Event:2017/03/13 Finance & Fundraising

Omni Finance Working Group 13 Mar 2017 - Remote Updates

= Attendees =
 * remote-jenny, remote-laura

= Updates =
 * Jenny: Business License exemption requests & reimbursement requests submitted for 2014-2017 on Friday 3/10
 * Jenny: Awaiting reply from Jesse re: the financial statements for 2015 & 2016, a tiny bit of tidying left to do on the accounting side, and exemption letter + bylaws or Articles from C-PREP, then we can send the property tax exemption apps (due feb 15th...), RRF-1s (due Apr 1st), etc
 * Laura: Danielle - agent who found us a GL policy and with whol we have the expensive property policy - is coordinating with Traci from B&G to move all our policies to B&G. I will update the insurance info spreadsheet when it is all set and then we can cancel the State Farm GL.
 * Laura: John Cormany came by today to recharge our fire extinguishers that have been discharged. We had some functional extra extinguishers under the counter in Agua Viva. He will recharge and certify a few of those that we can keep in the locked storage to replace any that are discharged. Also he checked emergency lights and noticed that one of the backup batteries was out so he replaced. Also found one that isn't installed correctly. He got it working but will do a permanent repair at the next annual check in November. He will send us an invoice, charging us a discounted rate. Such a nice person and a pleasure to deal with!
 * Laura: I'm wondering- Are people are finding Slack and Trello useful?
 * jenny: yes, very useful for personal purposes, but would be more useful if more people used it other than us two >_> I hear that.
 * jenny: (the trello, anyway, the slack channel seems to be generally good but we can accomplish the same w/o using some corporate proprietary service eg https://sudoroom.org/chatas an alternative for folks scared of IRC)
 * Laura: DIY fiscal sponsorship extended to 3/31. They are figuring out their banking situation, or other way to get the rest of the funds out of our account. Several spaces have now received funding for upgrades.
 * Jenny: DK has another $1k request in the hatch for dump runs and truck rental, will coord funds xfer once he submits the grant agreement to be signed by laura? or brian?
 * Laura: I've been getting them signed by Brian and whoever else on Docusign. When he submits I'll write the award letter. We can give a check to the space that is requesting the funds if they aren't using the Home Depot card method. perfect
 * Laura: In October or November we agreed to fiscally sponsor Mary Ann's trainer's project to give free education for low income artists/dancers to become certified in her training methods. This would be for a 7% admin fee. We never finalized the arrangement, but she has contacted me and wants to move on this.
 * Jenny: did she give us info in a blue folder? i think i remember this...
 * Laura: yes.
 * Laura: I've done some updating of the grants spreadsheet and I would like to switch some of my attention to writing grants/helping our fiscally sponsored groups to apply for grants. I also think we could get more out of the Patreon, which also needs updating. I did a little editing to remove that we were trying to buy the building. Does this change of focus seem like a good use of my time? Or are there finance things I should be taking on? We can discuss more in person.
 * jenny: totally, you rock the fundraising, + finance will balance in due time (guessing by mid-May). we should also separate finance & fundraising wg meetings (tho may be good for them to be back-to-back). updating the patreon & applying for grants is imo more needed now than anything else (despite all the workload of finance as of late, it's mostly just a matter of finishing the quickbooks org & transfer of some remaining transactions but otherwise pretty organized) - and also a great way to foster inter-collectivity eg the kitchen project...
 * jenny: grants for kitchen, ballroom, general 'arts' support we're now hella qualified for, no?

= Action Items =
 * Double-check and then send 2014-2016 OOC taxes to the board before filing [Jenny]
 * Finish financial statements & send property tax welfare exemption paperwork [jenny]