501 c 3 update

I sent the annual accounting period information to Mr. Mink of the IRS. I also left him a message in that regard. I hope to hear from him soon as to what else we can do to be accepted as a non-profit.

I'll share more as information comes along. We need to schedule our next meeting for October, 09'.

I'd like to have a full board meeting this month if possible before the November, December holiday season. Let's look @ meeting sometime during the last week of the month.
Thanks everyone and chat with you soon.

James

board meeting and first invite to inform about 3's Transition

A board meeting was held last week @ the Richland County Library. Thanks to Lyn Whitehead for suggesting having the meeting @ the Main Library campus and Ms. Lorraine Catoe, from the Library for confirming the reservation on short notice. It's a free space to county residence and non-profit organizations. John H., Charley S., Jarrett S., Lyn W. , Beverly C., and Errika K. were not able to attend because of previous engagements. No word from Angela W., Richard C. or Tom A. So Milton K. and I held the meeting.

The primary discussion centered around getting the 501 application approved. I shared about sending the response back to the IRS, Mr. Gerald Mink is the case manager handling the application and looking forward to their response as to what else we needed to do for the application to be approved. We talked about continuing efforts to fundraise in order to earn $ for the program. We talked about possible golf tournament with assistance from an event planner. I shared about an invitation from Ms. Essie Ford, Self Contained teacher @ Dutch Fork High for a representative to share with her parents during their Open house about Trey's Transition. I made contact with Lyn, Charley previous to the meeting about attending the event. Milton also ageed that we should share with the school about our program plans in an effort to getting the word out about the program efforts. We talked about putting a brochure together to share the mission , purpose...
Our mission statement and why the program came into being, picture of Trey and other participants and the need we hope to serve. The motion to attend the meeting and prepare the brochure was Approved. A copy of the brochure was prepared and handed out during the meeting held @ DFHS.

There were several parents, students and special education teachers @ the open house and expessed excitement about our efforts. Inez, Trey and I presented the brochure and information how the idea of Trey's Transition was started. We were well received and several parents were interested in viewing information from the blog about our progress. We talked about the 501 status and plans for growth in our board of directors in assisting to create the funds necessary to confirm the old attage, "Many hands make light work". It was good to see Trey's teachers again, sorrow to learn about the passing of one teacher, Ms. Thomas. We were also excited to know there was a new teacher (I'm sorry I forgot her name and will annouce later) from Pennsylvania in their mist. She brings new life and experience to the classroom and information that may in fact help our program in the near future.

I also shared with Milton about my contact with county councilman Malinowski for the Irmo area. He shared about us possibly receiving a portion of a tourism grant from Richland County by having others to spend time in our area during a function that we organize. I asked him about getting a commercial license so that we can start our program in a smaller building or home costing less money to get up to DHEC code, the program stated. He shared for us to get in touch with the county office for details about those plans. Milton also shared about the St. John's Baptist Church special needs and Puppet Ministry church for all ages. We hope to be able to coordinate their talent into our program activity plans.



I received phone message from Mr. Mink, case manager for the IRS handling our 501 application. He's ready to close out the application status and needs us to confirm one more item on the application (having to do with the annual reporting period). I've left message with him to contact me in that regard and plans to submit in writing a response to the issue.



We're getting closer to making the program a reality and thank you one and all again for your support. I left several brochures with Essie's class and hope those that read the blog will encourage others to contact me with interest about efforts to help this organization grow.



I hope your Autumn season is coming along well. Watch the summer fade, the leaves fall, get out rakes and lawn mulchers. It's getting COOL!


I will be discontinuing my AOL email account and using yahoo. You can now reach me @ james_irby2000@yahoo.com. economics!
James II

501 C 3 update

We received a response from the IRS about the application. They needed us to explain a few answers from the application. Several board members got together over a 10 day period to review the questions. The response was sent back to the IRS on September 4, 2009.

We may hear from them before the end of October regarding our status.

We're still working on the operations and training manuals. We're also accepting donations for our efforts to create the program.

Trey received $10 at the Wofford College football game this past weekend from a young man.
His name is David Hatcher. We were watching the ballgame together, cheering on the Terriers to victory. David came up to Trey and wanted him to have the money to help. Trey smiled and we accepted the fund. We shared with David and his family the program plans and they were excited to hear about the plans and shared their own personal story. David's mother expressed how pleased it was to see her son show compassion. Thank you David, parents and grandparents again for your contribution.

I also met a friend from Wofford who's interested in helping the community thru vocational means of assisting the hearing and visually impaired in packaging product. Keiser Thomas III is the director of Operations for JSAC LLC. The New Balance in Manufacturing out of Spartanburg SC. His email address is jsackt@charter.net. I hope to learn more about their business plan in an effort to help our program vocationally in the future.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Septmenber 24, 2009.

The location and time have not been confirmed yet. I hope to have the meeting @ my home if plans work out.

I'm excited about our future, keep the faith, continue to do good work for yourself and others and contact me if you hear of any other fascinating ways to build our program.

The 501 application has arrived!

I (James) checked the bank account recently and learned the application fee has been cashed. So it's safe to assume the Federal Government has recieved the application and the process for reviewing it is in the way.

I'm excited to share that I met a parent and former challenger baseball player (Monique and Cory). I had not seen them in years since Trey and Cory were teammates. She was bringing him to "Camp Sunshine". This is a wonderful day camp from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for indivduals with special needs, ages 5 to 26. The camp provides activities on the Denny Terrace Community Center campus. Richland County Recreation Commission provides quality staff for the campers. They do activities on the campus as well as going swimming and bowling in the community. The camp will have one more week this month and the next session will start in July. For more information, call Linda Carter @ 750-7672.

She told me that Cory is 18 years old. She was looking for afterschool and summer programing for him. I was excited to share our plans for Trey's Transition. I sent her the blog and Mission statement for her to view and get back in touch with me if she would be interested in getting involved with our efforts.

Jarrett Slacum (committee members) is considering being the coordinator for our meetings. He's on the Food Preparation and Safety committee.

Continue to encourage others to view this blog to spread the word about our efforts.

The committee members recently talked about getting Trey's Transition on FaceBook.
I'm looking into getting an account set up.

Charley Spencer (North Dakota) committee member came up with a great idea to extend the webcam to other members that maynot be able to attend our meetings. If you'd like to know more about our webcam effort, contact me @ jamesirby8@aol.com or charlie2wheels@csicable.net .

I met WC Hoeke this week. He's a staff member of Family Connections, an parent of a child with special needs and a committee member planning their Annual Conference for their organization next year. Family Connections links parents that have disabled children together and shares information to the community in an effort to advocate for those with special needs. The mission of Family Connection of South Carolina is to strengthen families of children with special needs through parent support. We talked about me being a part of their committee in their efforts to plan for next year's conference. We talked about the need to share more information about the growing popuulation of young adults with special needs, the services they could benefit from and us working together. I'll keep you posted on our efforts. Family Connections website is http://www.familyconnectionsc.org/

Our next meeting will be anounced soon.
Thanks for your support and prayers.

Another milestone achieved

I (James Irby) hope this message finds everyone doing well. It's been a while since a message has been posted. Everyone's been busy since our last meeting with work, celebrating holidays, and helping others to make it day to day.

There have been small meetings with some committee members to continue efforts to develop the program before the Fall of this year. The "Power of One" fundraiser continues to be a success. The board members have done a good job sharing the message about Trey's Transition. I'm excited to report that we have the $750 needed to submit the 501 c 3 application for non profit status. The application was placed in the mail today!!!

We're one step closer to making the program a reality. Several board members are working on the policy, procedures and training manuals for the program. We also have severl others interested in the effort for the program. Ms. Gloria (Candy) Spigner (nurse), Ms. Charmine Primus (clinical social worker), Ms. Dottie Davis to name a few.

There will be a lunch meeting later this month to continue working on the assingments for the manuals.

We need someone gifted in web design, and a accountant (experience in adult day care) to be a part of our efforts.

Thanks again to everyone for their efforts and have a cool summer!

Board Meeting Updates

The recent board meeting was held on March 26, 2009 @ Palmetto Baptist Women's Medical center , classroom D. Several members called in to say they would not be able to attend. Those members not attending agreed to submit their donations toward the 501 application before the next meeting in April.

Charley Spencer and James Irby were present for the meeting.
The following is an update from that meeting:
Old business-The articles of incorpoation have been endorsed and ready to be submitted to the State Dept. They were endorsed by James Irby, Milton Kimpson, and Charley Spencer.

The webcam effort failed produuction during the meeting because there was not internet access from the classroom. Plans are being made to see if IT from Baptist coould help solve the problem or the have the next meeting in a location where web access is avaialble. The next meeting is scheduled for April 23rd @ 6:30 p.m.

Bank of America has waived the fees @ this time in order that we can earn the full amount of funds needed to pay the fee to process the 501 application.

A few more questions need to be answered to complete the 501 application. Fees to pay consultants for letigation, grant writing and research, business development, and marketing.

We reviewed the committee goals and talked a little about Charley's involvement on the training committee. James plans to send him the regulations for adult day care to review for the next meeting.

New business-Making contact with board and family members to raise the remaining funds for the 501.

Jerret- board member is planning to move to Ohio and would like to continue being active with the group possibly thru web cam conference.

James shared $236.00 have been raised by board members toward the $750 goal for the 501 application. Recent donors for this total: Authur Snipe, Bill Entzminger.

We agreed to continue posting the names of those whom donate toward the 501 application on the blog for tranperency.

The meeting came to an end.

Happy Birthday to those born in the month of March and early April, 2009. You are as old as you think you are!

Update about Web Cam and Bank Contribution Account ...

I'm (James) writing to inform that Charley now has webcam access to communicate with us during our next meeting. We were able to make the connections over the weekend. It was good to see and hear Charley and a few others that came by to visit him in home in North Dakota. The temperature that day was a brisk 15 degrees. (brirrr). I'm going by the Women's center classroom to see if there will be internet access for our connection.

I've sent a letter to Michelle Higgins (coordinator) for the classroom as requested for us to use the space the remainder of this year on Thursdays. I look forward to hear from her soon.
Our next meeting is still scheduled for March 26, 2009, 6:30 p.m. in classroom D.

I've shared a few flyers to a few friends who plan to share the news about Treys Transition and to do some fundraising as well. Other family members are planning to contribute before the March 26th meeting as well.

Jerrett Slacum (board member) shared about his plans to move to OHIO later this year. He still wants to be involved in the development of Treys Transition. We plan to get together next week to discuss how he could still be active with the organiation.

The final item today has to do with my contact with Gayle Rabon, Senior Bank Manager @ Bank Of America. I appealed to her good nature about possibly waiving the bank maintanance fee for our efforts to earn the funds needed to become a Non-profit. She agreed to waive the fee until we were able to earn the minimum amount needed not to incur the fee. (That is awesome!)
She was excited to know about the progress being made and reminded me to contact the Bank for grant opportunities when the 501 app is comfirmed. She also shared that deposits can be made at any Bank of America branch. Just inform the teller you'd like deposit into the "Contributiuon Account" for the James D. Irby in Irmo SC Medical Spending .

Thanks again everyone for your support.

Update on 501 fundraiser effort

Here are the current donations raised for Treys Transition 501 application.

We now have a total of $103.00 in the medical spending account. Here is a list of those that have given @ this time from 9/08 to the 3/5/09:

Margie Mitchell
James Irby
Robert/ Sharon Croissant
Valencia Whitehead
Jennifer Pearson
Delrio Chesteen
Blondelle Bell
Shannon Wiley

We have only $647.00 left to meet our goal of $750 to process the 501 application.
Thanks to everyone that has made a contribution. We will keep you up on our progress.

February 26, 2009 board meeting

Attending the meeting were: Milton Kimpson, John Hancock, Angela Whitehead, Beverly Clyburn, James Irby and by phone conference-Charley Spencer

Absent were: Lyn Whitehead, Tom Anderson, Erika Kitrell, Vickie Muller, Robert Croissant, Vivian Mixson

We opened the meeting with conversation about future plans for Web Cam conferences with Charley by the next meeting and discussion about assigning an assistance Executive Director to run things when I'm not able to facilitate. Web Cam access will hopefully give other access to participate in our meetings and activities. The next meeting is scheduled for March 26, 2009, 6:30 p.m. @ the same location (Palmetto Baptist Breast Center Classroom D) . I shared having contact with Dallio Moore, (CEO, Arche Designs, LLC) in the Spartanburg area to consult about doing a virtual tour of the program once our program is ready to showcase the building. We also talked about using the internet to promote the business and show transparency. We talked about the benefits of having the BLOG and how it may continue to help promote the business.

We then focused our attention to the Article of Incorporation. We were in agreement that Milton, Charley, and I would endorse the articles. We needed to find out if there would be any reason why Charley could not endorse the articles being out of state (North Dakota) . Milton would find out if there would be a problem or not. We would send the Article to Charley if there was no problem.
We discussed fundraiser ideas to earn the $750 needed to process the 501 3 C application. We agreed to contact family, friends , and personal funds to reach the goal by the next meeting. Phone, email, personal contact and using the Power of One campaign is one of several ways we plan to reach the goal. Once we have 501 status, we plan to commit to some of the following fundraiser events: Bake, doughnut, pizza sales;
Contact local fraternities, sororities, local grocery, and radio spots retail stores; DECA, and BETA clubs @ local schools, Midlands Technical Institute (Mr. White), Mary Rawls, director of Gerontology, and Government Official (Richard Riley ).

I gave an update about that Bank of America charges $11 each month for keeping the Medical Spending Account open for us to access fundraiser funds for the program. We talked about getting in touch with Bank of America to see if they can waive the charge because we are to small an organization to absorb any loss of income toward our goal of raising funds for the start up cost. We plan to contact All South and Regency Bank to learn if they have a plan that we can use to store our funds without a monthly fee.

We then focused our attention to setting up committees among those in attendance. I've had conversations with other members that have already agreed to participate on a committee. Here are the committee assignments @ this time:

Policy Manual : Milton Kimpson,
Training Manual: Charley Spencer, Robert Croissant
Grant Writing: Lyn Whitehead, Angela Whitehead
Marketing: James Irby
Food Storage and Prep: Beverly Clyburn, John Hancock

We expressed much excitement during the meeting about the plans we discussed and the efforts.

The next meeting is scheduled @ the Palmetto Baptist Medical Women's Breast Center, Classroom D (Sumter Street Parking Garage location)

Board Member in attendance. Please let me know if I omitted anything @ the meeting.

Good Luck on the fundraiser opportunities. Remember to spend some quality time talking with you family and friends. Every day is an opportunity to embrace a new day!

THANKS

James

Next meeting February 26, 2009

I hope everyone is doing well.

I just wanted to share the date and time for our next meeting to continue efforts for the development of Trey's Transition.

Thursday, February 26th from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. @ the Palmetto Baptist Women's Center,
Classroom D.

The objective for this meeting will include the following:

Board members to confirm and endorse the Articles of Incorporation.
Discuss the fundraiser for the start up cost to complete the 501 C 3 process.
Designate committees to formulate manuals for policies and procedures manuals, operations and the human resource program.

These committees goals will be to outline the duties and responsibilities.

So think about the type of committee to be a part of and ideas that we maybe move on to reach our first monetary goal ($750). This amount will secure the processing fee for the 501 application to be sent off to the federal government.

This is an exciting time to be a apart of something meaningful to our families and the community.

This information will be available on the blog as well in case you'd like to share the information with others.
http://treystransition.blogspot.com/

I need your help to make this venture to become a reality for so many that are ready to embrace the community in ways many of their peers never imagined.

Hey. We maybe able to stimulate the economy alittle!