Hi Kirill,

Following up:

I had a conversation with an attorney I know about the registered agent issue. He is going to refer me to someone else who has experience working for nonprofits, and may also be suited to help us review our 501(c)(3) application when the time comes.

I also left a message with the CEO of Impact HUB to ask about HUB's willingness to serve as a registered agent.

I anticipate that both of them will get back to me sometime this week.

Looking at the calendar, a concern that I have is that we have only about 5 days left before the expiration of the coupon that I have for Xero. Will WMDC have time to review information that I may send to you later this week so that WMDC can communicate a funding decision to me by late Thursday or early Friday? The most urgent portion of the funding request is the decision about Xero, and if WMDC is willing to fund that portion while holding off on a decision about funding the remaining portion until the registered agent and DOR trade name issues are resolved, that would ease the time pressure here on us and on WMDC.

Thanks,

Pine

This is an Encyclopedia
One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies
The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve
The well of our future,
The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us,
The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,
And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not know.
—Catherine Munro



On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 10:09 AM, Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com> wrote:

Kirill,

Ok I will discuss the trade name issue with DOR. If you are correct, that will save us $5, thank you.

Registration with SOS and licensing with DOR are separate matters. The SOS fee is the $30 line item.

Regarding a registered agent, yes Washington requires one, I just have not had time to get this finalized and was perhaps optimistically hoping that HUB would agree to do this for us at zero additional cost since we intend to pay them for mailbox service anyway. I have looked at standalone registered agent services and was not impressed with issues like typos on their web pages and complaints recieved on rating services. One had a good BBB rating but also several complaints. I will follow up on Monday or Tuesday.

Pine

On Jan 25, 2015 7:51 AM, "Kirill Lokshin" <kirill.lokshin@gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 10:33 AM, Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com> wrote:

1. I suspect that statement from DOR that you cited is in error because it appears to me from the information that I linked that a trade name registration is also required for orgs that do business under their Secretary of State registered name. I believe that the page that you cited is intended as a resource for those who intend to register *additional* trade names, which we do not.

That would be highly unusual, in my experience; a trade name, by definition, is a name *other* than the legally registered one.  I suggest you reach out to DOR and verify whether you are required to file a trade name registration if you'll be operating under your legally registered name.

I would also suggest inquiring whether you are required to file the normal business license form, the charitable organization registration form (http://www.sos.wa.gov/_assets/charities/Charity-CFD-Reg-Renewal-Form.pdf), or both.  Note that the charitable organization form appears to have a different fee schedule from the normal business license one.

3. I have not yet had time to investigate registered agent services further.

I would suggest you do so and roll the associated costs into this grant request.  You will not be able to legally operate without having a registered agent, and I suspect that DOR will reject any license application you submit if you don't have one.

Thanks,
Kirill

--
Kirill Lokshin
Secretary, Wikimedia District of Columbia

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