LICN Monthly Meeting
Meeting Minutes – March 11, 2015
	
I.	Administrative 
a.	Attendees: 26, 9 members and 17 guests per the attendance sheet.  
b.	Dave Rost stated that we have 33 full members and including 6 delinquents. He noted that dues ($100/yr) for 2015 were due in January. 
c.	The next meeting will take place on April 1st and the topic will be “Consulting on LI; How to do it”.  
d.	The meeting began with each attending member giving the usual ~30sec skills summary.  
e.	Dave Rost The Treasury account was $9745, with 33 full members, 
f.	For the telephone referral service:
i.	John Dunn - March 
ii.	Howard Edelman - April.  
iii.	Carl Meshenberg – May
iv.	Len Anderson -  June
g.	Thanks to Chris Early for arranging for the Hero sandwiches.  
h.	It was noted that Marty Kanner had been in St. Francis was in the hospital for surgery.  
II.	Discussion - 
a.	Meeting topic: “Consulting on Long Island, How to do it”
b.	The discussion was moderated by a panel consisting of: Rob Weiner, John Dunn, Chris Early and members.   
        In the absence of Andy Baxt (on business travel to China) the meeting was moderated by John Dunn.  
c.	Topics included:
i.	Impact of consulting on family life (clients expect 24/7 availability)
ii.	How to Market yourself
iii.	IRS issues
iv.	Licensing/Certification issues 
v.	Value (or lack of) agreements; 
1.	NDA’s, (narrow focus/not a non-compete agreement)
2.	Contracts, 
3.	MOU’s 
vi.	Forms of business organizations:
1.	S-Corp
2.	Sole proprietorship
3.	LLC
4.	Partnership 
vii.	Insurance issues
viii.	Billing concerns:
1.	Billing Rates
2.	Milestone billing
3.	Down payments
4.	Fixed price vs. hourly billing 
d.	Security 
e.	Reporting to the client 
f.	Support system required: Lawyer, accountant, technical contacts.  
g.	Resources required: equipment, software, a pencil
h.	John Dunn mentioned that the late Irwin Weitman had written an article (first published in 1989) entitled 
        “TECHNICAL CONSULTING FOR A LIVING”  this article is available on the IEEE website at 
        https://www.ieeeusa.org/business/workshops/weitman2001.pdf 

III.	Meeting ended about 8:45.