Iowa Renewable Fuels Association

“The association has contracted with iowa corn growers association (icga) to provide administrative services. Through this contract relationship, icga provides leased employees to irfa, which includes the executive director. Leased employees work at the direction of the irfa board. Icga cannot direct leased employees work or direct irfa actions.”

“Members of the iowa renewable fuels association include those companies which own and/or operate at least one renewable fuels production facility in iowa. Any company qualifying as described above may be invited with the approval of two-thirds of the board of directors. Associate members are companies or other organizations while not qualifying as members, have engaged in a business in iowa which is substantially similar to the type of business engaged in by members in iowa. Associate members may be admitted upon invitation. Future producer members include those companies that are developing or building at least one renewable fuels production facility in iowa. Future producer members may be admitted upon invitation.”

“The affairs of the association are managed by a board of directors consisting of one representative of each member company. Each member names its director and an alternate who may attend meetings in the absence of the director and exercise all of the rights and privileges of the director. An executive committee is appointed annually by the board of directors. The executive director serves as an ex-officio, non-voting member of the executive committee. Upon adoption of an appropriate resolution by the board of directors, the executive committee shall have and may exercise all the authority of the board of directors, except as provided by law.”

“The irfa executive director reviews the form 990 with the external accountants for accuracy and completeness prior to the completion of the form 990. Irfa provides a copy of the final form 990 to the irfa board of directors for review prior to filing the form 990 with the irs.”

“The iowa renewable fuels association expects that all actions and decisions of its board of directors and officers are made objectively and in the best interests of the association. Directors and executive officers must be free from undue influence of personal or outside business interests that may appear to or actually interfere with irfa best interests. In order to ensure that the board of directors and officers are acting in the best interest of irfa, the independent board member policy is read into and included in the minutes of each board meeting. If a board member cannot meet the independence requirements, they must disclose to the board of directors and officers the conflict present and must abstain from voting on the transaction for which a conflict of interest exists. Each board member signs a conflict of interest policy that asks them to disclose any potential conflicts.”

“Iowa renewable fuels association (irfa) has contracted with iowa corn growers association (icga), an unrelated organization, to provide leased employees to irfa. The leased employees work at the direction of the irfa board. Compensation of the leased employees is determined and reviewed by the irfa board. The process for determining compensation of the leased employees is as follows: executive director - the executive director's compensation includes base salary, an objectives bonus, and other benefits (such as health insurance) as determined by the irfa executive committee. Acting as the compensation committee, the independent executive committee sets the base salary for the executive director based on experience, qualifications, skills, leadership, communication ability and industry standards. In this process the executive committee consults compensation surveys, other organization's form 990s, and other information as necessary. The executive committee conducts an annual review of the executive director with input from the full board of directors to determine any merit pay raise or change in benefits as described above. The executive committee further conducts an annual bonus review to determine an objective bonus, if any, based on achievement of the mutually agreed upon goals. Other employees - the other irfa employee's compensation includes base salary, an objective bonus, and other benefits (such as health insurance). Both are determined by an evaluation process overseen by the executive director with approval by the executive committee. Base salary and the range for merit raises are set by the irfa executive committee based on job responsibilities, experience, qualifications and industry standards. After the executive committee has set a range for a base salary, the executive director evaluates each employee and determines a base salary to be approved by the executive committee. In evaluating potential merit raises, the executive director annually looks at a variety of skills and factors including but not limited to: leadership abilities, knowledge of the association and industry, communication and decision making abilities. Bonuses are the second component of employee compensation. Goals are mutually agreed upon by the employee and the executive director and are used to determine any objective bonus. Bonuses, if any, are determined by the executive director based on an annual review of the achievement of the mutally agreed upon goals and are subject to approval of the executive committee.”

“Irfa does not make its by-laws, conflict of interest statement or financial statements available to the public. These documents are provided to the board of directors.”

“The compensation information reported for montgomery shaw and other salaries is paid by iowa corn growers association, as leased employees to the filing organization.”

“Political action committee income - reported separately 29,972. Political action committee expenses - reported separately -48,934.”

“Volunteers consist of board members”