has
classrooms, whiteboards, projectors, great auditorium space with
wifi. Can have own catering, there is a staging kitchen.

They have sent us an estimate for BarCamp — $4025. We may not need
as much space as they included. Christie will forward the estimate
to the list.

They are available Oct 22/23.

Note: would want to talk with facilities person before we commit.

Goal: pick a space by 7/16.

Wireless there is Personal Telco; it’s likely they can help if we
need more capacity. Also seems to be in range of Stephouse.

Alcohol policy is friendly.

Amy still needs to check in with Brad Smith.
Dawn to check on OMCC

Christie to ask about event insurance at Eliot.

They have childcare rooms; Christie to find out what it costs to
rent one. Jason will look into legal requirements on
childcare.
.
Need to start regular meetings. Start planning list.

Amy and Christie to get together, targeting 19th for the first
meeting.

Action items:

• Chris: submit online form to correct our organization type with the (IRS? State?)
• Chris: set up Christie with access to accounts so she can review.
• Chris: find out what it would cost and what we’d need to provide to have the  bookkeeper send us reconciliations before each meeting
• Chris: Need to get email from DH going somewhere that people look.
• Chris: get debit card from Commerce Bank
• Amy: look into kickstarter terms.
• Christie: start coders’ social planning.
• Christie: forward Eliot Center’s quote for BarCamp to the list.
• Christie: ask about event insurance requirements at Eliot.
• Christie: find out what it would cost to rent a childcare room at Eliot.
• Jason: look into legal requirements on childcare.

6/19/2010

Email vote: The board approved the dates of October 22 (evening) and 23rd for BarCamp Portland 4.

6/10/2010

Logistics:
Thursday 6/10/10 at 5:45
NedSpace Old Town
117 NW 5th Ave
Portland, OR 97209

Present: Amy Farrell, Dawn Foster, Christie Koehler, Jason Mauer, Chris Pitzer
Absent: Josh Bancroft

Action Item Review

NetworkRedux inquiry: Josh reported (via email) that he emailed them and thanked them for their offer, but declined due to the fact that we’re finally (hopefully!) stable with all our hosting on Dreamhost. They were very understanding.

Finance and banking update

Chris has submitted the “Change of registered agent/address” form.

Still need to set up DreamHost to take payment from our checking account.

Paid lawyers and Bagdad per last month’s meeting

Gave tax preparers 2008/9 info (tax return not yet done).

Got credit check done, no suspicious entries were found.

Still to do: Set up Christie with access so that we have appropriate checks and balances on finances.

Tax update

Need to do: finish taxes, DreamHost update, scan and upload records.

New to-do item: send the IRS confirmation that we are a non-profit.

Legal update

No change. Christie is willing to help with this.

Ignite update

Dawn reports: Sherri Montgomery will do the speaker wrangling. (Dawn will cover that during Sherri & Christie’s wedding planning.)

Planning has started. Jason will handle sponsorships.

BarCamp Update

Tentative date is still 10/23. No progress on venue selection (lack of action).
To do: follow up with possible venues / contacts. Amy/Christie to follow up with Brad Smith (PSU space?), Eliot Center. Dawn to look into Olympic Mills building. Should we check with Justin @ Metro again?

Discussed possibility of using kickstarter to solicit donations. Amy will look into their terms. Might not be a good fit for us because you need to make the goal to get the funds, whereas we would treat donations as supplemental.

Opens

Should LoT organize the Coders’ Social this summer? Christie will initiate with an email to pdxgroups.

Jason wants to explore the possibility of a coworking + live music arrangement. Discussion of serving the hardware community.  Smaller, easier-to-organize events.

Want to ensure that we don’t over-commit. The board got overextended in the past.

Action items:

Chris: send IRS confirmation that we are a non-profit.
Chris: bring bank balance info to next meeting.
Chris: set up Christie with access to accounts so she can review.
Chris: give Christie access to bookkeeper.
Chris: ‪Check into the status of our tax return.‬
Chris: Set up DreamHost to take payment from our checking account.
Josh: ‪Get together with lawyer and get paperwork drawn up.‬
Christie:  follow up with Brad Smith regarding possible space for BarCamp at PSU. Also will look into the Eliot Center.
Dawn: follow up on possibility of space at Olympic Mills building for BarCamp.
Amy: look into kickstarter terms.
Christie: start coders’ social planning.

5/13/2010

Logistics:
Thursday 5/13/10 at 5:45
NedSpace Old Town
117 NW 5th Ave‬
Portland, OR 97209‬

Attendees: Amy Farrell, Dawn Foster, Chris Pitzer, Josh Bancroft

Absent: Christie Koehler, Jason Mauer

Action Item Review

Chris and Adam: Get Chris access to bank accounts, remove Adam. DONE‬
Chris: ‪Look into getting a credit check/report. ‬DONE, to be REDONE
Chris: ‪Check into the status of our tax return.‬
Chris: ‪Fill out and submit change-of address form. (‬Adam‪ to send form to Chris.) DONE for IRS, but not for the state.
Josh: ‪Get together with lawyer and get paperwork drawn up.‬
Josh: Sign conflict of interest agreement .‬DONE
Amy: Notify Arnie and Stuart of vote regarding BarCamp, draft blog post. DONE‬
Amy: Fill out and file annual report (w/ Oregon State Charitable Activites Division) DONE

Finance and Banking

Dawn and Chris went to US Bank and Commerce Bank on Friday and got Adam DuVander off of the checking accounts and Chris on them, as well as switched the mailing address for bank statements to Chris’s office address.

Chris is also on the checking accounts as a signer, although we will continue not to write any checks from the US Bank account.

Chris got all the folders and prior records from Adam last week, and is interested in an electronic storage solution.

Reminder of our expense approval process: Two parties will approve issuing of any check. In the usual case, the Treasurer (Chris) will write the check and the Assistant Treasurer (Christie) will approve. Chris will provide copies of all bank statements to Christie.

Outstanding bills:

Attorney fee (Sussman Shank LLP): $99 (approved verbally by all present)
Bagdad: $570 (approved verbally by all present) See “Ignite Update” for details

Credit Check:

Chris paid for a credit check ($29) from Experian, but selected the wrong item and got the credit score, instead of the report of accounts open under our name. The correct report is approximately $79. Chris has emailed the customer support department hoping for an upgrade, but thinks we should go ahead and order the report, rather than wait for a response.

The board approves purchase of the correct credit report for approximately $79.

Tax Update

Chris reports that we don’t need to pay any money because we are non-profit, so tax people wanted to get back with us after April 15. (Tax people were swamped.)

Dawn believes that we do owe taxes.

Legal Update

Josh has pinged the lawyers a couple of times and not gotten a response, needs to get in touch with them before the next meeting.

Ignite Update

Ignite planning meetings have started, will be biweekly until July. Milestones are in place for submission deadline and so on.

Need to identify a sponsorship coordinator, which must be one of the board members.

From Chris: The bagdad wants $370 for the main room and spotlight rental, and another $200 for the backstage.  At the Friday Ignite planning meeting we talked and think it would be best to pay the $570 for the main room and backstage bar.  (as an aside, last time we rented the backstage bar it cost us $500, and we didn’t know that in advance.  Of course that time they had to run wires and set up a screen for us - this time that stuff is now a permanent fixture back there.  So the picture is brighter this time.)

BarCamp Update and Discussion

We are considering October. Beaver BarCamp, Cyborg Camp, and Startup Weekend are also going to be in October.

Venue is an issue. Amy needs to follow up with Brad Smith regarding possible space at PSU.

Other possibilities: Olympic Mills building? Dawn will check into this.

Filing with the IRS

Chris needs to get together with someone to file some tax-related stuff with the IRS.

Status on change of address for the Organization

Chris will do this right away. “Change of registered agent/address” is the relevant form.

Getting a new credit card

We agreed to table this for now.

Finding a better way to share statements, bills, etc.

Scanning things and uploading them via web browser is cumbersome. Geeky discussion of gadgets ensued. The real issue is that there’s a backlog of statements, etc. to scan.

We will continue to upload docs to the Google Group.

Chris will look into options.

Opens

NetworkRedux inquired about “finishing our move.” Josh to follow up with Adam on whether something was in progress.

Chris to set up DreamHost to take payment from our checking account. (They have our old credit card info, which does not work.)

Action Items

• Chris: ‪Check into the status of our tax return.‬
• Chris: ‪Fill out and submit change-of address form for Oregon.
• Chris: Submit “Change of registered agent/address” form.
• Chris: Set up DreamHost to take payment from our checking account.
• Josh: ‪Get together with lawyer and get paperwork drawn up.‬
• Amy:  follow up with Brad Smith regarding possible space for BarCamp at PSU.
• Dawn: follow up on possibility of space at Olympic Mills building for BarCamp.
• Josh: Follow up on NetworkRedux questions

4/2010 — Monthly meeting was canceled due to travel and lack of need.

3/11/2010

Logistics:
Thursday 3/11/10 at 5:45
NedSpace Old Town

2/11/2010

Logistics:
Thursday 2/11/10 at 5:45
NedSpace Old Town
117 NW 5th Ave
Portland, OR 97209

Attendees: Josh Bancroft, Dawn Foster, Adam DuVander, Chris Pitzer and Amy Farrell

Minutes:

Finance and banking update
The loan from the bank was accepted, and we were able to consolidate the debt incurred during the fraud from the credit card to a lower interest loan. The current bank checking account is $3,021.29.

Tax update
Chris contacted several CPAs and found one with a reasonable rate. Chris and Adam will proceed with getting our taxes with the goal of having them done before the next board meeting.

Ignite Update
Talks were announced and everything is going as planned for the March 3 Ignite as part of the O’Reilly Global Ignite Week. We have proposed and voted on a date for Ignite Portland 9, and it will be announced at Ignite Portland 8. Sponsorships: We have $4450 is pledged, and we have received about $700 of that amount.

LoT video at IP8
Not much progress on this. Chris will follow up with Jed to decide if we can still do this.

BarCamp Update
BarCamp will be held jointly with CodeCamp on May 22. We had an initial meeting with the core BarCamp group - currently Amy Farrell (leading), Dawn Foster (sponsorships), Christie Koehler (wireless), Klint Finley (Volunteers / logisitics), and Jason Mauer (CodeCamp interface). We’ve also had an initial meeting with the CodeCamp team, and we have another joint planning meeting on Feb 22.

The following people are elected to the 2010 LoT Board of Directors with a 2 year term:
Josh Bancroft, Dawn Foster, Christie Koehler, and Jason Mauer

The following people continue to serve out the remaining one year of their 2 year terms:
Chris Pitzer and Amy Farrell

Nominations for Chair, Treasurer and Secretary roles for 2010. Votes will take place in the March board meeting
Josh Bancroft will be running for Chair
Chris Pitzer will be running for Treasurer
Amy Farrell will be running for Secretary

1/14/2010

Logistics:

Thursday 1/14/10 at 5:45
NedSpace Old Town
117 NW 5th Ave
Portland, OR 97209

Attendees: Josh Bancroft, Dawn Foster, Adam DuVander, Chris Pitzer, and Amy Farrell
Absent: None.

Votes:

None.

Agenda:

Finance and banking update
We’ve had few expenses this month. The current bank balance is $4708.00. Chris will be taking the lead on finding an accountant and getting our taxes taken care of. We are still working on getting our credit card balance transferred to a lower interest loan.

Legal update
Josh is working on transitioning the legal items from Raven. At this point, we are waiting for an agreement to be drafted when we have the final amount of the fraud with interest (pending loan approval above). Josh will work with the individual discuss repayment terms prior to drafting an agreement with a lawyer.

501(c)6 update
Still in progress with no new updates.

Election plans for 2010 & nominations
Nominations will be handled over email and are due January 30. Voting takes place in the February board meeting.

Ignite Update
Ignite Portland will be March 3, 2010 as part of O’Reilly’s Global Ignite Week. Coming up in 6 weeks, and we’re having our first planning meeting this week. We need to work on getting people to submit proposal ideas, so we need to start reminding people. We also need to continue to working on sponsorships, but we have $2750 pledged from Webtrends, WebVisions and Silicon Florist.

LoT video at IP8
Chris will take the lead on talking to Jed to drive the creation of a new video.

BarCamp Update
BarCamp will be held jointly with CodeCamp on May 22nd. Amy is working on communications to get the word out about our plans, and we’ll be starting planning meetings shortly. We’re still having some issues with the barcampportland.com domain, but Chris will issue a support ticket and figure it out.