> -----Original Message----- > From: tcwug-list-admin at tcwug.org [mailto:tcwug-list-admin at tcwug.org]On > Behalf Of spencer at mail.tcopensys.com > > Although I may very well be wrong, becoming a legitamite > co-op may be just as difficult and time consuming as becoming > a NPO. I > would like to see the group solidify more on a "mission statement" > before we decide how we are going to be treated in the real-world. > > I think we have to decide who and what we are before we > decide 'how' we > are. > > > >-- > >Daniel Taylor > >dante at plethora.net > > All that written mission stuff has direct bearing on which IRS sections apply and determine what you *can* be. Getting to an approved 501c3 status (or other) is not easy these days because so many have abused the system and there's a backlog. The State of MN must first approve, then those Inc papers go to the IRS for their review. MN can and does approve things that the IRS will not: they don't have the same purpose or rules. It doesn't work to invent something and then try to tell IRS, state, et al, what legal history really should be (they have been there and done that for a few hundred years already: TCWUG hasn't). Either design it to be something, including the IRS and other requirements, or later discover whether it's allowed at all in the daydream form. Group forums and open committees of the hopeful but uninformed are not a good way to get this stuff done. Better to have some folks draft something and present it for review and comment. Needs: 1) mission stuff (what); 2) techie stuff at outline level for function and interface requirements (how); 3) org stuff about official meetings, officers, who can vote, decisions, revenues, properties, amendments, and a dissolution clause (who, where, when, etc). --- Chuck Cole