2013-11-06 SELC Meeting

On November 6, 2013, a few Sudoers met up with the Sustainable Economies Law Center at LOL with some legal questions regarding Incorporation, Board, and creating a "Metacorporation" with other legal entities with the purpose of co-owning a building. Below is a summary of some things we learned..

Incorporation

How best could we try to maintain a distributed power structure given the innate hierarchy of a 501c*?

  • The SELC is a 501c3 who had the same question. Part of how they try to distribute power is by practicing a Holacracy (Wikipedia), whereby tasks and responsibilities are distributed between different self-organized working groups. We could research this and codify it into our corporation's bylaws.
  • Form a non-profit cooperative? (we didn't get to talk about this, but it was mentioned)

501c...WHICH?

    • A 501c3 is a good option, but only if we can explicitly prove that we serve a charitable or educational purpose.
    • We may want to look into a 501c4 (Civic Leagues, Social Welfare Organizations, and Local Associations of Employees), 501c8 (Benefit/Mutual Aid Society and 501c10 (Domestic Fraternal Societies and Associations).

Board

METACORPORATION!!! zomgz

  • As a 501c3 or LLC, we could apply for welfare expemtion and not have to pay property taxes.

Recommended research

  • Non-profit/for-profit joint ventures:
  • Read