Pens Shipped
Yesterday we received 495 pens and with the pens we turned Saturday at the Langley Air Show our grand total is 5006 pens. This is 25% of our annual goal. If our production level continues to rise we will soon be shipping over 3000 pens per month which should put us well over our goal of 20,000 pens before the end of the year. Everyone deserves to be congratulated for their hard work and dedication to the Freedom Pens Project.
Non-Profit Status
Last week we acquired the Internal Revenue Forms necessary for us to become an official Non-Profit Organization. It appears that we will have to pay a $500.00 fee to the IRS to acquire an EIN and register FPP officially. As soon as my personal schedule will allow I will visit our local IRS office and file our forms. We will have to deduct the $500.00 IRS fee from our donation fund.
Decisions We Must Make
From the beginning of the Freedom Pens Project we have tried to make sure that everyone understood that the FPP is being run and supported by the woodworking community, it does not belong to SawMill Creek Forums or any other organization. We use SMC as a means of communicating and coordinating our efforts however the Project is much larger than our Forums and Membership at SMC. In the last five months many Woodworking Guilds and Businesses have joined us and they are as much a part of the program now as our Forum Members and we have tried to make sure that everyone is welcome to participate.
As we move toward obtaining our Non-Profit Status we will have to make certain decisions concerning rules and regulations that are necessary to comply with the IRS regulations. We will lose a certain amount of flexibility however I don't expect any major changes to the way we have been operating. We will simply have to maintain a standard means of doing business and our accounting system will have to be adjusted. We will have to acquire a checking account, this will interrupt our ability to handle Internet based transactions as we will not have a PayPal account for a short period of time.
For the most part the majority of our woodworkers have been making pens and shipping them to our office in Virginia however some groups have been working with their own mini programs and have been distributing pens and collecting money within their local community. When this happens we are unable to account for the financial contributions or verify the distribution of pens. This activity will have to cease when we become an official Non-Profit Organization.
Here is the Question
Are we sure that we want to make the FPP an official Non-Profit Organization? We will be required to comply with all of the Internal Revenue Service regulations and if I am to sign the IRS documents I will be held legally accountable as our Administrator. If everyone is comfortable with the current system or if there are other options we should consider then lets discuss them openly and honestly before we move forward.