Draft of Fiscal Policies

[Christina]

I've put together a quick rough draft of some policies for the treasurer position. The biggest problem that I'm having is about how to maintain the confidentiality of the treasurer while still being able to accept checks. There's also a problem because admins should have view access into the bank account but I'm not sure how to pull that off without signatures. Feel free to tear these apart until we have all of the accountability that we need.

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1. The Treasurer will be selected by a consensus of the Administrators and must make their real name and contact information available to the Administrators prior to accepting the appointment. The Treasurer can be removed by a majority vote of the Administrators.

2. The Treasurer will open a separate bank account to be used only for TalkRational donations and expenditures. Donations cannot be intermingled with other personal funds. All PayPal donations will be deposited directly into that account and the transaction history must be provided to the Administrators. (I’m not sure what form that takes yet, and ideally the administrators should have access to that PayPal account information.)


(I don't think that I can open an account with a DBA name if we aren’t a corporation but I've never tried, and I don’t want to give out my real name to everyone. Any ideas? If we can’ figure something out, I don’t think we can accept checks. But if we do…)

3. The Administrators will open a P.O. Box to receive mail donations if they are unwilling to publicly post a personal name and address. Administrators will make a copy of all checks received and then forward those checks to the Treasurer who will deposit them into the TalkRational account. (This is a pain, but it’s the only way that I can think of to ensure that the treasurer is depositing all donations into the TalkRational account unless someone can think of an easier way). Donors should notify the administrators in advance before sending checks in the mail. Please do not send cash. The Administrators are responsible for ensuring that an orderly transfer of the mailing address takes place when the duty of collecting checks changes hands, and for the orderly replacement of the Treasurer and transfer of funds when necessary.

4. All expenditures must be approved in writing in advance by a majority of administrators, and copies of receipts for purchases mustl be turned in to the Administrators immediately after completing the purchase. It is acceptable for the Treasurer to use a personal credit card for purchases and reimburse themselves as long as all receipts are provided to the Administrators. TalkRational will not take responsibility for any interest charges placed on a personal credit card without prior permission of the Administrators.

5. A copy of the bank statement and current financial statement detailing all revenues and expenditures will be provided to the Administrators on a monthly basis, and the financial statement will also be posted in public in the Town Hall section of the forum. (Ideally someone else should have access to the bank account, but I’m not sure how to work that out.). It is the responsibility of the Administrators to review and reconcile the bank statement with the financial report and receipts to ensure that no unauthorized expenditures have taken place and that all mail donations have been deposited into the account.

6. The Treasurer is responsible for providing a quarterly cash flow analysis to the Administrators and is responsible for notifying the Administrators if the balance of the account is not sufficient to cover at least 3 months of future hosting and software license costs. Cash flow reports will also be publicly posted in the Town Hall section of the forum.

7. The Administrators reserve the right to take any legal actions that they deem necessary in the event of fiscal impropriety or misuse of funds.

[Richard]

Would it make more sense for one of the owners to set up the bank account and then distribute the permissions of the account out?

[Christina]

Well, we don't have any owners per se. It would be good to have the admins set up one account and give access to the Treasurer and remove it when they need to, but I don't know how to open a joint account without the signatories being there in person to sign. I haven't tried to do this in a while so maybe it can be done online now.

We may also want a clause that says that any expenditures beyond maintaining the site and software should be put to the vote of the members.

[Richard]

Without a head figure, and administrator will be the next best thing. I'm not sure you will be able to open a joint account with an actual signed document, however you may be able to do it through Fax, if the bank accepts it.

Have you looked at the advantages and disadvantages to becoming an LLC?

[Christina]

I also forgot to say that the Treasurer cannot be an Administrator.

I don't know anything about LLCs or any for-profit corporations, just nonprofits. How does that work?

[DMB]

Have you given any thought to receiving overseas donations? I don't think bank cheques will necessarily work very well. You need bank transfers or paypal or something like that. It is always a pain moving money around between countries

[Christina]

Yes. I spent some time researching if there were any alternatives to paypal but I can't find anything that's as easy for people to use. I've opened a dedicated checking account and it should be ready to hook up to Paypal by the end of the week and then once it's all worked out Loren can add the donation button.

[Flying Buttress]

What are the projected monthly expenses for running this board?

[Christina]

We're still working that out. At the moment Matt is hosting us for free until our traffic starts to affect performance and then we'll start paying our fair share or move onto our own server if that seems like the best thing to do.

So far our only expenses have been the domain and vBulletin license which together cost about $260, and it was covered by staff donations. I'll post financial updates at the end of every month.

[RBH]

Have you looked at the advantages and disadvantages to becoming an LLC?An LLC -- a "limited liability company" -- like a subchapter S corporation is basically a for-profit tax flow-through device and a way to get the protection of the corporate form for the individuals concerned (that's the "limited liability" part of the title). Note that IANAL. Organizing as an LLC entails IRS consequences that are a hassle in greater or lesser degree. There are also state tax/fee consequences that vary from state to state.

With suitable safeguards such as those described by Christina above I see no advantage (and some disadvantages) to incorporating or forming an LLC rather than remaining an aggregation of people.

RBH

[Stout Drinker]

We aren't talking about a lot of money so I don't think it is that big of a concern but I would like to have some sort of mechanism to have any contracts entered into for hosting or whatever to have at least two people on them. The same for whatever bank accounts. I would have no problem if an admin was the second person.

Like RBH I see no need for creating and LLC but liability is an issue for whoever 'the owner' is. I just wouldn't want to see anyone on the hook for damages related to something posted by someone.

[Christina]

I think that there's a bit of a danger for the person whose name the domain is in to get demanding about things that they might perceive as putting themselves at risk. There is a real potential, but probably nowhere near as significant as we might imagine. In a situation like that I would prefer to have one of the lawyers around here advise the admins and I about the liability risk instead of leaving it up to me to get all dramatic about things I'm not sure about.