thecomputersociety.org

Incorporation Discussion

Here on this page is a brief discussion of Computer User Groups using incorporation as non-profit groups, and as for profit groups and more informal group organization without incorporation of any kind.

Also on this page are a list of important links to State of Florida site and Federal IRS sites concerning incorporation .

1. The Florida Department of Revenue http://www.myflorida.com/dor/businesses/nonprofit.html

2. Tax information for Charitable Organizations from the IRS

http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/charities/charitable/index.html

3. A Florida association of Non-Profits

http://www.fano.org/

4. A national association for Non-profit groups

http://www.ncna.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=362

5. Florida Association of User Groups Info

http://www.facug.org/501c3.htm

6. APCUG national association download pdf handbook on non-profit

http://www.apcug.net/Help/Operations/7%20-%20Non-Profit%20Handbook%20Update%20-%20FC%202003.pdf

7. Efile990 a resource for filing non-profit tax forms

http://efile.form990.org/

The North Florida Computer Society was a registered non-profit 501(c) corporation for nearly a decade. Our founder held all the information and provided all the equipment for our group out of his own money. He never required dues and we never had a cash problem, we never raised funds or bought anything ever. He died unexpectedly and we were at a loss as to how to continue our status and allowed our club to end after many good years.

Our members later began to contact one another, wanting to continue our group meetings and our mission of users helping users. We resurrected our club informally just borrowing equipment from one of our former directors. I took up managing a new web site and providing a few presentations for our meetings and acting as a cheerleader.

This informal status has now become a problem so we have decided to regain official status. We have created a Presidency and new Board of Directors and now our decision is to be a for Profit or a non-profit before we take another step. We plan on changing our name to thecomputersociety.org and re-inventing our group entirely.Involved deeply in our decisions is the question of for-profit status or non-profit status.

Most user groups are non-profits groups, as it fits nicely with the general mission of most computer user groups. But there some serious restrictions involved with being a non-profit. The advantages of tax status for non-profits is only useful really, if you are collecting and spending money, reselling stuff and accepting donations.

In my contact with other user groups I have found that many of them are stagnant in buying anything or using their memberships dues for anything much. In fact user groups in general are facing a series of crises, as they shrink in membership and flounder about, as we have.

A couple of groups I know of intimately have good cash reserves in the bank and many members but feel they are going under. User group growth and health is relative to the eyes of the beholders. If our group had the cash and membership of some groups that feel they are failing we would be thrilled.

In our research we have also found that many successful clubs worldwide are run more like a business than as an amateur association of folks. They often have paid-for meeting places or their own buildings and a regular set of daily business hours for classes and outreach.This is more like commercial sales and services than a hobby.

We have also found that many of the more successful clubs have a core group of people who do everything, while the general membership does little or nothing. The official democratic organization of non-profits groups does not fit easily over an oligarchy or a dictatorship, however politely and refined it is conducted. A true business model may in fact be a better fit, if members are apathetic and defer to the core leadership in every case.

. I believe that non-profit status is the best choice for almost every group but it should not be an automatic choice made without consideration. It is most likely that in the next months we will incorporate on the no-profit model.

A few of our members are more than happy to donate some time and energy to our group. But volunteer effort and enthusiasm can only go so far. If people are going to put out beyond the hobby stage of things they need to at the least get back their costs, if not rewarded.

Now a little secret in many groups is that leadership often is using the non-profit groups to drum up business indirectly. That is not a bad thing necessarily, social networking and going out into the community at large is good for individuals and for our groups as well.

Our reaching out to the general community as a non-profit or as a for-profit group is not that different. The conflict between commercialism and public service does not have to be. Having informal status is a good choice also, with no dues or treasury or donations.

The ethical for profit and the ethical non profit are both good. The sponsorship of the FACUG spring conference is a good marriage of commercial support and non-profit effort.

Anyway that is my rant for the moment. Thanks for bearing with me. We want to hear what your group has decided in this and is it going smoothly?

Let us hear from you on this subject at..

contact@thecomputersociety.org

We will publish some of the comments we recieve on our web log.

Tom Joseph: for thecomputersociety.org)

thecomputersociety.org