Re: [luau] Ladies and Gentlemen
This is the way to solve a problem. Excellent post Ho'ala! On Fri, 2002-12-27 at 10:29, Ho'ala Greevy wrote: First things first. How are we going to take over the world when we can't even maintain a mailing list? What do we need to do to fix things here? An electorial process of officers? A new home for LUAU? A new server for LUAU? A new mailing list entirely? I believe that a local open source mailing list is essential for our state and I will do what it takes to make sure we continue to have one. I'm not blaming anyone for the current state of affairs, I just want to get things fixed. Where to next, gang? Ho'ala
Re: [luau] Ladies and Gentlemen
May I make a small suggestionhow about you folks consider removing a little of the ego, and if stuff is donated, it can be donated to the UH ICS department Advanced Network Computing Lab. I'm housing the server as it is, and can write a donation letter for tax purposes. This way donations are final, and the donors gets something nice at tax time. Unless UH decides to kick my behind out the door, I plan on supporting this group as much as possible. At the moment I have bandwidth to share, and DNS entries to support the group. Warren is VERY talented, but in his youthful enthusiasm sometimes forgets the 8th layer in the ISO model...the political layerplease consider ending this flame war and let's find a middle ground. If my lab is middle ground then fine, I'll write some nice 2002 donation letters. If another suggestion is forthcoming, I'll support that. This group is too valuable to the community to have confusion end it. Whoever started this flame war, how about you take it up with whoever you're mad at? I'd like to start up something more interesting like maybe a discussion on encrypted remote file systems like webdav or that new one based upon sftp that was written up in this months Linux journal??? What say you folks? /brian chee University of Hawaii ICS Dept Advanced Network Computing Lab 1680 East West Road, POST rm 311 Honolulu, HI 96822 808-956-5797 voice, 808-956-5175 fax - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 27, 2002 10:53 AM Subject: Re: [luau] Ladies and Gentlemen This is the way to solve a problem. Excellent post Ho'ala! On Fri, 2002-12-27 at 10:29, Ho'ala Greevy wrote: First things first. How are we going to take over the world when we can't even maintain a mailing list? What do we need to do to fix things here? An electorial process of officers? A new home for LUAU? A new server for LUAU? A new mailing list entirely? I believe that a local open source mailing list is essential for our state and I will do what it takes to make sure we continue to have one. I'm not blaming anyone for the current state of affairs, I just want to get things fixed. Where to next, gang? Ho'ala ___ LUAU mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://videl.ics.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/luau
RE: [luau] Ladies and Gentlemen
I'd like to start up something more interesting like maybe a discussion on encrypted remote file systems like webdav or that new one based upon sftp that was written up in this months Linux journal??? What say you folks? /brian chee Brian I agree with your suggestions. Dan
Re: [luau] Ladies and Gentlemen
On Friday 27 December 2002 11:13 am, Brian Chee wrote: May I make a small suggestionhow about you folks consider removing a little of the ego, and if stuff is donated, it can be donated to the UH ICS department Advanced Network Computing Lab. I'm housing the server as it is, and can write a donation letter for tax purposes. This way donations are final, and the donors gets something nice at tax time. Part of the application for 501(c)(3) status is stating what we intend to do as HOSEF to perpetuate our non-profit charitable status. I am pasting what I have filed with the IRS below. Basically, we break down our mission in percentages. The largest mission of HOSEF is to accumulate, refurbish, and donate hardware. The second is to teach and educate about Open Source through community outreach. The last is to support LUAU through donated space, hardware, and bandwidth. HOSEF is established as a non-profit charitable organization designed to withstand the torrid heats of ego, testosterone, and flame fests. Donations to it stay with it. No one individual controls the fate of the group. I have tried to model the organizational structure on the Open Source philosophies. I intend to announce and organizational meeting in the first few weeks of January to establish a steering committee. I have proposed people in the past who were not interested. Maybe you would be, Brian. Ho'ala expressed interest earlier today. He or your would be and excellent first leader or captain or chair or whatever we want to call it. Donating to UH is good. Donating to Mid-Pac is what we do now. I really feel like we should donate to ourselves, HOSEF. Then we own it, it is not institutional or individual dependant, tax-writeoffs are possible. I am really trying to organize HOSEF as a LONG term solution to the current little issues that arise. I won't be on the island forever, so it is definitely not MY organization, so to speak. It is yours. scott This is the attachment sent to the IRS for our 501 app. Form 1023 Part II Activities and Organizational Information 1. Our primary activity is the collection of donated computer hardware from government and private sources. Using volunteer labor, the hardware is renovated and donated to schools, religious, and charitable organizations. The mission of the group is to promote the benefits of free, Open Source Software. This software is installed on the hardware to make it operable with no licensing fees. This cycle of contribution is the primary activity perpetuating the charitable status. This activity has been ongoing by an informal group of individuals for over a year. It is now being formalized. A local retailer and a local school have donated space where donated hardware is being stored and volunteers meet to refurbish it. The collecting and donating of computers is 70% of the organization's activity. There are always going to be particular needs when computers are installed that cannot be met with donated hardware. Some school projects will need a new server with new hardware. HOSEF intends to raise funds through solicitations and publicity in order to buy these components for the schools. This activity has not yet occurred, but it will be conducted by volunteers willing to spend the time doing it. It is expected to be 10% of the organization's activities. Another 15% of the Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation's activities will be community education and outreach through free seminars and on-site consultations. By inviting educators, other non-profits, and the general public to these seminars, we will have the opportunity to demonstrate the comprehensive capabilities of Open Source Software, all availabe for free. This activity has been ongoing for a few years, again informally, by a few volunteer members of HOSEF. It is anticipated that, beginning in 2003, more effort will be made to invite the public to informational seminars conducted by volunteers in donated spaces. The remaining 5% of HOSEF's activities will be the support and sustenance of the local Linux User's Group called the Mid-Pacific Linux User's Group (MPLUG). This is a volunteer group of computer professionals, students, and enthusiasts organized around an emailing list entitled LUAU. There are no dues and participation is strictly voluntary. This group is the intellectual engine of the Open Source community in Hawaii. Enabling it with donated hardware and network resources can insure its continued contribution to our culture. Heretofore, resources donated to it were not recognized as having been given to any particular organization. These activities will be ongoing and conducted by volunteers. The activities will be organized around the organization's website, hosef.org.
Re: [luau] Ladies and Gentlemen
far out...I did the non-profit educationally oriented corporation MANY years ago for the Hawaii Netware Users Group (HINUG) but alas, interest in Netware waned and the group died. However the tax exempt status was greathowever there were a couple gotchas that I'd like to pass on. 1.You MUST run at least 1 general meeting a year and it must be run by something like Robert's Rules of Order. 2.At that general meeting, two things MUST happen: a.An advisory board of directors must be voted upon and the installed after voting b.A rollover resolution for funds obtained but not spent in the past fiscal year, be rolled over to the next fiscal year to help fund overall long term goals of the organization. 3.The minutes of this meeting must be published or be available for public inspection. If you can do all three, then it works and donations are legalif you don'tthen the IRS will have a conversation with you. Oh yeah...I made the suggestion about donating to UH since this issue came up nowthat way the donation can be made and whoever can get a donation letter this tax year. However, having said that, I am FULLY in support of the group getting non-profit status and yes ALL the donations should go to the group. However, I would still suggest that donations that will eventually go to a school, be donated directly to said school. If you're a class-c corporation and the gear is two years old or less...there is a special tax credit if it goes to a K-12 educational institution. /brian chee University of Hawaii ICS Dept Advanced Network Computing Lab 1680 East West Road, POST rm 311 Honolulu, HI 96822 808-956-5797 voice, 808-956-5175 fax - Original Message - From: R. Scott Belford [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 27, 2002 12:12 PM Subject: Re: [luau] Ladies and Gentlemen On Friday 27 December 2002 11:13 am, Brian Chee wrote: May I make a small suggestionhow about you folks consider removing a little of the ego, and if stuff is donated, it can be donated to the UH ICS department Advanced Network Computing Lab. I'm housing the server as it is, and can write a donation letter for tax purposes. This way donations are final, and the donors gets something nice at tax time. Part of the application for 501(c)(3) status is stating what we intend to do as HOSEF to perpetuate our non-profit charitable status. I am pasting what I have filed with the IRS below. Basically, we break down our mission in percentages. The largest mission of HOSEF is to accumulate, refurbish, and donate hardware. The second is to teach and educate about Open Source through community outreach. The last is to support LUAU through donated space, hardware, and bandwidth. HOSEF is established as a non-profit charitable organization designed to withstand the torrid heats of ego, testosterone, and flame fests. Donations to it stay with it. No one individual controls the fate of the group. I have tried to model the organizational structure on the Open Source philosophies. I intend to announce and organizational meeting in the first few weeks of January to establish a steering committee. I have proposed people in the past who were not interested. Maybe you would be, Brian. Ho'ala expressed interest earlier today. He or your would be and excellent first leader or captain or chair or whatever we want to call it. Donating to UH is good. Donating to Mid-Pac is what we do now. I really feel like we should donate to ourselves, HOSEF. Then we own it, it is not institutional or individual dependant, tax-writeoffs are possible. I am really trying to organize HOSEF as a LONG term solution to the current little issues that arise. I won't be on the island forever, so it is definitely not MY organization, so to speak. It is yours. scott This is the attachment sent to the IRS for our 501 app. Form 1023 Part II Activities and Organizational Information 1. Our primary activity is the collection of donated computer hardware from government and private sources. Using volunteer labor, the hardware is renovated and donated to schools, religious, and charitable organizations. The mission of the group is to promote the benefits of free, Open Source Software. This software is installed on the hardware to make it operable with no licensing fees. This cycle of contribution is the primary activity perpetuating the charitable status. This activity has been ongoing by an informal group of individuals for over a year. It is now being formalized. A local retailer and a local school have donated space where donated hardware is being stored and volunteers meet to refurbish it. The collecting and donating of computers is 70% of the organization's activity. There are always going to be particular needs when computers are installed that cannot be met with donated hardware. Some school projects will need a new server with new
Re: [luau] Ladies and Gentlemen
On Friday 27 December 2002 05:46 pm, Brian Chee wrote: far out...I did the non-profit educationally oriented corporation MANY years ago for the Hawaii Netware Users Group (HINUG) but alas, interest in Netware waned and the group died. However the tax exempt status was greathowever there were a couple gotchas that I'd like to pass on. I love Novell. Well done with that initiative. Well done. 1.You MUST run at least 1 general meeting a year and it must be run by something like Robert's Rules of Order. 2.At that general meeting, two things MUST happen: a.An advisory board of directors must be voted upon and the installed after voting b.A rollover resolution for funds obtained but not spent in the past fiscal year, be rolled over to the next fiscal year to help fund overall long term goals of the organization. 3.The minutes of this meeting must be published or be available for public inspection. If you can do all three, then it works and donations are legalif you don'tthen the IRS will have a conversation with you. Many thanks for the tips. I will have to do more reading. The application for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status does not depend upon by-laws defining any organizational structure. I did not see anything about funds rollover. We are applying for this as a volunteer based charitable organization, so perhaps some of the requirements are different. Now that you have said this, I am definitely going to scour the man pages to be sure that I am not overlooking anything. Oh yeah...I made the suggestion about donating to UH since this issue came up nowthat way the donation can be made and whoever can get a donation letter this tax year. However, having said that, I am FULLY in support of the group getting non-profit status and yes ALL the donations should go to the group. However, I would still suggest that donations that will eventually go to a school, be donated directly to said school. If you're a class-c corporation and the gear is two years old or less...there is a special tax credit if it goes to a K-12 educational institution. You are a good man to offer the immense resources of UH. Something that I discovered and posted to the list a little bit ago was the fact that an organization such as ours, which is already a legal, charitable non-profit, can legally accept donations. Our application for tax-free status only has to be made if we collect more than $5000 in a year of operation. While I have gone ahead and applied for the 501(c)(3) tax-exemption status, we can legally donate to ourselves this year. I can write you a letter. I certainly intend to deduct the few expenses that I have incurred in the incorporation steps. HOSEF PO Box 392 Kailua, HI 96734 808.230.8845 scott
Re: [luau] Ladies and Gentlemen
Actually you'll never find the rollover thingie in the 501 stuff.we got that from the coopers and lybrand tax accountantsit's the same rollover that communities have to do (association of apartment owners, etc) so that you can acrue money over several years for large scale improvements (road paving etc) that can't be funded in a single year. The HINUG group acrued bucks so that we could fund an annual conferenceit took several years to raise enough money to do the first one. So you folks could do the same for server purchases, buying a bunch of refurb laptops for portable classrooms, etcwhatever you can imagine. All in all a good thing so that you don't have to pay taxes on monies that you don't manage to spend in a single fiscal year. /brian chee University of Hawaii ICS Dept Advanced Network Computing Lab 1680 East West Road, POST rm 311 Honolulu, HI 96822 808-956-5797 voice, 808-956-5175 fax - Original Message - From: R. Scott Belford [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 27, 2002 6:49 PM Subject: Re: [luau] Ladies and Gentlemen On Friday 27 December 2002 05:46 pm, Brian Chee wrote: far out...I did the non-profit educationally oriented corporation MANY years ago for the Hawaii Netware Users Group (HINUG) but alas, interest in Netware waned and the group died. However the tax exempt status was greathowever there were a couple gotchas that I'd like to pass on. I love Novell. Well done with that initiative. Well done. 1.You MUST run at least 1 general meeting a year and it must be run by something like Robert's Rules of Order. 2.At that general meeting, two things MUST happen: a.An advisory board of directors must be voted upon and the installed after voting b.A rollover resolution for funds obtained but not spent in the past fiscal year, be rolled over to the next fiscal year to help fund overall long term goals of the organization. 3.The minutes of this meeting must be published or be available for public inspection. If you can do all three, then it works and donations are legalif you don'tthen the IRS will have a conversation with you. Many thanks for the tips. I will have to do more reading. The application for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status does not depend upon by-laws defining any organizational structure. I did not see anything about funds rollover. We are applying for this as a volunteer based charitable organization, so perhaps some of the requirements are different. Now that you have said this, I am definitely going to scour the man pages to be sure that I am not overlooking anything. Oh yeah...I made the suggestion about donating to UH since this issue came up nowthat way the donation can be made and whoever can get a donation letter this tax year. However, having said that, I am FULLY in support of the group getting non-profit status and yes ALL the donations should go to the group. However, I would still suggest that donations that will eventually go to a school, be donated directly to said school. If you're a class-c corporation and the gear is two years old or less...there is a special tax credit if it goes to a K-12 educational institution. You are a good man to offer the immense resources of UH. Something that I discovered and posted to the list a little bit ago was the fact that an organization such as ours, which is already a legal, charitable non-profit, can legally accept donations. Our application for tax-free status only has to be made if we collect more than $5000 in a year of operation. While I have gone ahead and applied for the 501(c)(3) tax-exemption status, we can legally donate to ourselves this year. I can write you a letter. I certainly intend to deduct the few expenses that I have incurred in the incorporation steps. HOSEF PO Box 392 Kailua, HI 96734 808.230.8845 scott ___ LUAU mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://videl.ics.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/luau
