<VV> 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(7) - WAS More on Idea number 1

[Rob Landers]

And the recent exchanges on VV are why most people who've ever been a part
of trying to actually manage an organization, understand why VV is not
really a good place to discuss the operation of a club.

Volunteer organizations are, by their very nature, hard to effectively
manage.  Volunteer committees rarely function well without "autonomous
decisions" being made by chairpersons and a handful of devoted confidants.

However, when you add what amounts to little more than a "chat room" to the
"noise level"... distortion and confusion reign.  And to top it off, a lot
of time is then spent trying to explain "reality" to those who have never
been in a position of management.  I believe Tim did a good job this morning
explaining about 10% of what has been considered but it would take a book
the size of "Love and War" to truly explain everything that has gone on
within CORSA the past 10 years.

People, do you really think all of the CORSA directors that you, and others,
have elected over the course of almost 40 years were clueless?  There have
been a lot of good people elected to the BoD... some were effective, some
were not.  But I assure you that all found out very quickly that "reality
bites" (apologies to Hank for borrowing his favorite catch phrase) and
without extensive effort, very little can be accomplished.

Suggestions and great ideas are a dime a dozen... organization and action
take a real investment.  Just like suggestions to do "this" and do "that",
the most recent posts regarding IRS statutes have very little actual basis
behind them.  If anyone cares to look (heaven forbid, we would let FACTS
(reality) get in the way of an "excellent suggestion"), please read these
two IRS documents and you will understand why CORSA is a 501(c)(7) and
thanks to the insight/wisdom by those in charge (just for the record, not
me), the CPF was created to take advantage of the 501(c)(3) designation.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p557.pdf   See pages 25 and 48.

http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=175418,00.html  CPF
qualified but not without a carefully-worded by-laws document.  Nowadays, it
costs $750 to apply plus the cost of a good lawyer, with the appropriate
knowledge, to write your app and by-laws very well... and still, the IRS can
deny your request.  We should be thankful those in charge back when the CPF
was formed were "good enough" to get it done.

Here's an executive summary for all those who want to be in management.
There are 5 major revenue/expense drivers.

Dues Revenue
Club Management Expense
Communiqué Editorial/Publishing Expense
Communiqué Printing Expense
Communiqué Postage Expense

And you will notice Insurance expense is not in there as it's less than $2
per member.

I like Bob's idea for an Intermediate book but we need volunteers to do it.
And even then, is it anything more than a "short-term" fix as defined by so
many of you out here?  Seems to me most any action we do is short-term and
there's nothing wrong with that... we just have to keep the flow of
"short-term" solutions coming in and that has not been possible the last 5
years... or for that matter, since CORSA's inception.  We've done what we
could and that has staved off the need for dues increases sooner.

The real problem is the same "expense pie" is being spread over less and
less members.

Either dues per member are increased or we get more members to fix that side
of the equation.

On the expense side, the only way to decrease is to cut the number of
Communiqués per year and/or change the method of delivery and at this time,
the general consensus was that dues could be increased so that we can keep
getting it monthly.

I don't claim to have the answers... only the background (including many,
many hours) to understand why a dues increase is the only solution available
for 2009.  I hold out hope for other initiatives that generate revenue but
again, over the past 20-years a lot of very talented people have tried to
address this without much success.  We are what we are... a car club focused
on a vehicle that was only built for 10 years and abandoned by its maker
soon thereafter.  Our current membership is aging (okay dying) and the
number of cars available for new enthusiasts gets smaller everyday.  Add to
that the relatively low cost of our cars has caused a great deal of us to
own multiple nice examples.  Compared to 20 years ago, how many of us now
own more nice Corvairs than we did back then?

Just some more thoughts (and some FACTS) to add to the noise of this "chat
room".

Rob Landers
CORSA BoD 1995-2001
CORSA Treasurer most of that time
CORSA Finance Committee 2001- Present
CORSA Member since 1982


-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Dennis Pleau
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 6:09 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> More on Idea number 1

Under the IRS code, CORSA doesn't qualify as a (C) (3).  Although we have
recent learned IRS laws are just suggestions.  The CPF qualifies and is a
(c) (3).

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of henry kaczmarek
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 3:48 PM
To: BobHelt at aol.com; corsabod at corvair.org; virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> More on Idea number 1

the money to CORSA.

If CORSA isn't already a 501 (c) (3) non profit, a whole bunch of people on 
the BoD are asleep at the switch, and that goes back a long time.

Hank