Inaugural Board Meeting: July 14, 2023

Written By Mike Storey

The meeting was called to order by Meredith Morse with the following attendees:

  • Christina Roberts

  • Gavin Coyle

  • Meredith Morse

  • Mike Storey

  • Robert Hay

The operating report was presented by Mike Storey

Startup Costs $414.00 (covered by Surround Sight Consulting)

Income Donations $1,202.72 

Expenses  $4.20

Members and Mentors

Mentors 2

Mentors Candidates 2

Apprentices 1

Apprentices Candidates 4

The board discussed the need for liability insurance, Gavin had done some basic research on director and officer insurance, but had not localized research to North Carolina. Robert concurred that this was an important need to be addressed, and provided some guidance on research resources, and advised that it would be worth speaking to multiple carriers to get competitive pricing. Christina shared information from the Propel Board Member leadership class, and that she has contacts who specialize in non-profit related insurance. She raised the point that we will need to ensure coverage implications of having board members from different geographies. 

There was a brief discussion about the Bylaws, all board members indicated that they had reviewed the bylaws and did not see anything that was out of the ordinary. Founders shared their plans for officers and compensation. There was additional discussion about board members and compensation. Robert made the point that it is important to show that there is no personal benefit for directors or officers. He indicated that it was conventional for nonprofits to allow officers to serve as ex-officio board members. It was agreed that we may want to update the bylaws when Meredith accepts a compensated position to state that the chief executive will also serve on the board. A question was asked about paying a mentor’s stipend to board members. The rules were clarified stating that a board member who was providing a service could be fairly compensated, and the mentor’s stipend would be well within reasonable compensation.  

Julie Landers joined the meeting, establishing a quorum for the meeting. She confirmed that she had reviewed the bylaws, and was given an opportunity to ask questions about the bylaws. 

A motion was made to adopt the bylaws as documented and it was unanimously adopted. 

A motion was made and unanimously adopted  to appoint Mike Storey as the Dean of Students and Chief Data Officer.

A motion was made and unanimously adopted to appoint Meredith Morse as the Chief Executive and acting Chief Financial Officer, currently in a volunteer position. 

Meredith presented our accounts and budget for the remainder of the year. It was clarified that the fiscal year is aligned to the calendar year. A fundraising goal of $75,000 was presented. The board discussed the budget and priorities, potential marketing expenses, and budgeted items that had some flexibility. Christina shared that her brother can help us with Amazon services for nonprofits. She also had some good resources for marketing. After some discussion the board came to the conclusion that the officers could use the following guidance on prioritizing expenses: 

  • Must Have

    • 501c3 filing fee

    • Cloud Services

    • Mentor Stipend Fund

    • Liability Insurance

  • Good to Have

    • Marketing

    • Operating Costs

    • Legal fees

  • Nice to Have

    • Officer Salaries

After discussion about the budget and when board meetings are required, it was agreed that we would need board approval to operate outside of an approved budget. Gavin Coyle restated that the board was approving the budget as presented, given the guidance above. 

The board closed with a discussion about how we can get the word out about the institute, and what we can do to raise funds to meet the budget requirements. It was agreed that all board members should post a new work experience on Linked In, and subsequently make posts on various social media promoting the institute. Christina volunteered to help connect with different podcasts to promote the institute. 

Gavin volunteered to get pricing and information for insurance. Robert provided the following link as a good starting point for research: https://www.ncnonprofits.org/

Robert also shared that Google Office would be free for the 501c3, andprovided the following information on web services. 

  • https://www.google.com/nonprofits/ 

  • https://www.techsoup.org/ 

He suggested that we find a cloud hosted simple CRM with nonprofit bookkeeping features. 

A discussion about fundraising ideas decided to create a shared google document to allow the board to contribute asynchronously, rather than have a fund-raising meeting.

Mike Storey