July 20, 2018

trees alongside waterbankDate: Friday July 20

Time: 1:30pm. CDT/11:30am MST

Location: Zoom

Meeting Type: Regular Meeting

How Called: Standing meeting

Convened: 1:35

Attendees: Barry, Maryanna, Katherine

1 Minutes

Approval of June minutes

2 New Business

  1. Review Quarterly Goals (recurring action item) – reviewed them and confirmed alignment with them.
  2. Using volunteers effectively – have a potential volunteer with sales experience. Thoughts of areas include: attending Connect Chicago, helping find corporate sponsors for workshop (at NDIA, probably), RAILs meeting participation.
  3. Becoming a Bridging the Gap partner – good program. If we become a partner, then we can help others become a partner since we’ll understand what is involved. If we can find a few people to sign up for low-cost broadband, then we’ll know more. Have a few ideas. Motion that PBDD become a Bridging the Gap partner in order to learn more was made, seconded and approved.

3 Information Sharing

  1. Wikipedia Article on NDIA – Barry got this started. Great job.
  2. White Paper Progress – Maryanna has made a lot of progress. We’ll try for one more month to get answer from partners, then start writing up what we have been able to figure out.
  3. Partner Status.
    1. Marian Park Bridging the Gap possibility- met with Donna, tailored proposal to their situation, answered questions, met with Cristina & Steve of PRC on 7/17.  follow up email to Donna 7/18. Slowly proceeding?
    2. Likely additional partner:  People’s Emergency Center in Philadelphia
  4. Website Updates- added link on Community Learning Centers to Public Policy Initiatives, updated Resources for Non-profits on Bridge the Gap numbers. Added note about wikipedia article on NDIA to ‘what’s new?’
  5. Arizona Tribal Libraries Digital Inclusion Summit – Maryanna will maintain a list of resources, and will attend the summit  September 13-14.
  6. Grant status
    1. Mobile Beacon request letter sent 6/20, follow-up 7/17
    2. Mobile Citizen request letter sent 6/20, follow-up 7/17
    3. Coriant request Letter sent 6/21, follow-up 7/17. “Not at this time” response
    4. Nokia request letter sent 7/19
    5. Marriott – applied 6/22. Rejection received 7/9
    6. JLR Fund – received pledge for $5000 on 7/16
  7. With regard to maintaining status as a publicly funded charity, (5 year averages, one third rule), we don’t need to file anything until our sixth year, and then only if we think we need to. Note that if donations are received from Donor Advised Funds, these are part of a public charity, and are included in the denominator, but not the numerator, so in fact I think we have no major concerns and can close this sub-item.

4 Action Item Status Updates

Walking through Action Item List and noting updates. In the minutes, this will record items closed during meeting.

  1. Closed 7/20/18 – Consider additional public fundraising to ensure we stay a public charity (5 year averages, one third rule) First filing will be after March, 2020, if we think we need to. Note also that if donations are received from Donor Advised Funds, these are part of a public charity, and are included in the denominator, but not the numerator, so in fact I think we have no major concerns and can close this sub-item.
  2. Closed 7/20/18 – May want to register with the state of Wisconsin to solicit funds and then close this item. Per https://www.wdfi.org/CharitableOrganizations/faq.htm#COR_exempt., we need not register given that “We are a charitable organization which does not intend to raise or receive contributions in excess of $25,000 during a fiscal year and all of our functions, including solicitation, are performed by persons who are unpaid for their services and no part of our assets or income inures to the benefit of, or is paid to, any officer or member of the charitable organization.” 
  3. Closed 7/20/18 – closed Opened 6/8/17 – When appropriate (such as in a year or two), work on a one-day workshop connected with another conference such as NDIA and to providing scholarships to partners to attend both the workshop and NDIA. We have plans to have a workshop, probably connected with NDIA.

5 Time and Location for Next Meeting

Next meeting –  Friday August 31 at 1:30 pm CDT, 11:30 MST via Zoom ??

6 Adjourn

Adjourned: 3:00

 

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