Meherana

“Therese Williams, President of Meherana is married to Paul Williams who is the chair of Meherana's Ste Committee as well as owner of Paul Williams Home Improvement which sometimes provides handyman services to Meherana. In the 2020 fiscal year his business was paid $105. Ralph Brown, Board Director, is married to Katherine Brown, Meherana's treasurer.”

“Meherana has two classes of membership. 1) An Associate Member has a sincere interest in Avatar Meher Baba and makes a small monetary donation for membership to show support of Meherana's Mission Statement. For the fiscal year there were 136 Associate Members. 2) An Active Member also has a sincere interest in Avatar Meher Baba and shows effort to become and remain informed regarding Meherana's goals, activities, and history as well as contributes service work annually for Meherana. For the fiscal year there were 28 Active Members. Only Active Members may hold elective office or vote on official business. Both types of membership need to be applied for annually.”

“At Meherana's Annual General Meeting, active members elect the Board of Directors as well as the members of the Membership, Nominating, and Site Committees.”

“As part of Meherana's Annual General Meeting, Active Members vote on changes or updates, if any, to Meherana's Master Plan and Official Policies, as well as an changes in Meherana's Bylaws of Articles of Incorporation.”

“Meherana's Statement of Financial Position, Statement of Activities, and Statement of Functional Expense are reviewed alongside the 990 and each question or item is gone over line by line. All three financial statements are presented to each Board Member at the end of the fiscal year and interim statements are presented at quarterly Board meetings.”

“As Meherana is a small, tight-knit group, the Active Members and Board of Directors continually interact with each other being aware of potential ways a conflict of interest might happen.”

“Governing documents, financial statements, books of account, and tax returns are open to inspection by any Board Member at all reasonable times. All documents are open to inspection on the written request of any Active member at any reasonable time. Requests for inspection by the general public are to be made in writing to the President or Secretary. The Conflict of Interest Policy is signed by all directors, officers, and those on elective committees annually and is available to all Active Members. Current financial statements are passed out at each general business meeting of the Board and at the Annual General Meeting. Meherana's 990 is available on websites such as Charity Navigator and Guidestar.”

“Due to Covid-19, Meherana closed down all activities held on the property in March 2020 and remained closed through the entire fiscal year. The usual annual three and two day group retreats plus the nine day study course were canceled. Weekly meetings were also canceled. The only persons allowed on the property during closure were volunteers seeing to the needs of maintaining the site. Volunteers also performed offsite administrative work.”

“Rounding”