Category: General News

I've officially pulled my first Charitocracy all-nighter! It's now 6:30am, so I'll keep this brief. But here are a few of the (debatably) exciting things I've done since last week:

• Applied for and was granted business checking and savings accounts at DCU, the credit union I've used since my first job at DEC in the mid-90s.

• Set up accounts at PayPal and Braintree (credit cards), the combination of which I intend to use for donation processing. Maybe I'll integrate Amazon, too, but I haven't decided yet. Braintree credit card entry will let us take credit card info without donors leaving our site, except that the text fields into which you type your numbers are actually little frames hosted at Braintree, covering most of the PCI security concerns: we won't see or store any sensitive data ourselves. I'm hoping that once Braintree is fully integrated into new parent company PayPal, they'll also offer PayPal's 0.7% nonprofit discount on transaction fees.

• Brought my 2009 Mac Mini back to life after blunt force trauma sidelined it during our most recent New England to North Carolina migration in August. I managed to get its original hard disk back up and running, and it survived zeroing the whole disk, upgrading from Snow Leopard to El Capitan, and even full disk encryption. But if it fails, I have a new 9.5mm 1TB fusion drive ready to install.

• Installed MAMP and other goodies on Mac Mini to serve as a staging... server. Interestingly, I lost a couple hours getting outgoing email (postfix) working. Well, it works now.  And I concede "interestingly" is a bit of a stretch.

• To put icing on my all-nighter cake, compiled the first draft of our privacy policy and terms and conditions, required by Braintree.  I'm... falling asleep here... just remembering the privacy policy and... terms and conditions...

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz

There are a lot of words that have been used to describe me. Some not fit for print, I'm sure. But some others include Type A, extrovert, control-freak, and most definitely bossy. And you know what? I'm okay with those things. Probably because they are all true.

There has been a crusade against the word bossy lately. And I get it. A boy asserts himself and he's a leader. A girl does it and she's bossy. As a mom to a creative and bright girl, I find myself worrying when she seems to always be towing the line between leader and dictator. But what about if you're the boss? Does the boss ever get to be bossy?

Well, I'll be the first to tell you that I don't want a boss. No one is the boss of me. Or so I thought...

Let me back this up a bit. For more than 7 years, Benj traveled for work. It started out at a week every 2 months. Then every 6 weeks, then every month. Throw in extra conferences, worldwide meetings, and events, and before I knew it, it was not uncommon for him to be gone 1-3 (or even 4!) weeks a month. For those of you keeping score at home, I was basically home alone with our kids 50% of the time. It doesn't work for everyone, but it seemed to work for us.

Little did I know that my life was about to change. Dramatically. Benj decided to take a year leave of absence from his job (commonly referred to as The Year of Benj™ around here) and be home. All the time. I will admit that I was nervous about this transition. Could we all survive being together all day, every day? I'm pleased to report that we've made it nearly 3 months and we're all still alive. Benj is happier, the kids are glad that Dad is around more, and I finally feel like I have a parenting partner and present husband.

And you think that would be enough for Benj. But no. He had to go and rope me into this little dream of his. Sure he calls me the CEO and President. But that's just for my ego. Let's get real. He's calling the shots around here and it ain't easy for me. You try going from having a half-time husband to one who's your boss! Let me tell you, there is nothing hotter than waking up to your husband boss whispering sweet nothings like, "Hey, how are those bylaws coming along?"

Thankfully, he's not as bossy as I am.

 

I didn't read Jessica's meeting minutes, so I don't know what level of detail they contain. But in case it isn't otherwise documented for posterity, I'd like to record the fact that the first board of directors meeting of Charitocracy Corporation on January 13, 2016 was held in bed.

I've worked in my home office since we moved to North Carolina in 2010. There's a bed in there because it serves as an overflow guest room several times a year. I'll also use it myself from time to time when working past 4am, not as much to avoid disturbing Jessica so late as to avoid being disturbed myself when the house starts waking up at 6am!

But that's not where we held our meeting.

Jessica recently set up her own home office in our bedroom. Our good friend Scott built her a custom desk to fit into a strangely shaped nook by the windows. In addition to her Staples "executive" office chair, there's also a massively oversized couch-like chair facing her desk. The kids sometimes do their homework there so Jessica can help as needed while doing other work.

But we did not hold our first board of directors meeting at that stately, crimson red desk, either.

It has been cold here in the Outer Banks of North Carolina this week. Sometimes you're just more productive with laptops in bed. Jessica was very professional, setting up a Charitocracy Meeting Minutes template for future reuse before calling the meeting to order. (Wait, has she done this before?!) We appointed ourselves to various officer positions each: Jessica as President, CEO, and Secretary, and me as Vice President, CTO, and Treasurer. We adopted the bylaws on which Jessica had been iterating daily. We resolved to open bank accounts, seek liability insurance, and hand off our Form 1023 to our CPA for inspection before mailing it off to the IRS. We set a date for our next meeting. All from the comfort of our bed.

I do hope to attract additional board members as we pick up steam this year. We'll benefit greatly from broader perspectives and deeper experience, and maybe fend off some raised eyebrows as we start up a nonprofit as a wife and husband team. But in the meantime, I will enjoy meetings of the executive committee, wherever they may be.