A Statement Regarding the Future of the Forum

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, Ty Carpenter said:

If no one else steps up, I would be happy to take care of the PayPal account and ensure the monthly payment is made.

I don't post often, but I visit the site multiple times a day just to absorb as much info as possible.

Also, James made a somewhat dire statement earlier in the thread about the forum potentially being in danger due to financial issues. That is not the case. We have plenty of members willing to pony up, plus I would fund the forum myself if necessary. 

I also fit Sandy's request of the holder being a "younger, somewhat healthy" person. I am 38 years old, and don't plan on going anywhere for a long time.

I don't want this to be interpreted as me advocating for the position. I would prefer someone else take over, but if needed I am willing to step in to keep this thing going. 

👍

[James R Gordon]

Ty and Gil,

Ty it is not clear how many active members we now have. Look back on Kathy’s post yesterday. It is a guess, but I would be surprised if the number of active members is above 50. But that is not the only problem. It is not clear even if we have 50 active members - that all those members would want to contribute. DVP posted yesterday he was unable to contribute and I suspect there will be others.

The only reasonably reliable membership figure who would also want to donate is under 20 - from what I can see.

Gil I am sympathetic to your point. But I feel Kathy speaks for a number of members that restricting posting rights to donations conflicts with the spirit of John Simpkin. The present admin team took over to preserve John’s heritage and this would be a backward move.

 

[Cory Santos]

I highly recommend you discuss this with a tax attorney or accountant.  That is all I will say.  I have given no legal advice on the matter just information for you to consider.  

[Sandy Larsen]

My guess is that Cory's concern is the following:

The person who owns the PayPal account will have a significant amount of money in the account after a fundraiser. If the person happens to be audited by the IRS at such a time and if the agent happens to notice the money, he may ask where the money came from and why it wasn't reported as income on the person's tax return form.

Of course, the money isn't income and that would be fairly easy to prove. But a bad IRS agent might cause problems for the person.

 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Sandy Larsen said:

My guess is that Cory's concern is the following:

The person who owns the PayPal account will have a significant amount of money in the account after a fundraiser. If the person happens to be audited by the IRS at such a time and if the agent happens to notice the money, he may ask where the money came from and why it wasn't reported as income on the person's tax return form.

Of course, the money isn't income and that would be fairly easy to prove. But a bad IRS agent might cause problems for the person.

 

I have no such applicable tax regulations where I am. I don’t mind being the bill payer etc, but, would rather not be chasing up monies each month. 

[Sandy Larsen]

Here is a way to avoid using a person's PayPal (or other) account.

Whenever a forum member donates money to the forum, he/she would write a personal check directly to Invision and write on the memo line "Payment for account #1234" where "1234" is the Education Forum's account number with Invision. Then mail this to Invision.

This would definitely work. (I know because I've paying all my bills this way, without a payment coupon, for forty years.) The question is, would they keep any excess amount in the account for future payments, or would they return it to the account owner. I've experienced this situation with two utilities, and they both kept the excess. I've also experienced this with two banks, and they both issued me a refund after a few months.

 

[Chris Davidson]

Sandy,

Multiple people sending checks through the mail is a variable I don't think we want to deal with. Speaking for myself.

I don't want to write a check when I can just click a few keyboard keys and be done with it via a Paypal link or something similar.

I believe you can "gift" a friend up to $16,000 dollars without having to claim it.

I would suggest any contributions/donations be labeled as a "gift" when sent to whomever ends up being the finance overseer.

I also have read in the case of a non-profit corp, the first $1000 in donations are usually tax-free if that is a concern. 

Since the monthly Invision fee for us appears to be $80 per month, that's $960 per year which keeps it below a grand.

I find it hard to believe that we would have legal problems regarding this amount unless there is some other revenue the forum is generating.

 

 

 

 

[Sean Coleman]

We should ask James, he knows the job.

James, inanutshell, how do you see us progressing?

Any tax/bank/government/CIA problems we should be aware of?

[James R Gordon]

Sean,

On the funding thread I posted the following

At present $154 have been raised.

It is not for me to decide. but I feel a central fund [ like a paypal account ] is better. Especially when directly linked to our Invision account. I believe there ought to be a "keeper" for that account.

I do get the names of all who donate as well as the amount they donate.

I worry about whether we have sufficient active members to donate $840 per year and every year. Not to mention that our internet usage is getting us close to the next payment threshold of $120 per month. I am not in favour of payment in order to post, but I also worry whether those who do not want to donate will inhibit us reaching our donation targets.

James

[Mark Ulrik]

13 hours ago, James R Gordon said:

Gil I am sympathetic to your point. But I feel Kathy speaks for a number of members that restricting posting rights to donations conflicts with the spirit of John Simpkin. The present admin team took over to preserve John’s heritage and this would be a backward move.

Thank you for that. I 1000% agree.

[Gil Jesus]

22 hours ago, James R Gordon said:

Gil I am sympathetic to your point. But I feel Kathy speaks for a number of members that restricting posting rights to donations conflicts with the spirit of John Simpkin. The present admin team took over to preserve John’s heritage and this would be a backward move.

 

Well then I hope you'll understand that I'm not going to pay to be insulted by those who don't agree with me. 

[Guest]

I would, no matter what and in the future, review the current contract. I still find this contract rather expensive and insecure.

1) An entity on a tight budget looses all control in not knowing how much will be charged each month.  I mean, in this contract it's either 70 or 120 their going to take, and there is nothing we can do about it....  One can only budget the WCS (120) and hope for the best ?   No good to me... 

2) There is the user limit on posting media.  There are ways around that, MOST other forums don't do it like this, they prefer doing it by using Postimages or another service alike.  Yes, I agree, that will take a little more time posting a picture (10 seconds max....), but you do not have to worry about maxima... It seems THIS forum doesn't allow it in it's current form, I have tried it, but it doesn't work, I'll do some more testing because it is strange, could be I'm doing something wrong ! 

 

 

 

 

[James R Gordon]

Gil,

I hope you are not suggesting I insulted you.

If I have I do apologise.

The point I raised was the importance of John Simkin's heritage. For example the breadth of the EF.

It was not my intention to suggest you were not interested in that?

James

[Guest]

23 hours ago, Gil Jesus said:

I hope the powers to be will consider making the forum a "pay to post" format. I don't think it's fair to ask people to cough up money for the priviledge of being insulted by "freebies" who claim they can't afford it. The alternative would be to move the forum to a free forum carrier, like https://www.proboards.com/ .

I post on some other free forum carriers and they work fine, but you will loose the history cache on this one (wich is one of the key-problems).

About insults, happens on every type of forum... BUT that's why ANY forum should have a good moderator to keep things under control, in this forum I have seen it going wrong a number of times, it's really up to the moderator to take measures.  It's like running a company, you need a boss...  Even on a pay-forum it will go wrong, nothing to do with freebies imo.  A good moderator is needed in both forms

Edited August 5, 2022 by Jean Paul Ceulemans

[James R Gordon]

Jean Paul Ceulemans said

I would, no matter what and in the future, review the current contract. I still find this contract rather expensive and insecure.
1) An entity on a tight budget looses all control in not knowing how much will be charged each month.  I mean, in this contract it's either 70 or 120 their going to take, and there is nothing we can do about it....  One can only budget the WCS (120) and hope for the best ?   No good to me...

Invision have been in touch about purchasing Creator. As I recollect it is a cheaper option. It is a single yearly cost and we would only pay $1068.  What is not clear is whether internet usage by members still applies. The two prices that have affected us is the 100 users per two days for which we are charged $ 70 per month or next stage which involves us $120 per month. And there are higher rates. Because our membership has reduced I am not convinced increased internet usage will affect our monthly costs.

Jean Paul Ceulemans said
2) There is the user limit on posting media.  There are ways around that, MOST other forums don't do it like this, they prefer doing it by using Postimages or another service alike.  Yes, I agree, that will take a little more time posting a picture (10 seconds max....), but you do not have to worry about maxima... It seems THIS forum doesn't allow it in it's current form, I have tried it, but it doesn't work, I'll do some more testing because it is strange, could be I'm doing something wrong ! 

I’ll look into that and see if it can be further increased.