Hi Pine,
On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 4:15 AM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
*(3) In line item 4, why is a trade name fee
required?*
New businesses, including new nonprofits, are required to register their
trade names with the State of Washington. See
http://bls.dor.wa.gov/tradename.aspx and
http://bls.dor.wa.gov/forms/700028.pdf. Note that a trade name is
different than a Federal trademark registration.
As stated at
http://bls.dor.wa.gov/tradename.aspx, trade name registration
is required for "a corporation, limited partnership, or limited liability
company operating under a name *other than the name registered* with the
Office of the Secretary of State" (emphasis mine). It is our understanding
that CWUG intends to operate under its registered name. If this is not the
case, please provide (a) the trade name CWUG intends to register and (b)
the rationale for registering a trade name.
*(4) In line items 6 and 7, why is local registration
occurring in
multiple jurisdictions?*
Short answer: tax registrations in multiple jurisdictions are necessary if
we intend to operate legitimately throughout the Seattle area and
throughout the Cascadia region.
Long answer: Cascadia includes a wide geographic area: British Columbia,
Washington State, and Oregon State. We intend to have events in multiple
jurisdictions to try to maximize participation and ease of attendance for
our members. In the Seattle metro area, our participants reside in many
cities other than Seattle; the geographic size of the Seattle metro area
and its notorious traffic problems (which rank the 8th worst in the nation
according to one analysis of 2013 data; see
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/ehmk45mihf/8-seattle-wa/ and
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorzelany/2014/03/04/the-most-traffic-jammed…)
make it a very practical idea to have events in multiple locations. Perhaps
not known to outsiders is that the Seattle metro area (see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_metropolitan_area) includes
numerous smaller jurisdictions, perhaps the best known of them being the
cities of Redmond (where Microsoft is headquartered), Renton (where Boeing
manufactures 737 aircraft) and Everett (where Boeing manufactures 777 and
787 aircraft, and the location of Naval Station Everett). In 2014 we had
events in Seattle and Kirkland, which are on opposite sides of Lake
Washington. Bellevue is immediately south of Kirkland, and it is often far
easier to transit between Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond than any of those
eastside cities to or from Seattle. Conveniently for us, Impact HUB has
offices in Seattle and Bellevue, and we will take advantage of the ability
to apply our single rent payment to use Impact HUB's services on either
side of the lake. Later this year, and not directly relevant to this this
startup grant request that we are making to WMDC, we also intend to
register and spin up operations in the City of Portland in Oregon where our
board member Another Believer is active. We may also have events in
Kirkland again which would require a Kirkland registration (although we may
discuss whether it's necessary to register in both Bellevue and Kirkland if
we can consolidate our activity in Bellevue, or if the City of Kirkland
will grant us a de minimis exception). Our longer-term goals include
operating in Vancouver BC, which will require cooperating with the Canadian
authorities. Cascadia's geographic reach necessitates that we operate and
register in multiple jurisdictions if we intend to have broad programmatic
reach, facilitate ease of access for participants, and operate in a legal
manner.
The publicly available Impact HUB materials suggest that membership at each
Impact HUB location is distinct from membership at other locations. Have
you confirmed with Impact HUB that a single rent payment will allow you to
use space at both locations simultaneously?
On a related note, will Impact HUB be providing registered agent services
for CWUG? If not, what arrangements have you made or are you making to
obtain such services?
Thanks,
Kirill
--
Kirill Lokshin
Secretary, Wikimedia District of Columbia
http://wikimediadc.org