http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1023/ar03.html - here is a sample of a conflict of interest policy from the IRS for discussion. David Schuster David Schuster wrote:
Again thanks for following through and making suggestions:
http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=139515,00.html - an article about having a policy to deal with conflict of interest.
The concern for having the 501c3 exemption status pulled by the IRS was the concern. The board will have to put this policy together and submit it as well with the application.
If KUDOS in the future does fund development we were trying to look long term and avoid conflict of interest through membership.
It will be part of the board members duty(as volunteers) to provide diligence that the policy is maintained and followed. It is hard to anticipate how this will work so again it is hard to write when we haven't done it before. Again we are open for suggestions and comments! Keep them coming!
David Schuster
MJ Ray-2 wrote:
David Schuster wrote: [...]
I hate confrontation and love constructive criticism - and am open for suggestions on how to make this work for the community in North America. I don't want to put people at opposite poles, but also must work within the regulations of the IRS. [...]
I think the IRS is pretty well-documented online, as is the non-profit law of quite a few states of the USA, so I know I don't know the law there, but I hope it's online. The IRS non-profit web homepage is http://www.irs.gov/charities/index.html?navmenu=menu1 but I didn't find the Pennsylvania Nonprofit Corporation Law online. What particular IRS regulation is motivating developer marginalisation?
Some UK charities exclude workers from membership needlessly and I feel that's because someone misunderstood the limits on commercial activity. As long as the non-profit is clearly structured so it can't be used for tax evasion or other naughties, there shouldn't be a problem, should there?
I'm pretty sure that KUDOS has got to answer the question of corporate membership anyway because many user libraries will be corporations rather than individual librarians, so can developer corporations be handled by the same protections?
I am open to suggestions on how we can get KUDOS up and running so as to function to benefit all of us. I see KUDOS as a major help in getting conferences to work, possible joint development/grant writing/managing - IMLS is always looking for collaborative ventures between various library types. WE ARE IT!
Open the membership, open the organisation, gather members, build consensus. Maybe when we've a bit more information, people can suggest or do more specific actions.
Looking at the bylaws again for suggestions: I think there should also be a minimal activity requirement for good standing and an ability to refuse to renew members who are not in good standing. Otherwise, it is possible to become paralysed with idle members.
Other failure cases I've seen are a present-but-idle majority on the board and a failure to organise board meetings or elections. It looks like http://kudos.koha.org/bylaws/ doesn't handle those yet either. It would be good to give the wider membership a last chance to regain control of the corporation legitimately, but I don't know how that sits with local laws.
Hope that helps, -- MJ Ray (slef) Webmaster and LMS developer at | software www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk | .... co IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html | .... op _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
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