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For each funded grant, the Treasurer of Troubled Times, Inc. will establish a separate account. Disbursement from this account can be either as reimbursement for expenses already paid or as prepayment for anticipated expenses. Both disbursements require receipts. Petty cash accounting will be regularly forwarded to the Treasurer, who may issue a single check to cover a number of petty cash expenses. Where the grant is over $5,000, a bonded bookkeeping service will be employed. Disbursement checks can be issued singly, for each expense, or may cover a number of expenses. In either case, itemization must be maintained so that a complete audit trail relating checks and expense items is maintained.
No disbursement of funds will occur relevant to a funded project until a place of business has been identified and established to represent a physical point of contact for the public to come in contact with either the officers of the corporation, the principals working to fulfill the mission of the particular funded project, or representatives. Each such place of business shall be approved by the Board of Directors, will secure a business license, and will be known to the public both by address and phone number. Individual participants on a given funded project may remain private, their names and addresses not open to the public.
Example: a funded proposal to distribute non-hybrid seed. The distribution points, where seed is received, sorted, packaged, and again mailed to seed growers or other recipients of such seed, is established as a place of business. The individual growers of such non-hybrid seed, contributing their efforts for free and being reimbursed only for postage, may remain private.
Example: a funded proposal to develop recipes using dried earthworm powder, such recipes to be placed into the public domain. The physical point where such recipes may be secured by the public is established as a place of business. Members of Troubled Times, Inc. who are experimenting with recipes and who may be compensated for the cost of baking goods, dehydrating equipment, and the gardening tools necessary for maintenance of a compost heap, may remain private.
Example: a funded proposal to establish a self-sustaining survival site equiped with a windmill to generate electricity, distillation of drinking water, recycling sewage effluent into a fish pond, and indoor hydroponics, is established as a place of business open to the public to tour.
Disbursement will not occur unless and until a binding agreement stating that any copyrights, patents, or trademarks to ensure from such a project funded by the corporation will be owned solely by the corporation. If such a binding agreement was not secured when the grant request was approved by the board, due to additional or alternative recipients being funded, then such binding agreement must be secured before any distribution of funds can occur.