Alliance for Whistleblowers, Inc.

Minutes - 1/9/2016

  • The meeting was called to order by President Day (CEO) at 8:00 p.m.
  • The minutes of the meeting of 2015-11-07 were approved as published [2015-11-07-1000-01-02 A4W - Minutes of Meeting - TFD.pdf].
  • The Treasurers Report by Executive Vice-President (EVP) Strickland: The balance of the funds available in the corporate checking account as of 2015-12-31 is $969.20 which represents the initial deposit of $1,000 by CEO Day minus the cost of checks. Approved as read.

Old Business:

  • CEO Day informed the Board that Warren Wood has accepted the offer to serve as the organization’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
  • CEO Day extended his thanks to Candice Strickland for creating our first newsletter.
  • President Day and Legal Counsel (CLO) Ern Reynolds confirmed that the sale of stock could proceed in compliance with SEC regulations. CEO Day will include notification that stock sales at $100 per share are proceeding through the web site and that persons wishing to purchase stock should mail their request to the PO Box. Recording and issuing share transactions will be tasked to the CFO.
  • CLO Reynolds recommended that SEC Form D be completed and filed with the SEC. CEO Day agreed and will task the CFO to prepare and submit the form.
  • Similarly, CEO Day stated that memberships at $19.95 per annual membership can also proceed by written request and this too will be posted on the web site.
  • EVP Strickland stated that he and his wife had designed a membership certificate and that he would provide this to CEO Day

New Business:

  • CEO Day acknowledged that EVP Strickland was resigning from his position with the Department of Transportation and will be moving to Norfolk to take a position with Lockheed-Martin. EVP Strickland stated that he looks forward to working with military WBs in the Norfolk area and will be attending A4W meetings via teleconference calls or in person as may be necessary.
  • CEO Day tasked EVP Strickland to serve as the A4W official representative to endorse organizational letters from the Make It Safe Coalition (MISC) as of February 1, 2016. CEO Day will provide written notification to Shanna Devine of this tasking.
  • CEO Day sought and obtained approval to purchase “American Heroes” magnets.
  • CEO Day sought and obtained approval to design the “There Is AnAmerican Hero” direct mail letter. This direct mail piece will be used with the WBs permission and will be mailed to the WBs carrier route. It will include response cards to be mailed to the recipient’s Congressional delegation encouraging their support for the ZTRA.
  • CEO Day sought and obtained approval to design the “Whistleblowers Are American Heroes” direct mail letter. This direct mail piece will be mailed to selected carrier routes in specified Congressional districts. It will include response cards to be mailed to the recipient’s Congressional delegation encouraging their support for the ZTRA.
  • CEO Day sought and obtained approval to design the “This Nation Needs Your Help” direct mail letter. This direct mail piece will be mailed to selected organizations soliciting their support for the ZTRA. It will include response cards to be mailed to the recipient’s Congressional delegation encouraging their support for the ZTRA.
  • CEO Day sought and obtained approval to approach local colleges with the hope of getting permission to solicit students to assist in tasks such as data entry and stuffing envelopes.
  • CEO Day sought and obtained approval to nominate persons to positionson the Board or elsewhere in the organizational structure.

General Discussion:

  • The Board discussed the various revenue sources for the corporation. Focusing on the talents and skills of the pool of whistleblowers both as potential revenue for the A4W and for the individual whistleblowers; this pool of talent offers unlimited opportunities for ideas and projects.This will include securing contracts with the General Services Administration (GSA) to provide various labor categories of personnel to government agencies.
  • The Board also discussed the opportunity to generate training courses for federal employees to include both a audio-video (AV) presentation and a classroom presentation of the rights provided by the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA). Again, with the intention of providing income to the corporation and to the WBs. In order to establish revenue targets, the forecast for a single AV course at $10 per student multiplied by the number of federal employees (2,500,000 for estimating purposes) = $25,000,000. The ceiling for a classroom presentation would be $200 per student multiplied by the number of federal employees (2,500,000 for estimating purposes) = $500,000,000.
  • Carrier route mailings at 200 addresses per route at a cost of $1 per address with first-class postage (the cost would be significantly reduced with bulk mail rates) would break even with a return rate of 10% (20 magnets). Revenue in excess of cost would be expensed to the WBs in as yet to be determined share ratio. ZIP codes average 10,000 addresses per ZIP code. With a contacts list of 6,000 WBs and 435 Congressional Districts we could reach 1,200,000 addresses or about 2,600 constituents in every Congressional District.
  • CLO Reynolds recommended that A4B get into litigation funding as a line of business, to grow the capital of our corporation. Future action to be taken after receipt and review of additional information.
  • CLO Reynolds recommended that A4B act as a vendor to sell the expert witness services of WBs at a rate of $250 per hour. Future action to be taken after receipt and review of additional information.
  • Other sources of revenue have been discussed to include advertising sales, and other web based incomes that could be used to help fund WB legal actions.
  • In response to Thomas Day’s posting of his personal letter to Congress in which he states his position that adding trial by jury to the current process of whistleblower protections is a mistake; Tom Devine provided the Board with a variety of justifications for the inclusion of trial by jury in future legislation. Mr. Devine also indicated that there is growing support for the Zero Tolerance for Retaliation Against Whistleblowers Act (ZTRA) and a likelihood that it will be included in forthcoming legislation. CEO Day expressed his opinion that GAP should take the lead to obtain the sponsors for the bill and that GAP should also take the lead to prepare a MISC organizational support letter for the ZTRA. Mr. Day and Mr. Devine will further their discussion of these issues privately.
  • Ms. Zena Crenshaw informed the Board of actions by her organization on behalf of law enforcement officers facing criminal charges related to their whistleblowing activities. As a participant in the teleconference call, Mr. Devine informed Ms. Crenshaw that GAP would be willing to assist.
  • CEO Day offered that the time specified for the Board meeting (8:00 p.m. on a Saturday evening) was to accommodate the inclusion of persons from the west coast and because of other job and family issues that have been encountered by the times that previous meetings were held. While the meeting notice for this meeting and future meetings will be sent to all known interested parties, the normal date (first Saturday of each month) and the normal time have been selected to be most convenient for the Board members.
  • CEO Day stated that Skype for Business (S4B) was selected as the application for holding the audio-video meetings primarily because it allowed for up to 250 participants in the meeting. While there have been some technical issues with S4B these issues will be addressed with S4B technical support. Unless and until another, affordable, application can be found; future meeting will be held using S4B.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:01 p.m.

Other Notices and Information:

  • Filing System Notice - Following the meeting, Day and Strickland discussed the naming convention used as a reference to the Alliance For Whistleblowers, Inc. in electronic and paper filing systems. Whereas the three letter abbreviation “AFW” uses the corporate initials, Day and Strickland concur that this abbreviation is too similar to the abbreviation for the “Veterans of Foreign Wars “VFW”. Since we anticipate working with a number of uniformed whistleblowers, this abbreviation may be confusing. Therefore, we have adopted the abbreviation of “A4W” for the Alliance and will use this abbreviation where appropriate.
  • Conduct of Meetings – This notice is to assure all persons attending A4W Board meetings that all of their questions and concerns will be addressed at an appropriate time and that everyone attending in person or online will have the opportunity to participate. The general conduct of meetings will follow Roberts Rules of Order and the procedures adopted from the Joint Cruise Missile Project Office for holding business meetings. This procedure allows that the people sitting at the conference table could speak when recognized, but those in sitting away from the table where there as observers unless called upon by someone at the table. For A4W Board meetings, the “table” it includes all of the Board members present and online. In order for those of you not on the Board, if you submitted an agenda item you will be considered as being at the table for the discussion of your agenda item. If you did not submit and agenda item, but have a question or concern that you would discussed please text the issue to my cell phone 703-508-2722 or email it to me at . At the end of any discussion by the Board of “new” business I will read your message and recognize you and your issue. I will limit discussion on each issue to 5 minutes, but will revisit any open issues after all attendees have had the opportunity to present their question or concern. Repeated opportunities will be extended to ensure participation online or for follow-up communications.

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