Membership requirements

We have a small club--approximately 40 members and no membership requirements except paying your dues. Earl

Our club has no membership requirements or guidlines other than someone interested in woodturning and paying the $25.00 annual dues. Dale Anderson

One of the clubs I am a member of requires AAW membership IF they are going to demonstrate either at the monthly meeting or out in the public representing the club. At one of the clubs, the idea has been passed around of requiring members to help with a minimum of one activity during the year (yeah, sometimes it's tough to get some/most of the membership to help even once!). Both clubs I am a member of are around 35 members each.

- Andrew

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I took over the presidency of our woodworking group last September. While we have no written requirements, other than an $18.00/year dues. We believe that all members should participate in making it a club where we can help others enjoy woodworking. This is done throught shop tours, Show & Tell, where we bring in projects for others to see and describe how they were made, and by looking for persons to make presentations to us.

In the last year, we've had presentations on "Shop Safety", Dust removal, Saw Blades, Building a "to Scale" Civil War cannon, and Power carved "Story" and walking sticks. We also have demonstrations by manufacturers reps on their products and machines. Our membership list is about 100, with and average attendance of 60 to 80, depending on the topic.

Thanks for your help guys! It seems to be an old story, 20% carry the load for themselves and the other 80%! GCS

I used to be the director of a non-profit agency. I soon learned that there are those people who are leaders and there are many who supported what we did but were not leaders. So 20% may have done 99% of the work but without the 80% we would have had nothing. Any forum on the internet will be the same--a few post and most just look. Nothing wrong with that, though. That is just the way it is. If we accept it, then we do what we can and don't worry about the others. We all have a place in this ol' thing called life.

Earl

Hi Earl, Would you discuss a little about woodturning clubs being non-profit agencies: pros & cons re receiving deductible gifts, record keeping, reporting to government, being a corporate body etc. As they grow, some clubs acquire and retain sizeable funds. This may be a non-issue of little importance or a sticky subject. I raised it at a club meeting once and was met with derision. As rcw has no ties, it can be discussed comfortably here. TIA for your thoughts, even if derisive. ;) Arch

Fortiter,

Hi Arch, I can be some help on this matter as our small club (25 members) incorporated as a non-profit corporation 2 years ago and it was my job as treasurer to accomplish this. The main reason we did this was to take the possible financial burden off of the officers. If your club is NOT a corporation, the officers may be personally sued by someone injured at a meeting. I am not a lawyer but this is what we were told by a lawyer. In Pennsylvania, incorporating as a non-profit also saved us the trouble of filing income tax. In PA only non-profits making $25,000 or more need to file. We pursued filing for exemption for collecting sales tax but were turned down on the basis that our club does not help the needy. We opted not to pursue federal non-profit status, which would allow us to receive deductible donations. As a small club we didn't feel anyone would ever want to donate $1000's and anyone donating less wouldn't really care about the deduction. Of course that means that we will never be able to setup a coin toss at a local intersection. As far as record keeping goes I do keep accurate records and receipts. This isn't for the government but for our yearly financial statement which I supply to all the members. This lets the officers better analyze where we get and spend our funds. Now, to fill out all of the loooooooong forms we did hire an accountant, cost us under $200, which we felt was a good deal.

We are glad we did this and would not hesitate to recommend it to other clubs. If you have any other questions I might be able to help.

Tony Manella ndd1"at"prolog.net (remove "at")

Many thanks, Tony & Jim. Just your kind of informed responses I hoped for. I hope that other turners from other clubs will chime in.

BTW, I've heard of an organization that used public buildings/ facilities. Their limiting membership to those belonging to a parent organization was declared illegal. Any truth or relevance for turning clubs? Arch

Fortiter,

I think the subject has been well covered. Everything said sounds accurate. I wasn't aware that the officers coud be sued if not incorporated so if that's a concern I'd check with a lawyer in your state. The only other advice I'd give is that you don't need a lawyer to file the papers. It is really quite easy in most states. You can even buy the forms and just fill in the blanks. The forms manuals will give generic by-laws and everything else. Like Tony did, you could hire an accountant if you want but you can do it yourself if you have the time. Here in Oregon, once you fill out the forms it only takes a month or so to get approved by the state.

I also helped start a local Bonsai club and a lawyer friend said that there was no need to incorporate (Oregon, again). You just have to register with the state. If you do incorporate you will have to be a lot more accountable.

Earl