Early Start on the Trash Walk Project!

(First pieces of the First Weekly Dreem Reality Trash Walk!)

At the last Directors meeting we had, inspired by the Inauguration trash pickup, we decided that we were going to organize weekly trash walks. We got back in to Santa Cruz on Tuesday night and then did our first trash walk Thursday morning, the 29th!

Being back in the warm West Coast with the incredibly beautiful ocean and trees and people, it was easy to make the choice to move our trash walk up a week (originally planned to start the week of the 1st). Phoenix, our roommate Ashley, her dog Lindsay Lohan, and I made the first walk. The loop only totaled about a mile or so but we managed to fill one whole trash bag. a VAST difference from DC where you could stand in the same spot for 20 minutes and the wind would blow you enough trash to fill one and a half bags...as WELL as the trash bag to put it in.

We received a few "Thank You's" from people that were passing by as we dipped into the gutters, cleaned up bus stops, and pulled wrappers and ripped up scratch-off tickets from the grass and bushes. Definitely a rewarding feeling when you look around and see that it truly does make a significant difference.

In beach towns like Santa Cruz it feels especially important to do trash walks. Most of the street drains lead right to the Ocean which is constantly moving with sea life. I'm definitely proud of us! We hope to perhaps gather more people to join in the trash walks as time goes on, and perhaps even to reach people in other areas to start there own. Maybe on our website (which is still in construction) we can have a page dedicated to stories of different trash walks across the States. That would be beautiful!

~Dani

Meeting Minutes for 1/26/2009

This meeting was TRULY wonderful! Not only was it on time and didn't need to be rescheduled (haha!) we also were able to get so much done. By sketching out the Organization's structure as well as the website's page layouts - we were able to get a really good idea of what focuses we have. We also prepared some great questions for SCORE, though we only left a message with them about the meeting.

Phoenix and I were both really proud of ourselves for the work we accomplished at this meeting.

~Dani

Dreem Reality Meeting

Date: Monday 1/26/2009 Time Start: 3:06 pm (Atlantic) Time End: 4:30 pm

Location: Pasadena, Maryland

Attending: Phoenix – President; Dani – Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer

I. Welcome! YAY! No rescheduling –may be the first meeting that is ON TIME!

II. Online Presence:

· Emails set up (add logo when get back), start Donate@DreemReality.org

· Calendar is combined with our @DR.org calendars

· Want to add minutes to DR docs when we get home – to be viewable to public

· Updated blog about trash-pick up, need Phoenix' picture from that day

· Create into video sometime this week. Nice background, tagline pics (snow, sand…)

III. SCORE

· Set up meeting (831-621-3735)- left a message, call back

· Questions to ask:

- What can/'t we write off? (utilities, etc)

- Can they help with grants?

- Can they help with filing Tax-exempt?

- What can we start purchasing materials as the DR? (After Articles filed?)

- Is Quicken a good software to use to keep track of finances?

- Over view of Articles and Bylaws –good?

- What do they think about having so many project types and facets?

- How categorize our travel funds?

- How to provide tax write off letters to donors?

- How to break up donations in order to fun Org?

- If we plan to have counseling meetings with Dreemers, how make sure it's legal and safe?

IV. Structure Sketch: See attachment

· Conduct a poll at the mall – What is your Dreem? To get idea of projects.

V. Website

· Sketch layouts: See attachments. (Want to load into google docs for Chris)

· Questions for Chris:

- Can we create a forum?

- Can we link in the blog? (Is the present email/account ok?)

- Can we get a newsletter started?

- Will we be able to have a profile/membership system for volunteers and forum posters? Intricate categorizing of specialties needed.

VI. Finalize Articles and Bylaws for SCORE

· Need to add in Community Awareness section.

· See Attachment for Bylaw's Statement of Purpose including Community.

· Statement of Purpose for Articles: The specific purposes for which this corporation is organized are to educate the general public about personal and community awareness through various topics including but not limited to self-development, goal achievement, motivation, volunteer work, and environmental consciousness. Also, it will be a scholarship and special needs oriented charitable organization.

VII. Ideas for next meeting

· Work on Logo – add website address and make tag line more readable for smaller logo uses.

· Get record book together.

ATTACHMENTS:

1. Bylaw's Statement of Purpose

SECTION 1. OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSES

The primary objectives and purposes of this corporation shall be:

1. To provide instruction and guidance to the general public for self-actualization, goal achievement, and motivation pertaining to topics that include but are not limited to travel, culture, music, art, spirituality, and technology.
2. To directly engage the public through activities such as workshops, speaking panels, conferences, counseling, and lectures.
3. To inform and educate by publications such as online forums, newsletters, blogs, and a central information hub.
4. To improve community awareness through volunteer work and environmental consciousness.
5. To enable volunteer work through information exchange, networking systems, and online forums.
6. To develop environmental consciousness through methods that include but are not limited to trash pick-ups and support Go-Green organization and systems.
7. To provide financial assistance to specific individuals and organizations for promotion of goal attainment.
8. To host an annual donation contest as well as to sponsor specific projects through charitable contribution.
   

Meeting Minutes for 1/24/2009

Dreem Reality Meeting

Date: Thursday 1/24/2009 Time Start: 2:03 pm (Atlantic) Time End: 2:42pm

Location: Pasadena, Maryland

Attending: Phoenix – President; Dani – Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer

I. Welcome! This meeting is rescheduled from 1/19/2009- Martin Luther King day and Inauguration attendance.

II. Website content:

· Based on statement of purpose

· Page Brainstorm:

- About US (Org and Directors)

- Project page (Ariel, Job Sat Survey, etc)

- What is a Dreemer

- Donations page:

* How allocate funds (overhead – website, rent, utilities, etc)

*Annual Charity

*Education (for Directors and Dreemers – materials, travel, publications)

*Project funding (for materials like Ariel's lighters)

III. Youtube

· Movie maker – vids for creating projects, their progress, DR progress

· Intro video – what is DR, status, philosophy, how to donate, etc. (Work on end of next week)

IV. New Project Ideas:

· Litter removal (start trash walk week of 2/1/09) – Taking on "Community Awareness" facet now with this and volunteering. *EDIT BYLAWS*

· Financial awareness (Pum and Crystal) – RESEARCH discounts on software for non-profit that can sell on website (Quicken, Rosetta Stone, etc)

· Cafepress – start account so can have t-shirts and get our logo out there.

V. Bylaws

· Still haven't read all the way through, not a large priority. Have read within the next few weeks.

· Taking on new element of Community Awareness through volunteering and environmental awareness.

VI. Tax exempt fill ins

· Need to research most recent version and print out. Book provides 2006.

· Going to wait until meeting with SCORE to see if they help to fill it out.

VII. Ideas for next meeting

· Set up appointment with score for Wed or Thurs (831-621-3735) – have all print outs ready – Bylaws, Articles, Tax exempts

· Umbrella structure sketch of Organization

· Edit bylaws for SCORE meeting

· List of questions for SCORE

2009 Inauguration and Trash Pick Up

Being a non-profit (well, soon to be) Dreem Reality isn't allowed to take any political stances and we wont. But I still would like to talk about the Inauguration and a new project it inspired us to take on.

We spent a whole 24 hours or more in chilly DC, exploring the East Coast culture and really getting to know at least a few streets of the city. It was honestly incredible to see how people of all ages and races were so loving and friendly to each other. I'd have to say that at least for the attendees and work force of DC on Jan 19th and 20th people were more friendly than I have experienced in a lot of California. Especially beautiful was how people of different races interacted as though they were one-in-the-same (which of course...they are!). This may have been primarily due to the fact that there is now an African American President and most people in DC were there to celebrate this! It was truly beautiful.

The energy and community within the thousands and thousands that stood in the DC mall as Obama was sworn in was brilliant. It was wonderful to be a part of. However, I honestly became ashamed of my "fellow Americans" as they quickly stampeded out of the mall when the speeches were done. There was trash EVERYWHERE!

As people cleared out, the wind would pick up and a storm of trash swirled all around the mall. Handwarmers and their wrappers were strewn about every few inches. Newspapers with the newly elected President, the touter of "Change" that all these people had voted for, were fluttering through the sky like flocks of birds. It was very saddening.

So, Dreem Reality took action. I handed a bag to Phoenix and we started picking up every piece of trash we could get our hands on. Our knees got dirty as we crawled around chasing bits of paper flying in the wind and pulling newspapers out from people's feet. One woman bent down and grabbed my face, kissing me on the cheek and thanking me. Others barely moved when they saw me at their feet. Some thought we were park staff and asked us for directions to the metro and Smithsonian. Others made rude comments about not having gloves, or shot back remarks when we asked for help.

Still others, though, came to us with hands full of garbage to put in the bags - thanking us as we thanked them back. A few park staff told us that we were the heroes of the new Presidency, and that this is exactly how change would happen. And eventually we had built a small task force of Dreemers that worked side by side with us, filling one huge garbage back after another. There were three or four in particular that stuck with us - two of which we got their names: Scott and Kathy. Another Dreemer in an Orange shirt and hat even began recycling some of the items, but unfortunately we didn't get his name - thanks goes out to the Universe for him.

It's EXACTLY this type of change we want to make. Through our actions as Dreemers we will inspire others. Sure not everyone, and even some people will actively struggle against change and betterment....but there will be those few people that actually make that difference. And they will in turn go out and inspire MORE people. This is how I feel the world can be changed, in small but significant actions.

Therefore, we have decided that Dreem Reality will take on a new facet of projects revolving around community service through environmental awareness and volunteering. Because in order for our Dreems to come true we need to have a better world for them to exist in, and through volunteering and environmental awareness we can begin to see that change.

Starting the week of February 1st, 2009 we will begin a weekly litter removal walk. It's our hopes that we will be able to get more people to join in our weekly walk, as we inspire through example. Perhaps through a consistent effort and sharing our experience we can spread the walk to other counties, cities, and states!

~Dani

We've gone Live! YouTube account created!

The idea that originally resonated with Phoenix and I to get Dreem Reality started, was to create a YouTube channel of us doing our ridiculous adventures and travels. Our hopes were that we could get people to sponsor our adventures (Dreems), and essentially live vicariously through us. In order for us to receive donations we thought it would be great to have a non-profit set up so that people could feel comfortable donating the money...and hopefully lots of it.

That idea-seed then blossomed to encompass our other Dreems to help people realize their own Dreems. And thus the foundation of our educational-slash-charitable, self-actualization, goal achievement, and motivation driven non-profit was established.

So back to the original concepts to share our adventures through video...

As Phoenix and I have been living out our Dreems in mini-adventures, we've been taking lots of pictures and videos. I have been trying to keep up with those on my travel blog (HERE) and also we've been posting some of our videos on my personal YouTube account. But it hasn't been centralized...until now. Phoenix has been working all day on learning the ins-and-outs of Windows Movie Maker, which will allow us to create basic slide shows and movies, spliced with music and text. Now we are bringing it all together and will be creating movies showing our adventures in hopes of grabbing people's attention, eventually looking for sponsors of Dreem Reality.

Not only will we be posting movie compilations of our adventures, we also will be posting progress reports of the Organization's formation and eventually "news casts" from different activities and projects (such as speaking panels, lectures, workshops and so on). I get excited about the potential to one day create a documentary with all the footage, perhaps to share the start up of a successful non-profit. I'm hoping that all these beginning blogs will lend themselves to a thorough Biography or Documentary one day in the future!! Wouldn't that be awesome?

For now though, we only have the channel created. Nothing is on it as of the writing of this blog. I'm going to try and convince Phoenix to do a Video Blog with my in a little while, so that maybe we can just have SOME content out there. I don't want to get too crazy with it as we're not yet officially a non-profit and don't even have a website for someone to explore if they DO have interest in us.

But, again, for posterity's sake...now is the time and this is the link: http://www.youtube.com/DreemReality

~Dani

Meeting Minutes for 1/15/2009

This was probably the most productive meeting we've had so far! We were able to sit down and come up with the Statement of Purpose for the Bylaws, which was a really huge step for us. We also were able to review the Articles of Incorporation and improve upon that. With the accomplishments from this meeting we will be able to start creating some good website content, which should probably be a focus for the next meeting on Monday, 1/19/2009.

Here are the minutes for the meeting:

Dreem Reality Meeting

Date: Thursday 1/15/2009 Time Start: 10:59 pm (Atlantic) Time End: 12:30 am

Location: Gainsville, Virginia

Attending: Phoenix – President; Dani – Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer

I. Welcome! Acro-yoga to warm up and relax (10:34 – 10:59pm).

II. Phoenix book review:

· Confirm that we are non-member structure

· Maybe take on "Scientific" category later which may lead to more funding.

· Unrelated business activities – can do them to raise funds, but can't be a majority of income for the organization (ex: bake sale, youth dance)

· Review donation rules pg. 77ish of book

· 51% rule – salaries in a few years

III. Check list review

IV. Review and Discussion of Articles

· Purpose for articles

· Statement of purpose

· Did some good editing of the statement of purpose: "The specific purposes for which this corporation is organized are to educate the general public about various topics including but not limited to self-development, goal achievement, and motivation. Also, it will be a scholarship and special needs oriented charitable organization."

V. Review and Discussion of Bylaws

· Need to finish mission statement – address major objectives and activities (DID! See attachment)

· Need to have Bylaws read by next meeting: Monday, 1/19

VI. State and Federal Tax Exempt application Review

· Review moved to next meeting: Monday, 1/19

VII. Wrap-up

· Shouldn't have meeting on bed or in bedroom – need to sit up at a table! We got tired quicker.

· Got a LOT done today! Very impressed with the work done on the Articles and Bylaws

· Meetings are excellent, it has helped us gain a better understanding of what needs to happen and how far along we are.

· Fruit and other brain goods are great to eat!

· The acro-yoga at the beginning was a little too distracting.

ATTACHMENT:

Statement of Purpose for Bylaws of Dreem Reality

SECTION 1. OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSES

The primary objectives and purposes of this corporation shall be:

A) To provide instruction and guidance to the general public for self-actualization, goal achievement, and motivation pertaining to topics that include but are not limited to travel, culture, music, art, spirituality, and technology.

B) To directly engage the public through activities such as workshops, speaking panels, conferences, counseling, and lectures.

C) To inform and educate by publications such as online forums, newsletters, blogs, and a central information hub.

D) To provide financial assistance to specific individuals and organizations for promotion of goal attainment.

E) To host an annual donation contest as well as to sponsor specific projects through charitable contribution.

Meeting Minutes for 1/13/2009

(Yep! We reenacted this scene...)

Dreem Reality Meeting

Date: Tuesday 1/13/2009 Time Start: 12:59 am (Pacific) Time End: 1:56 am

Location: San Jose International Airport

Attending: Phoenix – President; Dani – Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer

This was a really exciting meeting for the both of us. We have had a few unofficial meetings already to get Dreem Reality up and running, but This one was the first timed meeting with some structure to it. It was a powerful meeting to have, at 1am in an airport. It was the perfect location since what we are wanting to do is travel. Having the excitement for our up coming travels gave us that perfect buzz for ideas and action with what we have to do and get done to finally get incorporated.

As the airport was fully asleep, with people cleaning everywhere with vacuums and such, we were creating, creating, creating.

Dreem Reality has been great at busting through old concepts of taking on a project that seems big and overwhelming. Through the concepts of Dreem Reality I have come to realize that every business, corporation and dream has all stemmed from a small thought. Through that thought and idea things in reality get built upon more and more. Finally turning into a concrete substance that you can use and see in your world. Set backs are no longer a worry for me, because there will have to be some, it is all a part of the process to me now and I welcome any that come our way. It has been such a joy to watch Dreem Reality start to grow and know that it will only continue to do so as long as we have the desire to keep it growing. Through Dreem Reality not only am I able to actualize my dreams of travel, but it has helped me realize that any dream, big or small can be actually created, as long as you hold the dream strong and kept pushing to create it in your world, your reality.

I know the future only holds more room for growth for Dreem Reality, and for all of our dreams that we develop along the way.

~Phoenix~



Here is an outline for the meeting on 1/13/09:

I. Yay Meeting!

· First unofficial meeting!

· Great location – the airport represents adventure and our Dreem (to travel)

II. Steps left to become official:

1) File Articles of incorporation

2) Complete Bylaws

3) File State Tax Exempt application

4) File Federal Tax Exempt application

· MEETING SCHEDULED TO DISCUSS AND REVIEW THESE FOR: THURSDAY 1/15/2009

· Need to set up a counseling appointment with SCORE to get their approval before filing

III. Mission Statement

· Do we need a lawyer?

· Need to set up a special brainstorming meeting (Probably on 1/15)

· Necessary for website content and Bylaw completion

IV. Website

· Status – have emails and control panel ready

· Content – NEEDED! Only thing holding us back from having something up

· Ask Chris – what gmail account was used to set up the apps? DreemReality?

V. Brainstorm

1) Project Ideas – pet owner travel, elderly dreems

2) Workshops – networking, instructional. A 3-day retreat to network and create pathworks to dreems.

3) What does DR do?

· Educate by:

- Info hub concerning different topics – ever expanding (music, travel, marketing)

- Blog/video – personal experience/education – our Lucid Dreem!

- Workshops – (travel option!) Proceeds go to charity & furtherance of cause

- Networking – forum and Shawn networking system (?)

4) Discussed contribution/roles so far:

· Phoenix – image, big ideas

· Dani – research, behind the scenes

VI. Wrap-up

· Mission statement – need to brainstorm!! Top priority

· Meetings are good! They help us focus and really get on the same track to accomplish

· Hour long meetings is the goal – enough time to get stuff done, short enough to keep attention

· Snacks were good and not distracting: carrots, cheese, crackers – good brain food.

· Ideas for next Monday's meeting (1/19):

- Phoenix book review – specific content

- New facets/activities that DR does

- New ways to do charity (not only for public, but also community perks for volunteers and Dreemers)

· Ideas for Thursday's meeting (1/15):

- Wording on Articles and Bylaws – print out

~Dani

Election of Officers!

We're in Redding, California right now and have finally had a chance to sit down and talk about a few official things for Dreem Reality. The goal was to have the Articles of Incorporation ready to be sent out by the beginning of 2009. Which we do! However, the book we are reading ("How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation in California") has suggested to also have the Bylaws ready so that we have some idea of our responsibilities before we commit to incorporation.

Today we were able to accomplish a few major goals! We have determined the offices as well as fleshed out a majority of the Bylaws. The only thing missing from the bylaws is to create the finalized "statement of purpose", which is a bit more detailed than the one for the Articles of Incorporation. Once we have that we'll be done with the Bylaws. Then it seems the next step is to fill in the application for Tax Exempt Status. Once we have that ready, I will fill confident in sending in the Articles of Incorporation. My goal is to have that completed by the end of this week.

So, that means that we have our new President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer! Being that the same person can hold multiple positions, except that the President can NOT be the same person as the Secretary and Treasurer that has meant that our officers are:

President: Phoenix
Vice President: Dani
Secretary: Dani
Treasurer: Dani

The Secretarial and Treasurer duties are more my thing than hers at this time. We have decided that at the annual meeting on May 5th, 2010 we will re-evaluate the positions if we have new directors to fill the spot of Treasurer and Secretary.

Hooray! Big step today!

One of my first acts of Treasurer will be to get a Quicken account set up for the non-profit. Which I'll probably go work on now.

~Dani

One Freedom Fighter Down

Yesterday marks a sad day that the Restaurant. One of the managers was "Laid Off", supposedly for financial purposes...but honestly, I think it was because she was the only one of the managers that would speak out for the workers. She repeatedly would come to us to let us know how she would speak to the owner about how she was unhappy and didn't feel like she was able to make the changes she was hired to make. The owner would respond that she just had to deal with it, that changes couldn't really happen, especially not that fast.

Anyway, she was the one that helped get me moving to administer the surveys. She has been the "behind the scenes" manager that sheds a little light on how things work there. She has a beautiful soul and is a constant source of love and light whenever we work. Everyone is really sad and upset about her being fired.

The only good thing about it is that I have a feeling the "Shadyness" of her release will inspire our co-workers to take a more active roll in making change. It's perfect timing for the surveys, I hope.

That being said, so far we have 14 surveys in. I want to double check to make sure all the functions in the Excel are correct, as I have a slight feeling something may be off. That will be a project soon.

Also! I have decided that Dreem Reality will also take on the hours and overtime project I have been working on. Basically, I keep track of my hours and tips every shift. Then when I get my paycheck I enter my hours into an Excel I've created that calculates how much I SHOULD be getting vs. how much I am. Things look pretty accurate so far except for maybe some screwyness with Overtime pay.

I found out that the workdays have been set from 4am to 4pm, then 4pm to 4am. This means that in any given day there are two work days...which means that its MUCH more difficult to be paid for overtime, even if you have been working from 12pm to 11pm. This doesn't effect me quite as much because my work days are usually only about 5 hours, but there are a LOT of employees that have that type of schedule. They should be able to keep track of their hours, but most IMPORTANTLY become aware that the workday split is there. Even though it is legal, it seems unfair to the workers and honestly makes workers feel like they aren't cared for.

Here are some Q&A about holiday pay and overtime:

Q.Last week I worked eight hours on the 4^th of July holiday, which fell on Wednesday. For the whole week I worked 40 hours. When I got my paycheck this week I was paid for 40 hours at my straight time rate. Aren’t I entitled to extra pay, of at least double time, for working on a holiday?

A.There is nothing in state law that mandates an employer pay an employee a special premium for work performed on holidays, Saturdays, or Sundays, other than the overtime premium required for work in excess of eight hours in a workday or 40 hours in a workweek. Unless your employer has a policy or practice of paying a premium rate for working on a holiday, or you are subject to a collective bargaining or employment agreement that contains such a term, your employer is only required to pay you your regular rate of pay for all the straight time hours worked on the holiday, and the overtime premium required for work in excess of eight hours in a workday or 40 hours in a workweek. Since you did not work over eight hours on the holiday, or more than 40 hours during the workweek, you were paid correctly.


Definitions of Work days and Work weeks:

workday

Any consecutive 24-hour period beginning at the same time each calendar day. The workday may begin at any time of day. The beginning of an employee's workday need not coincide with the beginning of that employee's shift, and an employer may establish different workdays for different employees. Once a workday is established, it may not be changed unless the change is intended to be permanent and is not designed to evade the employer's overtime obligation.

workweek

Any seven consecutive days, starting with the same calendar day each week beginning at any hour on any day, so long as it is fixed and regularly occurring. "Workweek" is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour periods. An employer may establish different workweeks for different employees, but once an employee's workweek is established, it remains fixed regardless of his or her working schedule. An employee's workweek may be changed only if the change is intended to be permanent and is not designed to evade the employer's overtime obligation.

That's all for now.

~Dani