[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Pennsylvania

[GerardM]

Hoi,
The Wikimedia Foundation is not a member based organisation. One aspect of a
chapter is the organisation of people therefore an member based organisation
makes absolute sense. Creating one US based chapter with the explicit
understanding of providing the organisational support that would be good to
have in this context. At issue is that is a legal entity with its sole
function to provide legal and organisational support for the local chapters.
When and where it makes sense, these can be incorporated as well. When and
where it does not make sense, the local chapters would function
independently within a loose framework. When a local membership implies a
national membership, people should be more or less welcome everywhere..
Exactly how I envision such an organisation should work.
Thanks,
    GerardM

On 7/12/07, Robert Horning <robert_horning at netzero.net> wrote:
>
> Anthony wrote:
> > On 7/11/07, Robert Horning <robert_horning at netzero.net> wrote:
> >
> >>  From a legalistic viewpoint, I wonder here if at least trying to get
> >> this going in the first place that these chapters could be organized by
> >> having them chartered through the WMF itself rather than having to go
> >> through the formal process of trying to incorporate as a non-profit
> >> corporation in each local area where they are located at.  This does
> >> increase legal liability for the WMF if this happens, and has some
> other
> >> drawbacks, but it allows a much more informal process to occur that
> >> would allow new regional chapters like this to be created quickly and
> >> cut out quite a bit of the red tape normally associated with
> >> incorporation.  It would also allow Wikimedia-Penn to use the 501(c)3
> >> tax exempt number right away as long as the WMF board accepts the
> >> charter and organization.
> >>
> >
> > I'm not sure what you mean by the "tax exempt number".  If they need
> > an EIN for a bank account, all they need is a charter.  Even an
> > unincorporated association can get an EIN, and is exempt from most IRS
> > reporting requirements if they get less than $25,000/year in gross
> > receipts.  I say most because the IRS just instituted a Form 990-N
> > which is a postcard sent in annually by 501(c)(3)s who have gross
> > receipts of $25,000 or less.
> > http://nonprofitmanagement.suite101.com/article.cfm/irs_form_990n
> >
> Again, this is also a federal vs. state issue, where some states issue
> explicit tax-excempt ID numbers independent of the EIN, but depend on
> the IRS to designate the organization as a formal tax-exempt
> organization.  This is to avoid paying state taxes as well as federal
> taxes for some items, like a bunch of pizzas for a meet-up.  The WMF
> already has been designated as a non-profit by the IRS, which would be
> at least one route to go in terms of trying to put something like this
> together.
>
> Going through the steps of hiring an attorney and accountant to deal
> with all of these various overlapping laws and political jurisdictions
> can be a rather daunting task, and it is precisely this aspect of formal
> incorporation I'm trying to suggest we might want to avoid if
> possible... if we can put together a way to simplify this process and
> allow interested groups of Wikimedia users in the USA to put together a
> small group of like minded people that can support Wikimedia projects on
> a local level.
>
> If the WMF doesn't want to get directly involved in this game, I can
> understand, but that would mean this process of formal incorporation as
> a non-profit group may have to happen for the Pennsylvania group, and
> may have to be dealt with for other groups in the USA as well to become
> completely different entities independent of the WMF.  This seems like a
> waste of resources and effort, and especially money that could be better
> spent on Wikimedia projects directly than to deal with legal and
> accounting costs.  Requiring any local Wikimedia chapters to seek formal
> incorporation is also going to slow the progress of any new group
> significantly, and raise the bar of talent required to put together any
> such group to the point that many potential groups like this will never
> be started at all.  I'm not convinced that there is a need to formally
> incorporate a Wikimedia San Francisco and Wikimedia Pennsylvania as
> seperate entities.
>
> All of this together with the fact that Wikimedia USA will not get
> started until these more local chapters get organized.... unless there
> is some huge effort put forward to put the national group together that
> just doesn't seem to be happening.
>
> -- Robert Horning
>
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