As one would expect the TASER 10 is IP 67-rated, which means it’s waterproof and dustproof (aka cop-proof!). The RMA rate (Return Merchandise Authorization) is expected to be less than 1%. Axon worked with the Department of Justice, the National Institute of Justice, the African American Organization of Mayors and the International Association of Chiefs of Police among others during their development of the TASER 10. That collaboration, decades of research and experience, and innovation in technology have led to what may be the most effective less-lethal weapon in history.

If you want to change the number of directors on your board within the range set out in your articles, your members must pass a special resolution. The resolution must either:

If the number of board members drops below quorum, the remaining board members must call a members’ meeting as soon as possible to fill the vacancies.

Usually, directors are not held personally responsible for every financial problem. But, they can be held personally responsible for some things.

I remember when Axon’s TASER X-26 was the newest less lethal device on the market. It wasn’t just a step up from the M-26, it was a giant leap in technology. The M-26 was the first conducted energy weapon to produce neuromuscular incapacitation (NMI). NMI is the motor-nerve stimulation of the muscles that occur when electrical pulses temporarily interfere with the command-and-control systems of the body.

ONCA says directors are expected to “manage or supervise the management of the activities and affairs of the corporation” (s.21). This means that directors are responsible for what the nonprofit does.Directors must:

Directors must go to board meetings, be familiar with the issues discussed and get advice from experts when they need. They must be transparent and inform the nonprofit of any conflicts of interests.

“This is our moonshot,” Madden told me. If you’re unfamiliar with that phrase, Madden is referring to the voyages of Apollo 10 and Apollo 11. Apollo 10 circled the moon but didn’t land. It was considered a dress rehearsal for the eventual Apollo 11 landing. Apollo 10’s mission gathered the required information and confidence needed to put a man on the moon. Axon considers TASER 10 to be the company’s first step in its own moonshot toward the mission of cutting firearms-related deaths between law enforcement and the public by 50% in ten years.

The decrease in voltage also allows for polarity switching between probes (positive and negative). An officer can deploy as many as 10 individual probes. The TASER 10 chooses between the most effective two, three or four probes and changes their polarity with up to 44 pulses per second to most effectively attain NMI. In other words, more Band-Aids, fewer deaths – no matter how many probes are deployed on a subject. Metabolic stress testing and muscular strain testing are showing the TASER 10 to be as safe or safer than previous models.

The TASER 10 uses only 1000 volts to allow for 10 probes in the same compact package as previous models and extend the effective range to 45 feet.

A director must be over 18 years and must be able to manage property under Canadian law. They cannot be bankrupt.ONCA says a director does not have to live in Ontario. They can live anywhere, even out of Canada.

Axon has fielded its TASER 10 to seven U.S. agencies and two international agencies for the past several months, who racked up 10 deployments with a 100% success rate. The company has conducted 400 voluntary test deployments and has trained 500 officers. That’s a small sample size, but after extensive testing, Axon believes the TASER 10 will be over 95% successful. There were over 25 successful de-escalations from the spooky charge-up sound the T10 makes. It reminds me of the sound you hear on TV and in movies right before emergency room personnel use a defibrillator.

The X-26’s shaped pulse technology allowed it to be smaller and use less power to achieve NMI much more effectively. Since then, we’ve seen the X-26P, X2, X3 and TASER 7, all of which brought advances in technology such as current metering, virtual reality integration, rechargeable batteries, dual laser sighting and pulse calibration. Most of us were interested in the next step in TASER technology.

This site contains general legal information for nonprofit organizations in Ontario, Canada. It is not intended to be used as legal advice for a specific legal problem.

Legacy TASERs have always been 50,000-volt weapons. I’ve even heard officers verbalize that fact to suspects in hopes of pre-employment de-escalation. The TASER 10 needs only 1,000 volts to accomplish the same mission. This allows for a smaller wire, smaller cartridges, more accurate travel and up to 45 feet of effective range. The only caveat is that the probes must pierce the skin as the energy can’t arc through clothing.

For example, if at your annual meeting there are 8 board seats open for election, but only 6 directors are elected, the board can fill the other 2 seats. If there are 9 board seats open for election and only 6 directors are elected, the board can still only fill 2 of the vacancies.

3. The board member resigns or is deemed or considered to have resigned. For example, your articles or bylaws may say that a director is considered to have resigned if they miss a certain number of meetings per year or acted in a certain way.

If you incorporated before ONCA came into effect on October 19, 2021, your bylaws or articles may not comply with the rules explained below. You have until October 18, 2024, to review, update, and file your governing documents with the Ontario government. Until then, your articles and bylaws continue to be valid. This is true as long they were valid before ONCA took effect.

Directors make decisions for the nonprofit by being part of the board. But officers are only in charge of specific tasks and duties involved in running the nonprofit based on their position.

For public benefit corporations, only one-third of the directors can be employees of the nonprofit or of any of its affiliates (Section 23).

In this situation, the board only has the power to elect up to one-third of the number of directors that were elected at the last annual meeting.

2. The director no longer qualifies to be a board member. For example, your bylaws may say a director is required to be a member. If the director is removed as a member, then they automatically stop being a director.

In this situation, the remaining board members can fill this position with a temporary director. The temporary director takes on all the responsibilities of the former director including voting.

Madden explained that the ability to choose where each individual probe is placed allows the officer to localize the NMI depending on the situation. For example, officers have been discouraged from using their TASER on a fleeing subject because the NMI can render their arms useless during their fall, which often leads to serious head injuries. With the TASER 10, the user can accurately and quickly place one probe in each leg of the fleeing subject. The offender still can break their fall and the apprehension can be made more safely.

Yes, employees can be directors of a nonprofit as long as the nonprofit is not a public benefit corporation or a charity.

Law firms that work in nonprofit law may also offer director training. Associations that focus on specific sectors or areas, may also offer governance training for nonprofits working in that sector. For example, Health Charities Canada may offer training for health charities.

The test subjects found the TASER 10 easier and more intuitive to use than a firearm due to the lack of recoil and stress over the consequences arising from a miss. Every bullet fired hits something and is much less forgiving than a TASER probe. Users’ heart rates were found to be about 15 beats per second slower using the TASER 10 in high-stress testing than when they were using simulated firearms.

Don’t misunderstand me. Neither Axon nor I am saying firearms will not always have a place in law enforcement. I would never consider any less lethal tool against a firearm or any immediate close-quarters threat. Any less lethal tool should not be used in a lethal force situation without lethal force backup and all department policies should be strictly followed.

For example, they can be personally responsible if the nonprofit does not send Employment Insurance and Canada Pension Plan contributions to the Canada Revenue Agency. Or if they close down a nonprofit without paying employees up to 6 months of salary and a year of vacation pay.

The TASER 7 used weighted probes to push their way into an effective position through clothing. The TASER 10 has an increased velocity of just over 200 feet per second. The combination of a lighter wire and that velocity has not only increased accuracy but allows for increased performance in attaining NMI from the TASER 7 to the TASER 10.

Madden had to tell me three different times that the TASER 10 deploys only one probe at a time before I truly grasped what he was saying. “No more geometry,” I thought.

Directors or officers can be indemnified by the nonprofit if they act honestly and in good faith in the best interests of the nonprofit and believe that their actions are lawful.

Law enforcement doesn’t use lethal force because it’s lethal; lethal force is simply and unfortunately the most reliable way to protect the public and officers from an immediate deadly threat. Consider, however, a disturbed individual with a boxcutter 40 feet away. We’ve all heard of the “21-foot principle” (that an attacker can close on and attack an officer with an edged weapon before he or she can draw and fire from seven yards away). Force Science Institute estimates that distance at a much more disturbing 31 feet. The TASER 10’s ability to effectively deploy at 45 feet (where 80% of officer-involved shootings occur) means officers will have more time and options in similar situations.

This page tells you what Ontario’s Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) says about directors. It explains, for example, a director’s roles and responsibilities, who can be a director, and how long they stay on the board.

On January 24, 2023, Axon introduced the TASER 10 at TASERCON. After my video call with Axon Senior Vice President Patrick Madden the previous day, it was obvious to me that the TASER 10 iteration is less of a step up and more of a giant leap.

An organization is considered an affiliate of a nonprofit if the nonprofit controls it, or they are both controlled by the same organization or person (Section 3). So an employee joining the Board of a public benefit corporation may wish to know whether this limit has already been reached.

Axon took an interesting approach to accuracy testing. An adult male thigh is about 6" x 10". The company used that for a target base. The test group was a large number of officers and citizens with vastly different skill levels in both TASERs and firearms. The results were a greater than 90% hit rate at 15 feet and a greater than 70% hit rate at 33 feet. That is nearly as precise as their legacy weapons at three times the distance.

There are some duties that only a director must do. They cannot ask anyone else to do them. For example, only the board can:

Having been a TASER user and instructor for most of my career, I was nonplussed. With legacy TASERs, the officer had no choice but to deploy two probes at one time and had no more than two opportunities to land two probes in the right places to obtain NMI.

Employees who are directors must follow the conflict-of-interest rules that apply directors. This means they must immediately let the board know when they have a conflict. And they must not be at any meeting when the conflict is being discussed. For example, if the board is discussing whether or not to renew their employment contract with the nonprofit.

If your articles allow for a range of directors, the number of founding members on your board is your default number of directors.

Many nonprofits use the terms director and officer as though there’s no difference between them. But, the roles of directors and officers are different.

1. At a members’ meeting the members’ pass a resolution to remove the director with 50%+1 of the votes cast at that meeting or all your members pass a unanimous written resolution outside of a members’ meeting.