Theos-Talk Archives (July 2001 Message tt00394)

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