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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