Having officers, or at least official roles with accountability to
the membership, is usually a good idea if a group wants to accomplish
tasks that involve a high degree of commitment.
Bylaws are necessary for incorporation, at least as a not-for-profit
organization. They can be quite helpful even without incorporation.
Revenue of any kind leaves the group open to tax and liability issues,
and incorporating as a not-for-profit would avoid the tax issues, but
would place certain restrictions (mostly political) on the group's activities.
Many LUGs (and other computer groups) get along just fine without
any official documents. But it really depends on what the plans are
for the future identity and future activities of the group. I suspect
that none of the documents or organizational structures are legally binding
until papers are filed and approved by the state gov't or someone signs
a contract. So it shouldn't hurt to create some formal structures while
deciding just how "legal" MHVlug wants to become.
There are web sites that can give some advice, but if the decision
becomes to "go legal" then an actual lawyer would need to get involved
(preferably pro-bono).
At the LinuxDocumentationProject site :
(look at section 7 on legal and political issues
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO.html
Rick Moen's essay is a "must-read":
(but he doesn't address legalities):
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/essays/newlug.html
The Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG)
has some general purpose advice and assumes that
incorporation and handling money need to be addressed:
http://www.apcug.org/startup/index.htm
And they have copies of existing bylaws of some of their member groups:
http://www.apcug.org/startup/aoi_bylaws.htm
Borland has some advice (although their thinking assumes
that the user group will have some degree of corporate affiliation):
http://info.borland.com/programs/usergroups/startup/
Structure is possible without legalities. It might even be better, if it
generates more thought and planning than would result from the adoption
of a cooky-cutter incorporation document. It depends on your collective
vision for the group. I offer this opinion based on my former experience
as one of the leaders of an un-incorporated user group.
The WorldWideWebArtistsConsortium (http://wwwac.org) functioned pretty damn
well for nearly two years without any real structure. Then they wanted to
fool around with sponsors and money so they incorporated.
Josh Masur proposed an early "constitution" that would have given WWWAC
structure without legalities (he has since become an actual lawyer) and would
have had unconventional officer titles that reflected the role each officer
actually performed. It was not (unfortunately IMHO) adopted. I won't repost
his entire document proposal (too long, copyright violation, details not really
relevant), but the rationale he gave for his proposal still seems useful to me,
and I hope it will be of some small use to you:
> There are specific tasks we need done which should determine how the
> structure evolves. Remember, kids -- form follows function.
>
> I think this structure has several benefits. It structures the
> organization according to the work that has to be done, rather than
> arbitrary titles. It maximizes investment by people in the WWWAC by
> ensuring wide availability of organizational recognition for their
> efforts. By distributing meeting facilitation responsibilities, it
> ensures that the personality of the organization as its own entity
> continues to develop.
Since I am a non-member living down in the boondocks of NYC, I apologize for
my presumption. I am posting because (based on what I've read on this list)
I think that MHVLUG has made a really good start, and is likely to be around for
a really long time. Especially if the initial structure is strong enough to
support the goals of the group while having enough flexibility to grow as the
group's vision changes and grows. Creating a really good structure takes more
time than you might expect, but it's usually worth it in the long run.
- Ruth
(who sometimes wishes she lived further north)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Casandra's Calendar - Linux and Gnu events NYC/tri-state area
http://www.netcom.com/~casandra/linux/calendar.html
Lug details - includes groups without meetings
http://www.netcom.com/~casandra/linux/lugdetails.html
Other User Groups in the tri-state area:
http://www.netcom.com/~casandra/usergrps/othergrp.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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