[Noisebridge-discuss] Emergency Hack Politics Session (TODAY [Tuesday] 8:00 PM PDT)

[Ronald Cotoni]

Nevermind then.  I have no idea what I am talkinga bout.

On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 4:50 PM, Danny O'Brien <danny at spesh.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 3:37 PM, Andy Isaacson <adi at hexapodia.org> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 03:20:22PM -0700, Ronald Cotoni wrote:
>> > I do not think this should be held at noisebridge.  Earlier on the
>> > list it was mentioned that political things could jeopardize our non
>> > profit status.
>>
>> Noisebridge as a 501(c)3 cannot lobby or advocate political positions,
>> or we risk losing our tax-exempt status.
>>
>> OTOH, I as an individual definitely *can* make political statements in a
>> space provided by a 501(c)3.  I can even do so at events sponsored by
>> the 501(c)3, subject (I think) to certain constraints.
>>
>> AFAIK a group of people meeting at the space does not rise to the level
>> of "lobbying or advocacy".  We should probably check with someone who
>> knows more detail as to when we need to be careful.
>
>
> FWIW, as someone who was job was the political activist at a 501(c)3
> organization(tm), I'd concur with Andy. You'd have to be throwing
> substantial percentage of our precious income, or organizing for or against
> a specific candidate, before we'd even catch a raised spock-brow on the
> 501(c)3 Elders.
>
> Even if we were seen as somehow being more than just a host for someone
> else's meeting, legislative advocacy such as against the PATRIOT Act is
> lobbying, and we're allowed to do that as long as it's not a "substantial
> part" of our activities.
>
> If you want to be super-paranoid, we could file a 501(h) form, which would
> explicitly allow us to spend 20% of our budget on such things, rather than
> depend on the substantiality test which is a little vague for some. But
> unless we're buying a couple of laser cutters specifically for Shepard
> Fairey mash-ups, we're cool.
>
> I too am very confident you can have your meeting.
>
> d.
>
>
>
>> I am quite confident that tonight's meeting can go ahead without
>> endangering our 501(c)3 status.  Hopefully we can do more research to
>> learn what guidelines we should follow in the future.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> -andy
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>>
>


-- 
Ronald Cotoni
Systems Engineer
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