Parrot Foundation: Current Work

I've only been a member of the Parrot Foundation board for a few days now, and I already feel exhausted by it. I've read through dozens of pages in IRS Publication 557, I've been pouring over several incomplete drafts of Form 1023. I'm not certain that either of these two documents are written completely in English.

Luckily for me, because of the time I spent in the Wikimedia Chapters Committee, and because of some of the work I did with Wikimedia NYC and the now-defunct Wikimedia Pennsylvania, I'm not unfamiliar with this documentation or the process of gaining tax exempt status for a US non-profit corporation. It has been at least a year or two since I've really looked at this kind of paperwork, however, so I'm taking the crash-course to get back up to speed with it all. Some of it does seem more daunting than I remember!

I've also been digging through invoices and financial records, and lots of other paperwork as well. Some of the information and documentation that I need is readily available. Some of it might not be (or, I may be looking in all the wrong places). Either way, I'm setting a break-neck pace trying to get through it all and form a comprehensive view of the current state of the Parrot Foundation.

My goal is to put together a report about the current legal and financial state of the Foundation, and present that report to the other directors at the end of the month so we can start coming up with a plan of action for the coming year. Shortly thereafter I would love to send a status update to the general foundation membership, so we can make sure everybody is well informed about the state of the foundation and also so we can solicit some input about the future direction of it.

I will definitely post updates, either here or to the members mailing list as I get more information. However, don't expect too much until I am ready with my full report, probably around the end of September. As a member of the board I have a lot of plans for the year, but I don't want to start anything until I make sure the foundation is on a solid footing with all the right documents properly filled out and filed with all the right organizations. It might be a big job, but it's one that I hope to complete by the end of 2010.