Spring 2009 Board Meeting

May 3, 2009
Gellene, Bookhart, Goldberg, Eckley, Rouse and Shepley in attendance.

Treasurer's Report-Income generating activities.
Focused on activity of 2009. Projected losses, up to $300 per month on average.
Breakouts demonstrated that coop spent more than average on fuel to allow research on cold weather behavior and proper treatment.
More than average expenditures combined with less than average sales resulted in projected losses.

Some unexpected expenditures prompted a vote on legal action:
Motion to require board approval by majority vote before any legal firm retained, or employed for coop purposes.

Motion carried 6-0.

Membership has flatlined over the last 8 months. In that time, the Membership committee has lost two of three members.
Motion to offer an executive vice presidency on the board, to a membership recruitment specialist. The new position will be open to candidates from within current membership and from the general public. Candidates will be interviewed by the board in a formal process.
Motion carried 5-0, board member had left during motion.
Corporate sponsorship by CSBA would be met with free member initiation for all current CSBA staff. This offer will be made by Ted Rouse to a representative of CSBA, Keith Losoya.

Motion to allow $600 budget for discussion with legal professionals, to be named later, about entity status (attaining 501(c)12 status) and tax filing.
Motion carried 6-0.

Grant Proposals were funded. State of Maryland will reimburse ~$11,000 for a Carbon Offset Program and ~$13,000 for Distribution System Development.
A retroactive donation of $0.01 per gallon of fuel sold by the cooperative, since the funding of the COP grant, will be realized in an account to be established by the treasurer.
We will institute a function on the BBD9000 to allow members to round up the amount of purchase to the nearest dollar, nearest five dollars or another amount, as a choice for every purchase, to the fund. Obviously rounding up will not be required by any member. Participants will be ranked in a list of largest contributors to the Carbon Offset Fund.
The fund will allow school buses to run on biodiesel by offsetting the premium for biodiesel fuel, compared to ULSD.

BBD9000-2 and BBD9000-3 are being assembled by Ilya Goldberg. 2 will be placed at Merriweather Post Pavilion. 3 is slated for Tidewater Yacht Services and marina, located adjacent to the Domino sugar plant in the Inner Harbor.
Extensive site work needs to be accomplished before the BBD9000's can be placed in service.
Merriweather requires a tank and security cage be purchased an/or assembled.
Tidewater requires a security cage be built- a contact person from the coop is yet to be named.

Solar panels for each BBD9000 will collect charge and deposit it in attached batteries, allowing up to 3 days' operation in cloudy conditions. We are considering using the thin film option to allow charge accumulation in grey sky conditions.

Fuel supplier during warmer months may be McComas. They have begun purchasing B99.9 from United Biofuels, who is using multifeedstock, non-animal sources. Waste vegetable oil biodiesel has a cloud point between 1C and 3C.
320 gallons have been purchased and are 'settling' during algicide treatment.
All fuel sold from the Mill Valley location will be treated and doubly filtered before delivery to members' fuel tanks.