Sponsor the LA Drupal Association

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christefano's picture

In 2010, local Los Angeles-area organizers formed an unincorporated association named "LA Drupal Association" that is officially recognized as a legal entity by the State of California. This means that Los Angeles-area Drupal user groups now have the ability to receive donations and sponsorships large and small to help members produce the events, trainings and conferences that local Drupal user groups in Los Angeles are known for, as well as cover ongoing infrastructure and promotion costs.

Only local images are allowed. We can receive sponsorships and donations via PayPal as well as checks written out to LA Drupal Association.

Why sponsor the LA Drupal Association?

Only local images are allowed. Sponsoring the LA Drupal Association is not only a great way to get your message before a targeted audience of Drupal users, developers, businesspeople, and other web professionals, it’s also a great way to increase the equity of your brand as a company or organization that supports one of the largest and fastest-growing Drupal user groups in the world.

When you sponsor the LA Drupal Association, you are not only presenting yourself to our members, you are displaying yourself to a vast network of Drupal users and web professionals throughout California and beyond.

Comments

Can you provide an accounting

greggles's picture

Can you provide an accounting of how funds received to date have been spent? Maybe state filings require you to do some level of accounting so just making that easily findable would be enough.

Why were comments disabled? I don't think comments on the "discussion" content type should ever be disabled.

hmm, didn't seem my last

mike stewart's picture

hmm, didn't seem my last comment was posted, so trying again... comments really turned off? (who turned them off? and to what end?)

--
mike stewart { twitter: @MediaDoneRight | IRC nick: mike stewart }

bvirtual's picture

The UGs with non profit status are required to have once a year reports, by the Treasurer. Conversion to non profit status, 503c, etc, is made easier when for two years the NFP federal rules have been followed. This includes bylaws (grab a boilerplate), and yearly elections for the officers. This makes me think the current Association is not aimed at NFP status.

Peter

LA's Open Source User Group Advocate - Volunteer at DrupalCamp LA and SCALE

long-awaited responses to greggles and bvirtual

rainbreaw's picture

Hi all - greggles and bvirtual both posed questions above that, in a perfect world, would have received responses a while back. Thank you for your patience.

In response to the question posed by greggles:
Can you provide an accounting of how funds received to date have been spent?

Given that it is tax time, I am currently working on this accounting. To date, funds have been spent on DrupalCampLA, DDCLA and various meeting expenses (including occasional non-donated venues).

Donors have donated with direct cash donations, checks and through PayPal. Some donations are handled by the sponsor working directly with the vendor, at which point the money never crosses our hands.

At this time we have a decent sum that has been donated and are working on a written document of proper procedures for requesting and approving LA Drupal expenses. According to one individual, this document currently has serious problems and so is stalled from being posted, though it is a document that John and I put a lot of time and thought into. Hopefully we can get past this "stall" soon so that I can actually begin to act as a treasurer with some guidelines by which to operate.

Christefano added this information about the LA Drupal Association here, which is also a starting point and hopefully is helpful:
http://groups.drupal.org/la/glossary#ladrupal-association

In response to the comment submitted by bvirtual:
This makes me think the current Association is not aimed at NFP status.

Applying for actual non-profit status is an incredibly time-consuming endeavor and requires long-term structure to maintain. As it happens now, the two volunteers who are doing our best to track things related to financing (John Romine and me) are overwhelmed with real-life and have very limited time to commit to this, so we are doing the best with what we have. If someone else wants to take on the LONG TERM responsibility and immediate challenge of setting up actual non-profit status, without adding any more to John's and my plate, then that might not be a bad idea.

and...

Treasury reports to the general membership, every 3 months?

I am not currently in a position to put that much time into this, though I completely understand your desire for it. We can give a report once I finish what I'm putting together for tax-season. Beyond that, however, once a year (maybe twice a year) is the best I can do, and I won't be able to do another one before September. If you want a treasurer who can give more time, then find someone who I trust to put on the bank account with me (John is there now, but he also doesn't have the time). I know the words "I trust" will open a can of worms, but there are individuals to whom I, as an individual, will not be legally bound.

Thanks, Rain. That's very

greggles's picture

Thanks, Rain. That's very helpful and given the depth of the issues, the detail of your response and the fact that this is a volunteer effort I think it's OK that it took you some time.

Rain, everything you wrote I

bvirtual's picture

Rain, everything you wrote I feel was important to have posted. It was not my place to make such statements.

I agree 4 times a year to general membership is too often. I hazily recall NFP is once a year, and to the NFP officers it is 4 times a year, a much less demanding, or detailed report.

I'll add treasury reports are a NFP thing. At this time, it's not clear to me this association reports to general membership. If the goal is to get to NFP, then having a 2 year history, I understand makes IRS approval easier.

Trust is earned, and the process of finding more or new treasurers is something I have witnessed in over a dozen organizations, with good results more than half the time. I'm 100 percent behind Rain's direction in this area.

Peter

LA's Open Source User Group Advocate - Volunteer at DrupalCamp LA and SCALE

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