Plot Profile Example for Num8ers

Sandra Clements visit to class

Sandra Clements, District Five Representative of the Huntington City Council, visited Marshall’s JMC 414, reporting public affairs class. Clements is a lifelong resident of Huntington and has served on the council since 2008. She said she would be stepping down from council after her term expires in 2016. Clements said she is excited for the demolition and rebuilding of the Northcott Court public housing units. 

United Way visit

Members of United Way of the River Cities visited Marshall University Thursday to share the actions of the nonprofit organization and its effect on the community.

Laura Gilliam, the nonprofit’s executive director, said the organization is dedicated to making the community a better place.

“We build communities, improve lives and make our contributions count,” Gilliam said.

United Way of the River Cities, based in Huntington, W.Va, services Cabell, Wayne, Lincoln, and Mason counties in West Virginia and Lawrence County, Ohio.  The nonprofit supports organizations that address critical issues in the community.

 

United Way started in 1922 and financially supported other nonprofits that provided food, shelter and clothing. In 2007, United Way expanded its focus to include addressing and preventing problems in education, health, income and safety net services. 

 

“We needed to collaborate and get to the source of these problems in order to prevent them and improve outcomes,” Gilliam said.

 

United Way of the River Cities selects organizations to fund through letters of intent and online applications. Community volunteers vote on organizations that will be funded and how much money will be allotted to each.

 

In order for United Way to support organizations, the nonprofit has fundraisers year-round. The nonprofit relies on donations from community members and organizations for revenue.

In the past, United Way has raised more than $1 million a year. This is the first year United Way has not reached this goal.

 

Will Holland, Director of Resource Development, said the organization is projected to receive a little more than $900,000 this year.

 

“United Way is now on a downward trend where less and less donations have been coming through the door, which will eventually really affect us as an organization,” Holland said.

 

Kaylin Adkins, Marketing Coordinator for United Way of the River Cities, said the organization has to constantly change its message and techniques in order to reach donors and reverse the downward trend.

 

United Way of the River Cities provides funding for 27 nonprofit organizations.

Public Meeting #3- Cabell County Board of Education

The Cabell County Board of Education tonight unanimously approved the proposed 2014-2015 school calendar.

After two public reviews of the proposal as well as numerous delegations on both sides of the matter, board members approved the new calendar. The school year will now start Aug. 6 and end May 28. Board member Suzanne Oxley said a major factor in her decision was that this calendar was the faculty’s top choice after voting on several calendar options.

Jedd Flowers, Director of Communications, presented the 2014 information campaign entitled “Realizing the Dream.” This campaign includes television, newspaper and radio promotions to publicize the Cabell County Board of Education. The campaign also includes individual school websites that allow teachers to upload learning tools and assignments for students.

Conrad Lucas, Cabell County School’s treasurer, presented the monthly treasurer’s financial report. Lucas said the 2014 school year's budget is currently $210 million.

During an executive session, members of the board discussed details in the superintendent’s proposal to ratify a five day suspension of an employee without pay.

Assignment 15

I went to Huntingtonnews.net and read an article related to the City Council meeting last night. The article on mentioned the long term credit rating being upgraded from a “BBB+” to an “A.” The article had several quotes from individuals about this topic. The article did not mentioned anything about the city’s parking meter ordinance, the bill to purchase a new boiler for city hall, the Tony Hawk Foundation agreement, or the Kyova planning commission. Granted, the topic of the credit rating is the most newsworthy, the reporter should have mentioned the other topics discussed at the meeting to give a full summary.

Council voted to approve and confirm an emergency purchase in order to purchase a new boiler for city hall. No where in the document does it state where this money is coming from or how much money this will cost. Also, what happened to the boiler and what is being done to prevent what happened to this boiler from happening again?

Cabell County Board of Education Meeting 3/11/14

I plan to attend tomorrow's Cabell County Board of Education meeting at 5:30p.m.  I have already read council's agenda and have familiarized myself with some of the topics they will discuss. One of the major event is the board is going to vote on the 2014-2015 school calendar. This proposal has caused a lot of discussion among board members, Cabell county workers, as well as members of the community. Whatever the council decides, there will definitely be a lot of mixed opinions about it. The treasurer will also present the  financial report from Feb. 2014. Council will also vote to approve a travel request from Huntington High School's band to travel to Atlanta, Georgia. The Superintendent has requested to ratify a suspension of a county employee for five days without pay. The board will vote to either approve or deny this request.

Centerpiece 990s Summary

This article emphasized the importance of IRS 990s. By providing real-world examples of how journalists used these documents, I learned that IRS 990s are a great tool in finding stories. As this article showed, IRS 990s are good starting points for investigations and are often a solid stepping stool to finding more information about a nonprofit organization.

Robert Anglen of the Arizona Republic, was able to use IRS 990s from the Don Stewart Association to reveal that the organization was giving money to its own organizations and own relatives. By reading and analyzing the information provided in the IRS 990s, Anglen was able to find other documents to help uncover more red flags and reveal the unethical and illegal inner workings of the organization.

Lewis Kamb of the Tacoma News Tribune, was able to use IRS 990s in two different investigative ways.

First, Kamb used IRS 990s to uncover conflicts of interests among Boy Scout groups and their widespread logging efforts. Secondly, he was able to uncover sharp climbs in executive pay at a local affordable housing agency, while the nonprofit organization was about to financially collapse.

Kamb was able to use IRS 990s as references when digging into other financial documents. He used the 990s to show inconsistencies in financial records and discover money that was left out or unaccounted for.

Tisha Thompson of WTTG-Washington, D.C., was able to use IRS 990 forms to look up the addresses of the charities “Planet Aid” was allegedly donating to. She discovered the charities’ addresses were all the same and were not listed as registered charities. Thompson was eventually able to link these “charities” to “Tvind” which many have labeled a cult.

This article outlined the importance of IRS 990s and the different ways these documents can be used to obtain a story and other, more thorough documents. This article explained that IRS 990s inform the public about crucial aspects of nonprofits such as compensation and expenditures and can reveal inconsistencies within an organization.