ECAFA Meeting Minutes
November 6, 2002
The ECAFA held an emergency meeting at 1pm November 6, 2002 at
the K & W Cafeteria
in Asheboro, NC with general members and Board of
Directors in attendance. The purpose
of the ECAFA, Inc. meeting was to
discuss the October 31, 2002 requests and question the
IRS had sent in response
to our 501(c)3 tax-exempt revised October 24, 2002 application.
Linda
explained, "The ECAFA, Inc. needs to affirm or reject the major conversion
to an
exclusively educational tax-exempt public interest oriented organization
as a membership
group and not just the Board of Directors or a few
members. Attending were:
James Eugene Allred (BOD)
Sara Allred
Franklin Allred (BOD)
Dennis York (BOD)
Wallace Allred
Lawrence Allen (BOD)
Dot Allen
Mildred Allred
Nancy Martin (BOD)
Bob Bryan
Harlan Sexton
Carolyn Allred
Becky Sexton
Blanche Allred
Hollis Allred
Eddie Clay Allred
Linda Allred Cooper (BOD)
Darrell Allred (by proxy)
Mike Marshall (by proxy)
Alice Pottmyer (by proxy)
Darrell Allred, Mike Marshall and Alice Pottmyer were unable
to attend, but sent their
comments and proxy votes via e-mail prior to the
meeting.
Linda opened the meeting by explaining that Brenda Rivers of
the IRS had responded
to our October 24, 2002 revised 501(c)3 application with
more questions and requirements.
Linda read portions of Brenda River's
October 31, 2002 letter along with portions of the
additional questions and /or
requests for information that the IRS needed. To summarize
the letter,
Brenda felt that the ECAFA did not meet the qualifications for 501(c)3
tax-exempt status.
She listed several items that she felt needed to be
clarified or changed.
Dennis went over each request / question within the October 31
letter, taking question
from the membership. Dennis also told us that he
had had a 30 minute phone call from
Brenda Rivers of the IRS earlier in the day
and that she had clarified some of her
comments in the letter. Apparently
she had based her opinion on outdated
information and had not referred to our
Revision A or B Bylaw revisions,
new goals detailed in Form 123, Part II, page 2
and the new ECAFA brochure.
Taking that info consideration, we had a long,
detailed discussion about all the
new IRS requirements for more
information. During this discussion, we created
a "pro" and
con" list on white poster board to help everyone understand what
continuing
with the tax-exempt application truly means for our organization.
As each "pro" and "con" item was listed,
everyone discussed their thoughts and
opinions in a very open manner -
"laying everything out on the table". After this
discussion,
Harlan Sexton made a motion for:
The ECAFA to continue with the application process for
"one more step", answering
Brenda River's October 31 requests to the
best of our ability. However, if the IRS
responds with even more requirements
and requests, we will stop the application
process. Harlan justified that he did
not want the quality, good nature and personality
of the ECAFA to be changed
completely by the IRS requirements. "We will continue
for now, but
that's all."
James Eugene Allred 2nd the motion and everyone voted
"Yes". Dennis agreed to
complete the questionnaire and return it
to the IRS before the November 4, 2002
deadline with the appropriate Board of
Directors' signatures.
Dennis then brought the discussion around to our Articles of
Incorporation and the
amendments that needed to be made to satisfy the IRS,
recommendations to
eliminate all references to the Allred family. Everyone
was given a copy of the
amendments, which they read and questions were
asked. Dennis explained that
the new Articles of Incorporation was almost
a verbatim quotation for the opening
paragraphs of our new ECAFA brochure.
After a short discussion, Dennis made a motion to:
Adopt the amendments to the Articles of Incorporation as written and presented to the membership.
Harlan Sexton 2nd the motion and all voted "Yes".
Becky Allred Sexton, Secretary