The Citizen Science Lab

“Form 990 is provided to the full board for review before filing with the internal revenue service.”

“The organization provided the conflict of interest policy to each of the directors for review and signature. The signed forms are kept on file for future reference. In connection with any actual or possible conflict of interest, an interested person must disclose the existence and nature of his or her financial interest to the directors and any relevant committee members. After disclosure of the financial interest, the interested person shall leave the board or committee meeting while the financial interest is discussed and voted upon. The remaining directors or committee members shall decide if a conflict of interest exists. If a conflict of interest exists, the following procedures shall be followed: (a) the chair, if one has been elected, or if not, the president, shall, if appropriate, appoint a disinterested person or committee to investigate alternatives to the proposed transaction or arrangement; (b) after exercising due diligence, the directors or committee shall determine whether the corporation could obtain a more advantageous transaction or arrangement with reasonable efforts from a person or entity that would not give rise to a conflict of interest; and (c) if a more advantageous transaction or arrangement is not reasonably attainable, the directors or committee shall determine by a majority vote of the disinterested directors whether the transaction or arrangement is in the corporation's best interests and for its own benefit and whether the transaction is fair and reasonable to the corporation and shall decide as to whether to enter into the transaction or arrangement in conformity with such determination. If a director or committee member has reasonable cause to believe that an interested person has failed to disclose actual or possible conflicts of interest, he shall inform the interested person of the basis of such belief and afford the interested person an opportunity to explain the alleged failure to disclose. If, after hearing the response of the member and making such further investigation as may be warranted in the circumstances, the directors or committee determine that the interested person has in fact failed to disclose an actual or possible conflict of interest, the directors shall take appropriate steps to protect the corporation.”

“Special procedures shall be in effect with respect to compensation issues. A voting member of the board or any committee whose jurisdiction includes compensation matters and who receives compensation, directly or indirectly, from the corporation for services is precluded from voting on matters pertaining to that member's compensation. Compensation is reviewed by a compensation committee and the committee researches the proposal for compensation and votes.”

“Other than posting the 990 on guidestar.org, the organization will provide an electronic copy of the 990 to any individual or entity who formally requests it from management.”

“Form 990 is provided to the full board for review before fining with the internal revenue service.”

“Undoubtedly, one of the biggest challenges our organization has ever had to face was the covid-19 pandemic. Like so many others throughout our city and our nation, this pandemic impacted multiple areas of our operations including attendance, project execution, employee retention, program revenue, and venue accessibility. A key component of tcsl's programming is the interactive experience of conducting research and science experimentation in our laboratories, and thus, we felt the impact of the pandemic most severely in our in-person activities. Our number of participants in our on-site and school-based programming dropped signicantly after the shutdowns due to the crisis. However, after a brief delay (and due in large part to the ingenuity of tcsl sta), we successfully shifted to providing on-line programming. Yet, even with this shift, we know we are missing an unknown number of students who may have attended our live, face-to-face programs and presentations. At the heart of this request is the awareness that for students living in the hill district, the effect of the covid-19 school closures could have a substantial effect on their academics and, subsequently, financial futures for many years to come. Preliminary studies are indicating that while few children are excelling with the move to online learning, for "at-risk" populations, the impact is even greater and even more dire. As stated recently by unesco, "the impact however is particularly severe for the most vulnerable and marginalized boys and girls and their families." as an organization that works with underserved children, we were already concerned about the increasing digital divide between affluent youth and those who are under-resourced. We are also aware of the troubling disparities in stem scores for these children. The shift to online learning has only exacerbated this chasm. In addition, prior to the pandemic, tcsl's mission was to increase the engagement and interest of underrepresented populations in the sciences. Building upon what was learned in school and supplementing the science engagement activities in the classroom, tcsl was able to provide hands-on science experiments in our award-winning labs to get students excited about stem and the possibilities of a career in those fields. We are deeply concerned that the absence of in-person instruction, combined with the lack of science engagement opportunities will have a devastating impact on hill district youth's engagement with stem.”

“The organization's board of directors assumes the responsibility for the fiscal oversight.”