Hello,

The easiest way to incorporate in Washington is to get the minimum number of people, I think 5, and then just fill out the online form.

To get 501(c)(3) if an organization has been registered for three years without failing the yearly report or having members go wild, then the bar to get non-profit status is greatly lowered.

If I were to propose a route going forward, it would be this:

  1. As soon as three supporters are identified, send an email requesting usergroup status. There is really no review process for this and it is just something that is granted on request. The group's history far exceeds expectations of applicants.
  2. If five supporters can be identified to sign on to incorporate, apply as a non-profit organization and operate indefinitely with no budget and few projects. Have the work of the chapter be endorsement of community-organized events, and possibly oversight of coffee funding which is accepted not by the chapter but by an individual organizer if funds are ever needed at all.
  3. If five people either want non-profit status and wish to pay $2500 or seek pro bono filing, then they could do that. Otherwise if the five supporters just wait three years after filing the price and complexity goes way down and they could do the paperwork themselves. Otherwise, the organization could persist indefinitely without nonprofit status and so long as it never touched money there would be no concerns.
The major reason for incorporating in my opinion is getting and managing funding for coffee and pizza 2-3 times a year for meetups. Being able to fund coffee and pizza greatly increases the ability to have partnerships with other nonprofit groups and volunteer communities, and managing the reporting of receipts for pizza meetups throughout a single year is the gold standard for proving at the entry level that the management of a new organization is not crazy.

yours,



On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 4:01 AM, ENWP Pine <deyntestiss@hotmail.com> wrote:
Yes, I can be a group contact.

I agree that chapter status is a ways off. I am mostly thinking about the liability protection we would get from incorporating along with the eventual benefits of 501(c)(3). Bylaws to start can be simple. If the user group evolves into an organization that accepts grants, runs programs, and so on, we can evolve the governance accordingly.

I have a little experience with these issues. I may be able to connect us with law students or attorneys who can help at reduced or no cost if needed. Fortunately, as as an incipient organization with no money, our needs are simple. Hopefully the organization will grow. (:

There seem to be many mission-aligned user groups and organizations in the Seattle area, and it sounds like our Portland friends are experiencing success with events, so this is a good start. (:

Pine

Date: Mon, 26 May 2014 09:45:49 -0700
From: anotherbelieverwp@gmail.com
To: wikimedia-cascadia@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Cascadia] Cascadia page on Meta, and organizing ourselves


Glad to see interest in formal organization. Perhaps we can continue this conversation at Meta?

I, too, think we could have a successful application to obtain user group status. This would mean official recognition from the Wikimedia Foundation, provides funding opportunities, and is a step towards chapter status. Before we worry about bylaws, etc., I think we should focus on user group recognition.

Pine, Mako, would you two be interested in being co-contacts for the Wikimedia Cascadia user group? I can be one, too, which makes three already.  I had hoped to get some people together for an in-person Cascadia meetup at the upcoming WikiConference USA, perhaps for the purpose of putting together a user group plan.  Perhaps this is easier to do remotely since there is already interest.

Jason


On Sun, May 25, 2014 at 5:25 PM, ENWP Pine <deyntestiss@hotmail.com> wrote:
I may have some time in the next few weeks to get us more organized on Meta. Becoming a user group looks relatively lightweight and I think we would qualify if we put in an application. Of course, anyone else who wants to curate the Meta pages and submit a user group application can do so!

If we start to do regular business, especially with people outside the immediate Wikimedia volunteer community or if we start to accept grant money, I think we should incorporate for liability protection and tax reporting reasons. Being an unincorporated nonprofit association that gets sued, such as because someone in our group made a copyright violation, would be bad. Also, incorporation may provide us more ability to get grants and in-kind contributions especially if we qualify for 501(c)(3). Incorporation is not difficult but it involves some time for applications to be created and processed. What gets tricky is selecting board members, drafting bylaws, and doing other necessary administrative work beyond the capacity of volunteers, so we'll need to think about that when the time comes. We are small enough now that all active participants could be board members, but if we scale to 30 members we will likely need an elected board. That is a good problem to have, and the Affiliations Committee can provide guidance for us throughout the organizing process.

http://nonprofit.about.com/od/faqsthebasics/f/unincorporationassociation.htm

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affcom

Pine

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