The Iris Network

“The 990 is prepared with information from the organization's finance director by the agency's audit firm, and a draft is reviewed and discussed by the finance director and the executive director. Once approved by management, the draft 990 is circulated for review and comment by the finance committee and the full board of directors. Any changes to the return resulting from this review are incorporated in the 990 before filing.”

“At the first regular directors' meeting following the annual meeting of the board of directors, the conflict of interest policy is reviewed by the board of directors and each director is asked to disclose any interest giving rise to a conflict of interest within the meaning of the conflict of interest policy. Each director is requested to sign a form disclosing any conflicts of interest or disclosing that there are no conflicts of interest. Directors not in attendance are asked to complete this form by e-mail.”

“Compensation arrangements are approved in advance and based on information about compensation paid by similarly situated taxable or tax-exempt organizations for similar services, current compensation surveys compiled by independent firms, or actual written offers from similarly situated organizations. The date and terms of the approved compensation arrangements shall be documented in writing. If compensation will exceed $90,000 annually, or if the compensated person is an officer, director, or a person who has contributed more than $5,000 to the corporation and the amount of said contribution exceeds 2% of the total contributions ever received by the corporation, then the following practices shall be observed in all cases. The decision of each director who voted on any compensation arrangement shall be recorded in the minutes of the meeting where such action was taken and the minutes of meetings at which compensation arrangements are approved shall identify both the information upon which the board of directors relied to base its decision and the source of that information.”

“All governing documents including the bylaws of the organization, the conflict of interest policy, and the audited financial statements are made available to the public upon request.”

“Residential rehabilitation program: the residential rehabilitation program provides primary vision rehabilitation services and pre-vocational training for as many as 12 working-age clients or transition-age youth for periods of 2 to 22 weeks at the campus of the iris network in portland, maine. While participating in this intensive vision rehabilitation program, clients newly experiencing vision loss from maine and across the u.s. Live in a dormitory in the neighborhood approximately one half mile from the rehabilitation center and commute to participate in classes between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm monday through friday. Classes include group and individual instruction in activities of daily living, assistive technology, communications (including reading and writing in braille), low vision therapy and sensory integration, manual arts, orientation and mobility, personal resource instruction, psycho/social adjustment counseling, therapeutic recreation and vocational counseling, among others. The unique focus of the rehabilitation center program is to provide clients newly experiencing vision loss with intensive professional instruction and peer learning opportunities in the compensatory skills needed to prepare to enter the workforce, or return to work.”

“The process for independent auditor selection and oversight of the audit did not change from the prior year.”