Attending were scott, dpc, valerie, janc, scg, and STeve. 9/12/59: the meeting was started byjanc at 7:55 pm as an unofficial (non-quorm) meeting. Absent were aruba, dang, mta. 1/31/66: Treasurer's Report: sent via email, read by janc. Aside from usual stats (average month), concern about use taxes. Discussion: dpc "since non-profit, not liable". Nobody 100% sure about this. We would owe about $150. Needs more research. Related discussion about sales tax (shirts, etc.). Phone bill shows yet another rate increase, despite our Centrex contract. Tax increase? Total increase on bill is $14.62. Aruba's numbers for the month: So far in February: $656 collected 1 new member (gada) Currently at 97 members, 91 paid up. 7/20/69: Publicity Committee: Misti absent. Krj has recently done flyers for Music conf. Need to do more local flyers, perhaps business card flyers. 11/19/69: Technical Committee: STeve has been pricing 670 spares: Motherboards ~$450, CPUs ~$30. RAM prices are going up (for 30-pin SIMMs). Security sweep has started, no weaknesses so far. May be finished next week, then need to nail down changeover steps, schedule weekend to do the transfer. Current system is running fine, if a bit slow. 2Gb drive does not have any evident problems (tape backup had an error message). Still some weirdness w/ some usceps and the terminal server. Valerie hae been collecting stats on local logins. We have to do a backup soon (scott), recommend keeping an off-site backup. 2/5/71: Pamtyadm Appointment: beamer and snow are new partyadms. Board is following policy by not interfering with staff on this. 7/30/71: Shop keeper appointment: jiffer has agreed to act as shopkeeper (last meeting). Can't officially appoint w/o quorum, though. 4/21/72: New Business: (STeve) InterNIC has limited access zone files, so we (as an organization) ought to request access. STeve should just go ahead and to this. 12/12/72: the meeting was adjourned at 8:45 pm.21 responses total.
(I needed to get into a dialup to get the January figures from aruba, since the telnet queue is full this time of day.) Treasurer's report continued: January was a slow month, with a would-be loss of about $200 being increased by a lot of misc. expenses to $635.
Is lack of quorum a rare thing, or does it bear discussion in how to prevent?
It's happened a few times in the past, but it's pretty rare.
I'm sorry I couldn't be there. The pain I've been feeling lately seems to correlate with how much time I spend sitting, so I think I need to avoid sitting as much as possible for the next month. (I'm typing this while standing up - my cordless keyboard has finally come in handy!) (For anyone who doesn't know - I had surgery on my back last friday. I have to be careful of what I do while recovering, or it's possible I could get scar tissue in there that will be just as painful as the ruptured disc, and not removable.) The reason I brought up Use Tax is this: When we decided to open the Grex Store, we agreed that we would have to start collecting and paying sales tax on items purchased from us. Valerie went through all the necessary steps to get us registered as a collector of sales tax, and we received the form which we have to fill out to send in the sales tax we have collected. Unfortunately, the form also contains lines for us to report Use Tax on. Use Tax is Michigan's way of taxing items that were mail-ordered from other states. Unfortunately, we bought a lot of things via mail order this past year, and by my calculation we owe about $150 in Use Tax. I brought this up in e-mail to the board and staff a week or so ago, in the hopes that someone could give me a good reason why we shouldn't have to pay it. While several staffers suggested "civil disobedience", no one convinced me. (The fact is, that someone has to sign the form right under where it says "I declare, under penalty of perjury, that this return is true and complete to the best of my knowledge." No one seemed to think it was worth risking perjury to avoid paying Use Tax (or at least no one volunteered to sign the form in place of me. :))) There is a line in the booklet which says that "Qualified non-profit organizations" may be exempt from sales tax, but nothing about them being exempt from Use Tax. I will call Lansing today to see what they say about it; I'm afraid they are going to say that "qualified" means "501(c)3". Dave Cahill, if you have more information on why you think we're exempt, I'd appreciate it ASAP. The form is due on Saturday.
Getting State sales tax exemption is harder than getting 501(c)3 exemption - you have to actually attend a hearing! But it can be done (and an organization I help found did it). Yes, you must first be a 501(c)3 exempt organization. Grex is not now exempt from state taxes.
Whoops, I missed the window to call the office in Lansing. I will do it tomorrow.
can we have an explanation/clarification of the info under the new business heading? What is a zone file, and what is the relevance of the limited access, or, for that matter, access at all?
Mark, Dave Thaler told me that he was *certain* that Michigan nonprofits don't have to collect sales tax on things they sell unless they sell over $15,000 worth of stuff. As to use tax, there is a *big* struggle between mail-order houses and the various states over the states' constitutional authority to collect it. Ask the person in Lansing if Grex is "qualified" because it is a Michigan nonprofit. Ask about the $15K floor on sales.
I called Lansing today, and, as I expected, the lady I talked to said that "qualified non-profit" means "501(c)3". If we were a 501(c)3 corporation, we would be exempt from collecting sales tax, as long as our sales are less than $5,000. We would also be exempt from paying Use Tax. But we don't have 501(c)3 status, so we're stuck paying both.
I guess that's a compelling reason for me to get back to work on that paper work. Now I need to find some time....
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Thanx for getting the definitive word from Lansing, Mark! Better than working from rumors and guesses.
That's what I figured, too. I sent the form in today; we owed $159.15 in Use Tax. Details in another item.
(I was not at the meeting because I had an exam during the meeting time. I mentioned this to several board members before hand. I don't expect this to happen very often. :)
I was extremely ill and let someone know ahead of time -- for the record, I have rarely missed a meeting in many years.
(I had a schedule conflict & did not let anyone know ahead of time. Not that anyone *cares* whether I'm at these things, mind you ...)
(Oh pish and tosh, Dave. I for one miss your presence at Grex gatherings and on the Grex staff.)
Metoo, metoo! ;)
(Well, I have schedule conflicts to some degree with most Wednesdays for the forseeable future, though I continue to say that my presence really doesn't add anything. <sigh>)
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I thought of it, but forgot before I got on Grex. Sorry.
You have several choices: