Re: AUGD: Bylaws comment
Re: AUGD: Bylaws comment
- Subject: Re: AUGD: Bylaws comment
- From: Paul Richards <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 18:39:43 -0500
On Mar 7, 2008, at 3:50 PM, Michael Horton wrote:
But I wonder - if a new group was starting now, would it still be a
good
idea to structure it as have always been done in the past? Meaning,
Not for
Profit, BOD, 501c3 and all the paperwork and rules and fees
associated with
that status. Why not a benevolent dictator?
Why does a group need Non Profit Status? What are you trying to
achieve here
with this? What would happen to the group if you decided to dissolve
that
status and make up your own rules/bylaws?
I've been taking a back seat and just reading so far, but I'll jump in
with a couple of comments on this one.
The Syracuse Macintosh Users Group is not 501C3. We have talked about
it periodically over many years and each time backed away, deciding
that the small cost savings for our group would only come at the price
of a great deal more mandatory record keeping, labor, and loss of some
of our freedom which has been derived from informality. Recently we
decided to (almost completely) drop our dues altogether except for a
small "membership processing fee" because we have reduced our costs to
practically nil. We believe we can survive comfortably off our small
bank account for a long time like this, and we can always shift back
to a dues structure if we need to do so.
Meanwhile, our sister group (not officially but just in function, and
a group we often work with closely) on the Windows side has been a
501C3 for many years. They have grown and then shrunk along similar
lines to our own group and are now a little smaller than we are. Their
mandatory expenses, many apparently directly associated with that
501C3 status, are slowly bleeding them. There has been some discussion
of dropping their 501C3 to reduce their expenses to rock bottom as we
have and to weather their shrinking membership better. One of their
directors told me just the other day that this is a bit of a problem
because they would have to divest ALL of their assets, to another non-
profit if I understood her correctly, before they could file for a
change in status - at the cost of about $500. I am no legal beagle and
so can't comment on the accuracy of that, and might well have
misunderstood some of it, but it seems like quite a trap they have
gotten themselves into. Get rid of all their money and then come up
with more money without taking in any money? Am I missing something?
Are they?
Paul Richards
Ambassador
Syracuse Macintosh Users Group
Syracuse, NY, USA
http://www.iSMUG.com
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