Access Ready Strategic Social Purpose Corporation Board of Directors meeting
Date, 10-22-2020
Time, 7 pm EST
Place: Meeting by Conference call – yes
Access Ready Call Bridge
Sponsored by VOTEC Corporation
call bridge 1-877-833-5432
Conference Room 1104 – Pin Number for Guests – 86394
List of attachments
1. requests for Board Action 07-27-2020
2. requests for Board Action 09-08-2020
3. requests for Board Action 09-15-2020
4. Annual meeting minutes 06-25-2020
5. Updated Joint Strategic Plan and outline
6. Financial documents if available
Meeting called to order by Chair-CEO Doug Towne at: 7.01
In attendance
Elizabeth Campbell Yes,
Gust Dean Doulou Vice-Chair, Yes,
Treasurer and CFO David Mickey Ellis No? Non-voting
John Medcalf Yes,
Secretary Corey Saur Yes, Non-voting
Mariano Tan Yes,
Chair-CEO Doug Towne yes, Non-Voting
Donny Ward Yes,
Carol Westlake Yes,
** Consent Agenda
1. The Chair-CEO requests final approval of the attached requests for Board Action from
07-27-2020 09-08-2020 09-15-2020
Motion to accept consent agenda items by Carol
Seconded by Dean
Discussion
Call the Question,
Elizabeth Campbell Yes,
Gust Dean Doulou Vice-Chair, Yes,
John Medcalf Yes,
Mariano Tan Yes,
Donny Ward Yes,
Carol Westlake Yes,
Motion Passed,
* Information Agenda
* Board Secretary report
Correspondence None
Minutes of 06-25-2020
Motion to accept minutes as presented or amended by, Liz
Seconded by Mariano
Discussion
Call the question,
Elizabeth Campbell Yes,
Gust Dean Doulou Vice-Chair, Yes,
John Medcalf Yes,
Mariano Tan Yes,
Donny Ward Yes,
Carol Westlake Yes,
Motion Passed,
* Board Treasurer Report
Correspondence None
Accounting Report
David Ellis absent
No report available due to the Pandemic.
Discussion
The Chair gave a brief summary of our financial condition as good from his point of view.
* Chair/CEO report
Correspondence None
1. We are still in discussion with
Devoted Health
Passtime GPS
Design Interactive
All are progressing favorably.
2. ARI-ARS has paid back a significant part of the funds advanced by Doug Towne personally and Doug Towne Consulting corporately. After reviewing the staff time invested between October 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019, we have determined a balance of hours on the books totaling 887 at $22.00 per for a total of $19514.00.
This does not include Executive, (my time) or social Media time. I have limited these time charges as much as possible.
I am having discussions with my own accountant about how much more I can write off if any. After discussions with the Committee on Administration and Management (Dean Doulou and Mickey Ellis) I will submit invoices for reimbursement in small quantities as funding allows.
We had a discussion about the need for a Budget amendment, but I do not believe this is necessary because the categories covered by these staff time charges are already covered by the current budget categories. As we add additional income, we will be able to add funds to existing budget line items as needed with a budget justification at the end of the fiscal year in June.
3. We are still searching for a location for a facility in Pinellas County that is funded through our VOTEC contract. We have the funds and are guarding it carefully because it will be utilized for the designated budget and contracted line items. The delay is based on several unanticipated circumstances most brought about as a result of COVID-19.
A lack of available units,
A rapid rise of unit cost,
The organizations lack credit history,
The need for a personal guarantee or sublet arrangement.
4. Because of the changing guidelines neither ARI or ARS were eligible for Federal, state or local stimulus funding.
5. We have not moved to create Access Ready Security Corporation yet because of the delay in concluding the Passtime GPS contract. We will move on it as a subsidiary of ARS once that contract is concluded.
This was approved by the ARS Board of Directors.
The reasoning behind this is to limit our liability related to the sale of consumer security products.
6. We have 1 grant or gift proposal pending at the moment with:
The Tampa Bay Community Foundation.
We have received notice of approval from:
The Charter Communications Foundation in the amount of $7000.00 to be used for communications costs.
As a part of this our cable Internet access and cell phone accounts are being transferred out of mine and Corey’s names personally into the name of Access Ready. This will allow us to lower the cost by making the accounts tax exempt. In addition, the Spectrum base cost is less.
To make this happen we did have to pay off a lease on one phone with sprint for $579.44, but I did the math and this move does save us a lot of money in the long run. The cell bill immediately saves us $125.00 a month.
We also received notice that the Rampinger Family Fund. is making a $3000.00 unencumbered Founders donation and we will be looking at how to best get results from those funds.
7. As a result of the discussions related to our proposed grant funded programs and our strategic plan, we are tempering our grant funded programs to bring them down to the local or state level where possible. In addition, the funding focus of programs of a more national scope like election technology will be funded through partnerships, cooperative agreements and potentially loans or the sale of stocks.
This approach is necessary because of the age and budget level of the organization. The national approach on many of our programs is too aggressive and my mistake. The size of the issues we are attempting to engage with from my perspective made it necessary for us to take a national approach. I failed to take into account the newness of the organization or our limited budget. As we will discuss in a few minutes we need to change our grant, funding and growth approach.
I believe now that we need to concentrate on becoming self-funding through the sale of products, and services as well as fund raising and grants to the extent possible. It is my intention to redouble our efforts to those ends.
8. In support of expanding our consulting services and product delivery Mariano and I are developing a presentation designed to engage technology developers, providers and users on the principals behind the need for accessible information technology. This will also include a push to employ people with disabilities as a result of accessible technology. We may and I stress may come back to you with a proposal for ARS through a subsidiary to become a training and employee leasing or contract labor entity. This is just a concept in our development discussions that would provide repetitive income.
9. I need to sound a note of caution in relation to COVID-19 and our plans such as our budget projections. We need to look at all of this as fluid. No one can predict what the next year holds. COVID-19 and the political situation make planning extremely difficult.
For example, our revenue projections related to sales of the Passtime GPS tracking device are hampered by several factors out of our control. The developer has had to move its manufacturing from one country to another because of the trade conflict. This has slowed their development process related to the changes we required in the device. In addition, COVID-19 will slow sales because of the limited travel of the target subjects in the markets we planned to enter. These situations will be alleviated but may not do so along the timeline in our budget.
Discussion
* Other Officer Reports
None
Discussion
Motion to accept all reports items by Carol
Seconded by Donny
Discussion
Call the Question,
Elizabeth Campbell Yes,
Gust Dean Doulou Vice-Chair, Yes,
John Medcalf Yes,
Mariano Tan Yes,
Donny Ward Yes,
Carol Westlake Yes,
Motion Passed,
** Old Business?
1. The Chair-CEO requests approval of the updated strategic plan.
Doug Towne and Carol Westlake to discuss the changes to the strategic plan.
Motion by Mariano
Seconded by Dean
Discussion
Call the question
Elizabeth Campbell Yes,
Gust Dean Doulou Vice-Chair, Yes,
John Medcalf Yes,
Mariano Tan Yes,
Donny Ward Yes,
Carol Westlake Yes,
Motion Passed,
** New Business?
The Chair respectfully requests the approval of the Board to create accessreadylearning.com
Reasoning behind this request.
In our negotiations with Devoted Health, we ran into a legal issue. If we created the online learning sessions for them, then they would own them and we could not use them for anyone else.
This would be fine if the information were proprietary to them. It is not and is more generally related to disability.
The way the contract was written we would not be able to provide such learning sessions to others without violating the contract.
Given this I am recommending we move to a subscription-based formula.
We will charge $1500.00 to subscribe to each learning session for two years.
It does mean we will have to pay to develop the learning sessions up front but will recover the cost with the first sale.
New sessions will be developed as needed and requested. Once we have several available, we will be able to begin marketing them.
It is our intention to go to experts to support the development wherever possible compensating them based on subscription sales.
Of course, we will always produce proprietary learning sessions for a fee if requested.
Right now, we will use a simple website and give access to learning sessions by creating a special page (accessreadylearning.com/devoted) for example. As the project grows, we will need to move to a learning management system like E-Logic.
The base accessreadylearning.com will provide a free learning session on what is access ready and what is an access ready environment. This will showcase how we do our sessions to begin with at least.
Motion by Donny
Seconded by Mariano
Discussion
Donny commented on the Chair’s excellent efforts to protect our intellectual property.
Call the question
Elizabeth Campbell Yes,
Gust Dean Doulou Vice-Chair, Yes,
John Medcalf Yes,
Mariano Tan Yes,
Donny Ward Yes,
Carol Westlake Yes,
Motion Passed,
** General discussion
All agreed that strategic plans and efforts to grow will be in flux until the pandemic has passed or life returns to some kind of normal.
** Next meeting Date and time?
The fourth Thursday of February 2021 at 7 PM EST
Thursday February 25, 2021 at 7 PM EST by conference call.
Discussion
*** Adjournment
Motion to adjourn by Donny
Seconded by Dean
Discussion
Call the Question
Motion was unanimous
Meeting was adjourned at 7:55 pm