Directors present: Chris Heintz, Rob Geiszler, Paul Brown Eric Solsaa, and Andrew Salamon
Others present: Norma and Joe Will. Norma is the former manager of the Manchester, VT Habitat for Humanity (HfH) Restore. Our meeting was called to order a 6:45 PM Paul made a motion to accept past meetings’ minutes of May 26, 2015 and June 8, 2015. Rob seconded the motion. A brief discussion followed. The motion passed unanimously. Restore Norma Will led the following informational session on the HfH Restore facility that she managed. · The original business model used a storage facility with a yearly auction. This was not successful. · A retail business model replaced the yearly auction. · The RESTORE location was located on RT 30 going up the mountain. It was located east of the exits from RT. 7. This location proved to be perfect. Not only did it serve the town of Manchester, but it also served the heavy ski-traffic and the mountain towns as well. · Manchester paid $1000.00/month plus utilities for the building. · The store hours were Saturday and Sunday, 10am-4pm. Today they are open Thursday through Sunday with 60 volunteers. Sales were $100K/year. · They had a pickup truck and a box truck. These were used for free pick-up at the donor’s home and they were used to deliver goods for a fee of $25.00. All truck drivers were volunteers and they kept track of mileage in a log book. · The manager must be the happiest person in the world to keep all the employees happy, smiling, and enthusiastic. The Store Manager was paid. Volunteers must be trained. · Recommendation: RT 4 is a great location because of the heavy traffic. Use a building a large as you can find. · Recommendation: Emulate a retail store. Set the store up in departments such as Building Supplies, Office Equipment, (no clothing), Appliances, Home Furnishings, Tools, Plumbing, Electrical, Lighting, etc. Do your own research by walking through retail stores in Malls, or Big Box stores and see how they are laid-out. · Sales happen because of color, clean, and light. Also bathrooms and break room were spotless. · Donations from businesses and individuals are welcome. · Receipts were given to donors similar to Salvation Army or Goodwill. · They did no inventory. · Men staffed the Tools, Plumbing, and Electrical because customers want it that way. The store always operated with the Manager and two volunteers. · Stay on a personal level with all customers and volunteers. · There was no storage. All items went from donor to the sales floor. · Don’t keep sales a secret if asked. If people know you’re doing well, they will get excited and support you more. · Check prices on line at Home Depot or another appropriate outlet and price your items at 50% of the online price. · Have the HfH offices onsite with RESTORE. · Key items—planning; trained, happy volunteers; all volunteers must be nurtured. · Every dollar goes to building houses. · Sales people wore name tags. · They did lay-away plans for people, if needed. · Because Norma was local, she would open up for anyone that couldn’t make to RESTORE during regular hours. · When people were in dire straits (i.e. children are sleeping on the floor) RESTORE gave them what they needed at no charge. This is the Humanity part of HfH. Treasurer’s Report Chris led the discussion • HfH bank balance is $41,806.00. Rob made a motion to accept the Treasure’s Report. It was seconded by Andy. Motion passed unanimously. Finances • We will recruit a volunteer accountant. • Vermont Country Store (VCS) will donate $20,000.00 this year as an incentive to raise matching funds. VCS has indicated that they will work with HfH in future years to raise money. • We will have to pay our Franchise bill to US Stewardship & Organizational Sustainability Fee of $5K. We have yet to pay our tithe to Habitat International. It is anticipated to be ~$3K. • Chris will as Christina to cut a check by the end of this week to Al Williams (our site coordinator in Fair Haven) for 3 weeks of work ($1200.00). Future checks will be cut every 2 weeks. • Rob will write a contract for Al Williams and have him sign it, per meeting minutes of May 12, 2015: “Deborah brought a motion to the floor to approve hiring Al Williams as a self-insured, independent contractor that would work 2 days on site (an average of 10 hours a day) as Habitat’s Construction Manager; and be paid a weekly stipend of $400.00. Paul seconded the motion. A discussion followed concerning a stipend for Al Williams, Habitat’s Construction Manager. The discussion addressed the question, “Should it be a stipend, an hourly wage, a weekly salary, how much money, and how many hours? Andy read highlights of a Construction Manager’s job description from Habitat of Burlington County, NJ so all have a feel for what this job entails. The motion unanimously passed.” Copies to this signed contract will be sent to Chris and Christina. · Paul will give Christina $290.00 from tee shirt sales and $6.47 in “Jug Donations” for deposit in our bank account. · Eric will talk to Home Depot about Grant writing procedures to obtain funds from Home Depot. Construction Committee Rob Geiszler led the discussion of the 30 West Street, Fairhaven property. · Richard Reed Concrete Company (RRCC) will begin work this week, once town permits are in place. o Fair Haven is not charging for permits. o RRCC remove the external chimney. o RRCC will remove shed attached to the rear of the house. o RRCC will pour concrete basement floor. o RRCC will remove the sagging west side foundation wall and pour new foundation on its place. o RRCC will remove existing small diameter water line to house and install a larger copper line, ¾ of an inch in diameter. o Estimated costs for RRCC work is $12.5K · All should view the Access Program on PET TV of the Ground Breaking Ceremony on the internet at this websiteà http://vp.telvue.com/preview?id=T00969&video=241679 · HfH tee shirts should be given away to volunteers. There are more at the site. Family Selection Rob Geiszler led the discussion. · Next Family Selection committee meeting will be August 5th @ 6pm at 6 Court Street. · Two candidates are going through certification. · All board members should be seeking additional family candidates. · Paul will speak to Nan Hart about office security. · We need someone to set up our office. Chris will contact Ceil Hunt to work with Family Selection to set up a filing system and office procedures. · We need someone a ½ day per week to answer telephone and reply to messages. Site Selection · Stonegate o Laurie Mercer of Sotheby Real Estate called asking us to sign papers for Stonegate. o We need to know the tax liability of the lots. o September 15, 2015 is the deadline for signing. o Rob requests that he needs to off-load responsibility to review Lockton Insurance. Note—our next board meeting will be Tuesday, 18th, 2015 at 6:30pm. · A possible topic for our next meeting may be a Global Village Trip, who, what, when, where? Chris adjourned the meeting at 8:45pm. Minutes respectfully submitted by Andrew Salamon
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