Minutes for Second Business Meeting

 
Volunteers in Attendance:
1)      Alecia Robertson, Executive Director
2)      Matt Robertson, Deputy Director
3)      Brandon Bland, Treasurer
4)      Angela Carpenter, Event Coordinator
5)      Tim Leaf, Tech Director/Computer Guru
6)      Ernest Slatisnky, Community Advisor
7)      Justin Gann, Secretary
Unable to Attend: Lance Davis, Comm/PR Director
 
Points of Discussion:
1)      Various volunteer positions, the delegation of tasks to each
2)      need of transparency so members will be informed of developments
3)      Our new forum https://abileneatheists.forumotion.com/ ; Tim is still fine-tuning the design, but posting is already possible; Tim went over various pros/cons, features, guidelines, and privacy/security concerns
4)      Possibility of securing URL “AbileneAtheistAlliance.org” for a Website, which will include an introduction, basic info, links to the Forum and Facebook group
5)      Possibility of AAA volunteers working for Child Advocacy Center’s Child Abuse Awareness Month, either at Artwalk (April 10^th), Mall (19^th-20^th), or Starbucks (26^th-27^th); Ernest is working to lock down which date
6)      Several members had discussed interest in purchasing an “ATHEIST” shirt, which would cost $15 dollars; Tim will provide a link to the relevant discussion; would members be interested in other promotional items such as bracelets, etc., and from whom would those be obtained?
7)      Discussed the running of the Treasury, and the possibility of donations via PayPal, possibly thru a link on the planned Website; possibility for receipts for donations for purpose of tax deductions; financial records may be kept on Google Drive spreadsheets?
      Requirements of a non-profit organization: Incorporation would be expensive (prohibitively at this point); being unincorporated, do not need to file taxes if donations less than $5000 a year, but will still need representative agent for legal purposes; necessity of bank account, Tax ID for bank account, and financial statement
9)      Planned believer/nonbeliever debate 10 May 2014, 1-4:30pm, Public Library Main [Downtown]; if believer debaters are no-show, will do “ask an atheist”; teams will be of equal size, up to five members; newspaper coverage is planned; Media representative as moderator?; if you or someone you know wishes to be on either team, contact Matt, Alecia, or Tim
10)  Should the group have a YouTube channel?; post segments of events on YouTube?
11)  Possibility of event advertisements and/or atheist column in Religious Section of newspaper
12)  Upcoming media interviews planned with some of our members discussed
13)  Possibility of using VistaPrint for cards, posters, plaques, etc. as needed
14)  In the works: AAA participating in School Supply Drive for Abilene ISD—backpacks?; possibility of receiving donations from Chicken Express or other businesses
15)  AAA as applied as an affiliate to American Atheists http://www.atheists.org/ ; Should we apply to be an affiliate of Freedom From Religion Foundation http://ffrf.org/ ?

16)  Try to restrict amount of “serious” business at monthly Member Meetings [2^nd Thursdays each month Public Library Mockingbird Branch; 4^th Mondays each month Public Library Main], so they will be more along the lines of fun, casual “socials”; deal with business mostly at business meetings or on Forum/FB