[BLU/Officers] Corporate standing?

[Bill Ricker]

Ok thanks

Bill Ricker
bill.n1vux at gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/n1vux

On Fri, May 1, 2026, 1:23 PM John Abreau <abreauj at gmail.com> wrote:

> As far as I know, we're not registered. We were once affiliated with
> BostonUserGroups, which was an umbrella group that handled that sort of
> thing, so I suppose it's possible we inherited whatever hiatus they had
> when they dissolved and we became the Last LUG Standing.
>
> One thing I clearly remember from our BCS days is that a 501(c)(3) is
> forbidden from participating in political activities. I got in trouble once
> back  around 1995 or 1996 during a protest where participants would give
> their websites a black theme for 48 hours. I participated by applying a
> black theme to the BCS site, and the Board of Directors reprimanded me
> about a week later because they feared I had jeopardized their charter.
>
> When we discussed registering as a non-profit back when the BCS first
> dissolved, I was adamant that the only acceptable status was  as a
> 501(c)(6), a non-profit trade organization that was not so restricted.
>
> I last recall discussing this issue about 30 years ago.
>
>
> On Fri, May 1, 2026 at 10:57 AM Bill Ricker via Officers <
> officers at lists.blu.org> wrote:
>
>> I had to tell a FLOSS organize that no,  Boston PM isn't incorporated,
>> let alone register as a non-profit.
>>
>> Is BLU incorporated with Mass,  annual officer report to Nass Sec'y of
>> State, registered nonprofit with Mass Revenue reporting, IRS registered
>> with annual?
>>
>> (FWIW: I found out decades ago that 501c3 is not technically voided by
>> not filing, as filing is optional below a certain annual handle, but if not
>> reporting, they won't confirm status,  if say a lawyer for a potential big
>> donor attempts due-diligence. Oops.)
>>
>> Bill Ricker
>> bill.n1vux at gmail.com
>> https://www.linkedin.com/in/n1vux
>> _______________________________________________
>> Officers mailing list
>> Officers at lists.blu.org
>> https://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/officers
>>
>
>
> --
> John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
> Email: abreauj at gmail.com / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID
> 0x920063C6
> PGP-Key-Fingerprint A5AD 6BE1 FEFE 8E4F 5C23  C2D0 E885 E17C 9200 63C6
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.blu.org/pipermail/officers/attachments/20260501/f9ab383d/attachment.html>