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Theosophical Organizations

Jul 31, 2001 11:30 PM
by ramadoss


There were message traffic relative to how ULT is organized and who is the decision making authority etc. While I am in no way connected with ULT, here are some facts.

If any non-profit organization is formally organized, then usually it is setup as a non profit corporation governed by the laws of the state in which it is located. Such organizations are governed by a Board of Directors (can be called by other names such as Trustees) (they can be appointed or elected by any procedure set up by the organization) and legally they have ultimate decision making powers on all matters concerning the organization. The names of the Board of Directors are required to be furnished annually to the State and is public information. In addition, each organization is required to have a registered agent with an address in the state. If the organization has obtained tax exempt status from Internal Revenue Service, the application and most of the annual reporting returns are public information.

So the question of how to contact is very easy. The tough problem is, other than some of the statutorily required disclosures, organizations are not required to furnish any information to anyone.

As an example, the disclosure situation is so tough that Krishnamurthi Trust which was a charitable tax exempt organization in California set up to help Krishnamurti to teach and to spread Krishnamurti's teachings, when Krishnamurti tried to find out the financial details, the trustees refused to disclose any information even to him (and Krishnamurti was not one of the trustees) and it took a long expensive litigation which ended in the shut down of the Trust and was replaced with Krishnamurti Foundation with safeguards to prevent one or more people taking perpetual control of its assets.

On the other hand, if an organization is an association of people with a common interest, then there is no requirement for any formal legal organizational setup and it may be impossible to get any information about it or from it.

The above is the situation with all organizations including theosophical ones.

mkr



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