[Chapter-delegates] Accounting Accountability "locally"

[Carlos Raúl Gutiérrez G.]

Dear Eric,

I couldn’t agree more. For that reason we worked hard over the last 3 
years in registering our chapter a local Non-for profit, fulfilling all 
local conditions for that purpose, so a bank account in the name the 
Chapter, because we though to be inappropriate to have monies from ISOC 
wired to private accounts, as some suggested time ago.

But the process took a long time (we are very close to Panama…..) and 
after 2 failed request for the basic support for local programs last 
year and this year, staff informed us that not every chapter would be 
entitled to the basic support. So we have only about 1k that Board 
Members have chipped into the Chapters bank account so we can honor the 
support that one staff (working part time for one of the Board members) 
has been giving us over the last year.

The only purpose of our request for the minimum amount, as per our 
applications was to use it for public activities of the chapter. We 
won’t spend more time filling applications with ISOC until the rules 
become clearer. From our side I can show you the papers from the 
national registry and the bank that all your worries are covered, as it 
is not the first time members act in this type of endeavours.

Best regards

Carlos Raúl Gutiérrez
ISOC Costa Rica Chapter
+506 8837 7176
Skype: carlos.raulg
Current UTC offset: -6.00 (Costa Rica)
On 8 Apr 2016, at 4:52, Eric Burger wrote:

> One of the major issues with disbursing funds is accounting and 
> accountability. Get one of those wong and the Internet Society loses 
> its tax exempt status. Losing its tax exempt status could result, in 
> the extreme, in the liquidation of ISOC. At the worst, such an event, 
> and the path to that event, would mean lots of lawyers getting rich 
> and those of us in chapters getting nothing. 
> Tax law is specific about banning individuals from enriching 
> themselves from a non-profit. This is one of the structural reasons 
> why non profit pay is so much less than private sector pay for the 
> same job. 
> A problem with simply paying block grants to chapters is if ANY 
> chapter improperly spends the money, then ALL of ISOC is at risk. 
> I am not saying ISOC should not be financially supporting Chapters. 
> What I am saying is that if there is going to be some sort of funding 
> model proposed, please also propose how the accountability mechanisms 
> will work. 
>
> --
> Sent from a mobile device. Sorry for typos or weird auto-correct. 
> Thank IETF LEMONADE for mobile email! See 
> <https://www.standardstrack.com/ietf/lemonade/>
> -------- Original message --------From: Keith Davidson 
> <keith at internetnz.net.nz> Date: 4/8/2016  1:28 AM  (GMT-03:00) To: 
> 'Chapter Delegates' <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> Subject: Re: 
> [Chapter-delegates] ISOC-NY President Resigns
> I respect the validity of the concept of bulk funding as a method of
> supporting chapters. But there is some risk attached for ISOC in 
> taking
> such an approach. It might be that 100 chapters pull ISOC in 100
> different directions. There would likely be high levels of duplication
> of efforts and energies with many people doing the same function. etc
> etc. What safeguards would ISOC have that the funds were not being
> wasted, or mis-used?
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