Alabama Administrative Code › Title 795 - ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF REHABILITATION SERVICES HOMEBOUND PROGRAM › Chapter 795-7-1 - GENERAL RULES › Section 795-7-1-.02 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 42, No. 9, June 28, 2024
Definitions of terms or phrases used in the Business
				Enterprise Program are as follows:
(a)
			 Active Participation - An ongoing process of participation between the State
			 Licensing Agency (SLA) and the Elected Committee of Blind Vendors to achieve
			 joint planning of program policies, standards, and procedures affecting the
			 overall operation of the program. It is understood that the SLA bears final
			 authority and responsibility for the administration and operation of the
			 Business Enterprise Program, including the assurance of continuing, active
			 participation with the Elected Committee of Blind Vendors.
(b) Agency - The Alabama Department of
			 Rehabilitation Services (ADRS) hereinafter referred to as SLA.
(c) Application and Permit - A document
			 requesting approval to install a facility on federal or other property. An
			 approved permit shall be signed by the authorized property official and define
			 the terms and conditions of the operation.
(d) Blind Person - A person who, after
			 examination by a physician skilled in diseases of the eye, has been determined
			 to have not more than 20/200 central visual acuity in the better eye with
			 correcting lenses, or an equally disabling loss of the visual field as
			 evidenced by a limitation to the field of vision in the better eye to such a
			 degree that its widest diameter subtends an angle of no greater than 20
			 degrees.
(e) Cafeteria - A food
			 dispensing facility capable of providing a broad variety of prepared foods and
			 beverages (including hot meals) primarily through the use of a line where
			 customers are served from displayed selections. A cafeteria may be fully
			 automated or may have limited waiter or waitress service. Table or booth
			 seating is always provided.
(f)
			 Displaced Vendor - A vendor is considered displaced when a decision is made to
			 close his/her permanently assigned facility through no fault of the
			 vendor.
(g) Displacement - Means
			 the decision to close a BEP facility. The decision to close a BEP facility
			 shall be at the discretion of the SLA in consultation with the affected vendor.
			 Three displacement points will be awarded to a displaced vendor for selection
			 purposes.
(h) Elected Committee of
			 Blind Vendors - Vendors elected biennially by his/her peers on a regional basis
			 and organized to function in partnership with the SLA.
(i) Escrow Fund - A fund managed by the SLA
			 and maintained for the following purposes: to provide timely purchases of
			 initial and/or expanded merchandise, to provide for the expedient payment of
			 vendors while affording the option of identifying the best price and quality
			 from a variety of wholesalers, to provide for expeditious access to petty cash
			 which is often needed to supply coin mechanisms and bill changers, and to
			 provide for effective and efficient reconciliation of obligations between new
			 and transferring vendors.
(j)
			 Federal Property - Any building, land, or other real property owned, leased, or
			 occupied by any department, agency or instrumentality of the United States
			 (including the Department of Defense and the United States Postal Service), or
			 any other instrumentality wholly owned by the United States, or by any
			 department or agency of the District of Columbia or any territory or possession
			 of the United States.
(k) License -
			 License means a written instrument issued by the SLA to a blind person,
			 authorizing such person to operate a vending facility on federal or other
			 property.
(l) Licensee - Licensee
			 means a qualified blind person licensed by the SLA to operate a BEP facility on
			 Federal or other property who is not currently assigned a permanent
			 facility.
(m) Management Services -
			 Supervision, inspection, quality control, consultation, accounting, regulating,
			 in-service training, and other related services including but not limited to
			 marketing services, and customer satisfaction surveys provided by the SLA on a
			 systematic basis to develop, support, and improve facilities operated by
			 vendors.
(n) Net Proceeds - Net
			 proceeds means the amount remaining from the sale of articles or services of
			 BEP facilities, and any vending machine or other income accruing to blind
			 vendors after deducting the cost of such sale and other expenses (excluding
			 set-aside charges required to be paid by such blind vendors).
(o) Operating Agreement - Permanent or
			 temporary agreements that shall be entered into between the SLA and a vendor or
			 temporary operator covering the contractual responsibilities and conditions of
			 each party.
(p) Other Property -
			 Property that is not federal property.
(q) Permit - Permit means the official
			 approval given to the SLA by a department, agency or instrumentality in control
			 of the maintenance, operation, and protection of Federal property, or person in
			 control of other property, whereby the SLA is authorized to establish a BEP
			 facility.
(r) Seriously Delinquent
			 - Financial reports and/or amounts due the set-aside fund or escrow fund that
			 remain delinquent 90 days shall be considered seriously delinquent and may be
			 cause for removal.
(s) Set-Aside
			 Funds - Set-aside funds means funds which accrue to the SLA from an assessment
			 against the net proceeds of each vending facility in the State's vending
			 facility program and any income from vending machines on Federal property which
			 accrues to the SLA.
(t) State
			 Licensing Agency - State Licensing Agency (SLA) means the state agency
			 designated by the Secretary of the United States Department of Education under
			 this part to issue licenses to blind persons for the operation of vending
			 facilities on federal and other property.
(u) Temporarily Displaced Vendor - A vendor
			 is considered temporarily displaced when his/her permanently assigned facility
			 is temporarily closed for a period of (60) sixty days or longer for any
			 business reason; i.e., downsizing, remodeling, layoffs, etc.
(v) Temporary Operator - A qualified
			 individual licensed or authorized by the SLA to manage a BEP facility
			 temporarily.
(w) Vending Facility
			 Or BEP Facilities - Vending facility means automatic vending machines,
			 cafeterias, snack bars, cart service, shelters, counters, and such other
			 appropriate auxiliary equipment which may be operated by blind licensees and
			 which is necessary for the sale of newspapers, periodicals, confections,
			 tobacco products, foods, beverages, and other articles or services dispensed
			 automatically or manually and prepared on or off the premises in accordance
			 with all applicable health laws, and including the vending or exchange of
			 chances for any lottery authorized by state law and conducted by an agency of a
			 state within such state.
(x)
			 Vending Machine Income - Vending machine income means receipts (other than
			 those of a blind vendor) from vending machine operations on federal property,
			 after deducting the cost of goods sold (including reasonable service and
			 maintenance costs in accordance with customary business practices of commercial
			 vending concerns, where the machines are operated, serviced, or maintained by,
			 or with the approval of, a department, agency, or instrumentality of the United
			 States, or commissions paid (other than to a blind vendor) by a commercial
			 vending concern which operates, services, and maintains vending machines on
			 federal property for, or with the approval of, a department, agency, or
			 instrumentality of the United States.
(y) Vendor - means a blind vendor who is
			 operating a vending facility on Federal or other property after involving in
			 the facility and signing the permanent operator agreement.
Authors:
Alabama Board of Rehabilitation
				  Services, Alabama Elected Committee of Blind Vendors.
Statutory Authority:
Code of Ala.
				  1975
, §§
										21-1-40,
				  21-9-9;
				  20 U.S.C.
				  107 et.
				  seq.