Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoduh
The Board has no plans to be a non-profit but it has been offered the opportunity from local professionals (lawyers, accountants) but our treasurer doesn't want to deal with it. I on the other hand am willing to, and very interested in gaining nonprofit status for our club. I see it as essential to fueling the growth of our club and our sport.
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Whereas non-profit status would most certainly be a boon to the club, it seems to me that we need to establish who would oversee the club's non-profit status and maintain it. It takes quite a bit of time and effort to do so as well as a management plan: how active will the board need to be? What will be expected of them? Who will they manage? What are the overhead costs and what is the operating budget? Who files the taxes? Who ensures that the organization is following proper protocol to continue non-profit status? Scrutiny on financial issues is higher for a non-profit and non-compliance can land an organization in a lot of trouble. As in legal trouble. As in Federal legal trouble. Who will be responsible for keeping up on necessary and detailed paperwork? What about creating articles of incorporation? I could go on, but will stop for now.
Time, money, knowledge, and much effort is needed to create and maintain a non-profit. Many people currently involved with the SDGA have committed time and effort not to mention money. Will they then have commit more? If these duties are to fall to the treasurer than I really do not blame him for not wanting to take this on. After all, I am sure we can all agree our treasurer has already gone above and beyond the call in terms of duties, commitment, time, effort and personal financial commitment.
Gaining non-profit status creates legal concerns. Everything must be above board. There is no room for error. None at all. So before bandying about a call for non-profit status, shouldn't we be clear on what it entails and what our future would look like as a non-profit organization? This is a long term ongoing commitment. Think hard.