Theos-Talk Archives (November 1998 Message tl00181)

At 08:21 PM 11/3/1998 -0500, you wrote:

kymsmith@micron.net wrote:

Bart wrote:

The TSA is incorporated in the United States. Do you realize that you

are advocating the harrassment of not-for-profits into non-existence, 
by

the way?

Kym: 

It is polite, and kinda sexy, to back up such accusations with one or
two

reasons which may provide support to your above claim.  In what way,
Bart,

is Doss "advocating the harrassment of not-for-profits into
non-existence?"

KYM:

You are correct; I should have either made that remark private, or

explained it.

Bart:

I really and truly believe that Doss was not making his comments with

the intent of advocating the harrassment of not-for-profits; I was

simply trying to point out to him that he was. Doss has a past history

of asking people to go through tremendous amounts of effort and expense

for no purpose other than the apparent one of satisfying his own

curiousity, and becoming indignant when they won't do it (a case in

point was asking for complete, typed or in computer readable form,

transcripts of TSA Board of Directors' meetings). 

<bold><bigger><bigger>MKR:  

If what I asked was unreasonable, then anyone can simple tell me so.
These are policy matters and each is entitled to their opinions and
everyone is free to criticise anyone.

No one can force anyone to do anything and this everyone knows. 

Regarding the reference you have made regarding the transcript of the TSA
Board Meetings, most organizations keep meticulous records of their
meetings and the level of detail of the transcript vary with
organizations.

</bigger></bigger>

<bigger><bigger>Everyone knows, the transcripts of the meetings
especially the details of who voted how on decisions is one of the
tightly kept secrets of TSA. There are other subscribers who have
followed TSA administrations longer than myself who can confirm this
independently.

In all this, let us focus on TSA, the organization and not on my little
self.

</bigger></bigger>

</bold>Bart:

<bold>

</bold>The rules making not-for-profit's records for public access is to
make

it more difficult for them to hide improprieties, not so that people 
can

have a Sunday afternoon's reading when they're bored. Many smaller

not-for-profits can barely make ends meet; if people started coming in

on a regular basis asking to see their records, the time and expense 
for

doing so could ruin many of them. Requiring them to post them on the

Internet would require they get computers, Internet accounts, and 
people

with both financial and computer skills to keep the records posted. 
This

expense would be prohibitive to most TS Lodges. And denying that the

information is placed in a way to induce harrassment of Lodges is sort

of like the so-called "right-to-lifer's" who post lists of doctors who

perform abortions and their home addresses, calling the doctors

murderers, and then coyly say when a doctor's home is bombed, "We 
didn't

tell them to bomb the doctor's home".

<bold><bigger><bigger>MKR:

Bringing the subject of the current US Law back to what I stated, it is
not my interpretation. 

It is what the Congress has done. They have passed legislation which has
been signed into law. Tax exempt organizations have to comply with them.
Congress has also provided IRS with the big stick by way of penalties to
ensure compliance.

I was just trying to make the facts of the law known to the subscribers
who may have some interest. 

If there are problems with the current law, the elected representatives
are the ones who can fix them.

</bigger></bigger></bold><bigger>

mkr</bigger>