[Lopsa-regional-project] Bylaws (aka "...the horror, the horror...")

[Bob Apthorpe]

Hi,

LOPSA policy states that all chapters have to have bylaws which comes as 
a surprise to some (LOPSA-Austin for example.) I've been kicking around 
the idea of creating a generic set that are sensible, low-impact, and 
(importantly) compatible with the national organization's bylaws to 
abide by the spirit and letter of our 501(c)(3) non-profit status.

A big concern about providing generic bylaws is the perception that 
LOPSA (national) would be providing legal advice. My take on matters is 
that if locals want to incorporate in their state/province/prefecture as 
a non-profit, they need to follow applicable law and indeed LOPSA can't 
suggest the generic bylaws are suitable for this purpose without 
crossing the line into providing legal advice.

However, for private use a generic set of bylaws would go a long way to 
helping local organizations manage their affairs and allow them to take 
advantage of the national organization's tax-exempt status when 
soliciting donations, looking for sponsors, and holding local events. 
Typically sponsors write checks to the national organization, specifying 
the donation go to the local organization, and a small fraction (<10%) 
is retained by the national organization to offset the overhead of 
obtaining and maintaining 501(c)(3) status - the bulk is passed on to 
the local organization.

I have limited cycles to devote to this so I'm looking for some 
volunteers to help me find and condense some bylaws into something 
suitable for new local chapters. William Bilancio of LOPSA-NJ sent me a 
reference to a set from the (Princeton?) LUG and I have some courtesy of 
the NOLO Press book on forming a non-profit, so a lot of the basic 
material is there for discussion and editing. I just need a few people 
with a tolerance for editing governance documents to work with me to 
knock out a draft by, say, September.

Anyone want to step up? Or volunteer someone else? ;)

The two major goals I have for this project are to add useful guidance 
to a Chapter Development Kit and to learn to delegate and manage 
projects. Delegation means more people participate in building LOPSA 
plus keeps me from becoming critical path on getting things done. I 
can't speak for anyone else on the board, but I think I'd be way more 
effective if I could make this whole delegation thing work for me. :)

-- Bob