When I was on the Board, we discussed this a lot, and came to the
conclusion that anything we would likely want to do would be allowable
under the 501(c)3 status.
We can educate our members and the public; provide expert testimony and
advice to government agencies and congress; and make statements
expressing our views on public policy issues that relate to our
profession. If we wanted to, we could even engage in a certain level of
actual lobbying, but that is unlikely, for a variety of reasons (see
below).
Bt definition, the Board is empowered to make statements on behalf of
LOPSA, if they feel such statements are appropriate. It is not necessary
to have consensus of the membership, but of course the Board should be
sensitive to the varying points of view of the membership and choose
their issues and frame their statements appropriately. If anyone wants
my advice on how to proceed on such things, I'll be glad to provide it.
As far as practical options, our lobbying power is zero, and will be
zero for a long time (possibly forever) because we are a very tiny
group, and even if we had every sysadmin in the country as a member,
we'd be a tiny group. We also don't have any money for "serious"
lobbying, and likely never will. If we want to be effective in the
*political* arena, our best bet would be to partner with other
organizations who are already engaged in the political arena, or want to
form an umbrella lobbying group.
The scientific professional societies do the same -- they do some
educating and making connections with the congressional staff on their
particular area of interest, and have an umbrella lobbying group that
does a little bit (relative to the big players) of lobbying when they can.
--david
> On 2013-06-24 at 21:58 -0400, Jesse Trucks wrote:
> > The reality of spinning off another whole organization,
>
> Then my request is entirely to determine what LOPSA can or can't do in
> its current form.
>
> (Lobbying for a charity whose exempt expenditures are under $500k
> appears to be capped to 20% of all expenditures, per
> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/4911 but again competent legal
> advice is needed, not my naive cherry-picking)
>
> > We need to slow our membership churn, increase retention and growth,
> > and finish paying off all external debt (which is just around the
> > corner) before we can funnel money into any expensive programs, and we
> > have very little expertise currently available to perform serious
> > political work in any country, let alone many countries.
> >
> > As much as many of us would love to get involved in the politics that
> > affect our professional lives, it is extremely costly and time
> > consuming to do so poorly, let alone to do it well.
>
> See, this is why I would like LOPSA to determine what the legal limits
> are, and also the practical limits.
>
> If it is entirely legal, and will not endanger 501(c)3 status, for LOPSA
> to retain a lawyer and publish analysis of acts that affect our
> profession, then that might be the limit of what we do; members can use
> that analysis and talk to their own local congresspersons about how
> "hey, this new act is going to put me out of a job, and I'm in your
> district" based on that analysis. If the analysis is reputable, it can
> carry weight.
>
> If we can't directly lobby politicians and that's purely because of
> financial constraints, that's good to know but if we know what we _can_
> do, we can acknowledge those constraints and plan around them. We can
> know what's feasible and what isn't and be ready. Folks on the relevant
> board or committee can have reached out to groups like the EFF or ACLU
> and gotten advice on when a lawyer might or might not be a good idea,
> given finance, and might get recommendations on which lawyers to talk
> to.
>
> And if LOPSA can demonstrate that it's actually *DOING* something here,
> trying to make a real world difference to the benefit of the members,
> then it becomes realistic to hold out the hat and say "It's going to
> cost $X00,000 to do this, can you contribute to the legal fund?" and
> start to raise money *as soon as the legislation appears*, by being
> ready to gear up and respond.
>
> http://governance.lopsa.org/LOPSA_Bylaws#Purpose
>
> Oh, and the byline at the top of the website <https://lopsa.org/>:
>
> "To advance the practice of system administration; to support,
> recognize, educate, and encourage its practitioners; and to serve the
> public through education and outreach on system administration issues."
>
> I'd like the "through education and outreach on system administration
> issues" to evolve beyond raising cheers for Sysadmin Appreciation Day
> and be ready to provide education, through outreach, when we see
> proposed legislation that might otherwise drive many of us to have to
> change careers.
>
> What can I do to help?
>
> -Phil, US Person, GB citizen, sysadmin, crypto and security guy
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