[Imc-fiscalissue] Fwd: A Few Quick FYIs.

[pireh at uiuc.edu]

hi all, 

i believe this email was missent, and am forwarding it to the
relevant groups.  in the future, i hope the uc-imc can adopt
the open accounting models employed by other imc's and operate
in a more open way in general.  by making information
"confidential" we give others the power to use that
information against the uc-imc.

-cyrus

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sascha Meinrath <sascha at ucimc.org>
Date: Jun 5, 2005 5:29 AM
Subject:  A Few Quick FYIs.
To: "Zachary C. Miller" <zach at chambana.net>
Cc: David Gehrig <zemblan at earthlink.net>, arun at ucimc.org,
illyes at uiuc.edu, meghan at ucimc.org,
not_so_plain_jane at yahoo.com, pireh at uiuc.edu,
recotton at earthlink.net


Hi all,

Zachary C. Miller wrote:
> David Gehrig wrote:
>
>>The draft webpage from the imc-fiscalissue group is available at
>>http://home.earthlink.net/~zemblan/draft.html
>>
>>Please add discussion of this statement to the Steering group
>>agenda for June 2.

First of all, thanks to David for pulling this info together.

> The URL that David posted is the Ad-Hoc Fiscal Issue working
group's
> official recommendation to be the permanent FAQ that we use
to explain
> fiscal sponsorship.
>
> The Fiscal Issue group has ALSO compiled the following one-time
> statement to be issued in repsonse to the immediate
controversy. This
> should also be on the agenda for June 2nd (tomorrow)'s steering
> meeting. We recommend that steering adopt this statement and
issue it
> locally and to the global imc-communication list.
>
> (We attempted to vet these documents with the Finance Group
tonight
> but no one from Finance that was not already attending
Fiscal Issue
> meetings showed up.)

I just got a chance to read this statement today and wanted to
clarify a
few things and raise some concerns.

People should understand that publicly stating that, "UCIMC is
not an
umbrella for the global network" is simply not factually accurate.
Legally speaking, the UCIMC is the legal entity and the umbrella
organization under which the global network operates.  By stating
otherwise we are mis-informing the general public.  This is a long
e-mail full of information (I'm not sure when I'll be on
again, so I
thought that I should do the whole braindump now).

From:
https://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/private/imc-legal/2004-October/1009-82.html

On Sat, 9 Oct 2004, Devin Theriot-Orr [one of Global Indymedia's
lawyers] wrote:

Okay, I just spoke with Jean Pierre, a lawyer in Geneve.  As
described
in the earlier email, he is willing to make inquiries on our
behalf.
But he needs the name of the company which has been directly
affected by
this. Would it be best to send him the UCIMC's info, since
UCIMC serves
as the umbrella for the larger network?  Or better to proceed with
individual IMC's - like having him represent
Nantes.indymedia.org?  He
is ready to proceed on our behalf, but wants the
name/address/contact
info of the "client."

[NOTE:  The lawyers on the legal list clearly understood that
the UCIMC
"serves as the umbrella for the lager network" -- no one on
the legal
list raised any concerns at the time with that statement.]

***

I just want everyone to be clear that if you go the route of
issuing
this statement, it'll be counter to years of established
precedent.  I
would strongly suggest everyone take a look at the power point
presentation and paper that I put together for the 2004
International
Communications Association gathering (available on David's
page).  The
complexity of the UCIMC's relationship to the Global Network
is far more
complicated than many people (including some UCIMC members)
seem to
realize -- the documents on David's page are my best attempt
to lay out
the differences in the organizational/operational and legal
structures
of Indymedia.

As a matter of legal fact, statements such as:

"We wish to clarify that our role as fiscal sponsors for other
organizations is merely tactical. We understand that this fact
has not
always been clear. We simply collect and distribute money for some
Indymedia projects. This tactical role does not imply that we
hold a
position of power over these projects."

are also false -- this is why we sign legal contracts with our
sponsored
projects which lay out exactly the ways in which the UCIMC
does have a
position of power over our sponsored projects.  It _is_ the
case that we
have never had the need or inclination to exercise this power
over our
sponsored projects, but this power certainly exists.

I'm very worried about contributing to the misinformation
surrounding
this issue (both locally and around the Global Indymedia
Network).  I've
now had a chance to e-mail with a bunch of the "old-timers"
who helped
with global organizing back in the day and we all remember fairly
clearly (and similarly) the process by which everything
happened.  In
terms of the UCIMC, I would recommend taking a look at the Global
IMC-Finance archives from 2001-2002; especially:

Starting in June 2001, we moved most of our off-list
discussions to the
Global Finance list -- the first time Fiscal Sponsorship was
brought up
on the Global list was here (I think):

http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2001-July/000526.html

In the follow-through you'll see many of the same concerns
being raised
then as were brought up recently -- with many of the same concerns
(e.g.,
http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2001-July/000532.html)
and accusations (e.g., much of the June 2001 archives
http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-process/2001-June/date.html).
Until late 2001 we were seriously considering creating a
501(c)(3) for
Global Indymedia itself (e.g.,
http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2001-July/000543.html;
http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2001-October/000609.html).

The actual proposal kind of started here:

http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2001-October/000618.html

EXCERPT: "One possibility is to make the Global IMC a program
of the
Urbana-Champaign IMC -- it sounds somewhat strange but would
effectively
allow us to maintain the current organizational structure and work
financially as a program of a non-profit organization.  I
would suggest
making this for a fixed term (e.g. one year) or until the
Global IMC
gets non-profit status, whichever is sooner.  This term limit
could be
renewed by the Global IMC, and would address the problem of
one IMC
becoming a nexus for Global finances."

 From the very beginning it was both explicit and of concern
that the
UCIMC (or any entity) would become a program of a non-profit
organization.  Unfortunately, finances never rotated among
IMCs (though
I'd suggested it back in 2001).  In December 2001, after the UCIMC
Steering Group approved taking on fiscal sponsorship for
"Global IMC"
the first formal proposal was brought to the Global
IMC-Finance list:

EXCERPT: "Starting January 1, 2002, fiscal sponsorship of the
Global IMC
will be transferred to the Urbana-Champaign IMC (UCIMC). 
Day-to-day
management of Global IMC fiscal responsibilities will be
transferred to
the UCIMC finance group, which will carry out the decisions of the
Global IMC finance group.  The UCIMC will set up a bank
account for the
Global IMC network and maintain a minimum of one active
liaison with the
global finance group at all times.  Fiscal sponsorship fees
will be set
at 4%, but may be negotiated on an ad-hoc basis for specific
donations
in order to keep fees to a minimum." From:
http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2001-December/000869.html

The Final Proposal finally came together in Feb 2002
(IMC-Finance had to
figure out our decision-making process in the interim):

http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2002-February/001106.html

and was approved (with overwhelming support) on March 12th:

http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2002-March/001160.html

"The decision deadline has passed for transferring the Global
Network's
fiscal sponsorship responsibilities to the Urbana-Champaign
IMC.").

With these precedents, I think it is factually inaccurate to state
things like, "The UCIMC is not an umbrella for the global
network. That
is simply not true and we apologize for letting those
implications go
unchecked."

Since February 2002, there have been multiple times when I
have publicly
stated that the UCIMC is the Fiscal Sponsor for the Global IMC
Network
(e.g., "The Urbana-Champaign IMC is the fiscal sponsor for the
Global
IMC Network and there is currently $46,795 that is available for
disbursement."  From:
http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-finance/2002-May/001250.html

I don't want to open a new can of worms by sending this out;
but I also
think that it is a dis-service to oversimplify the complex
relationship
between UCIMC and the Global Network.  I was quite surprised
to hear
that this group had consensed on this statement, since it contains
multiple inaccuracies.  I'm hoping that some of the historical
and legal
context might help.

--Sascha

P.S.  For those on the UCIMC Finance list, these posts are the
main ones
from our own internal decision-making process concerning
sponsorship of
the Global Indymedia Network (from 2001-2002):

http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/imc-fundraising/2001-November/000120.html
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/imc-fundraising/2001-November/000121.html
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/imc-fundraising/2001-November/000123.html
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/imc-fundraising/2001-December/000135.html
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/imc-fundraising/2001-December/000140.html
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/imc-fundraising/2002-February/000189.html
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/imc-fundraising/2002-March/000207.html
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/imc-fundraising/2002-March/000210.html
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/private/imc-fundraising/2002-March/000211.html

> STATEMENT:
>
> DRAFT We, the UCIMC Steering Group, wish to apologize for the
> DRAFT misunderstanding created by the recent statement made
by Sascha
> DRAFT Meinrath at a press conference announcing the purchase
of the UCIMC's
> DRAFT new building:
> DRAFT
> DRAFT    "There's [sic] over 150 Independent Media Centers
in 50 plus countries
> DRAFT    worldwide. And this IMC here in Urbana-Champaign is
the umbrella under
> DRAFT    which the entire global network operates. We are in
essence the global
> DRAFT    headquarters for the Indymedia movement, here in
Urbana."
> DRAFT
> DRAFT This statement does not reflect the attitude,
position, or reality of
> DRAFT the UCIMC's policies or operations. The UCIMC is not
in any sense or
> DRAFT essence the global headquarters for the Indymedia
movement. The UCIMC
> DRAFT is not an umbrella for the global network. That is
simply not true and
> DRAFT we apologize for letting those implications go unchecked.
> DRAFT
> DRAFT We further wish to note that the above statement was
in fact made and
> DRAFT accurately reported by our radio volunteer, Dave
Berliner. We
> DRAFT apologize for any implication that his report was
inaccurate.
> DRAFT
> DRAFT We understand that organizationally we hold some
responsibility for
> DRAFT the misunderstanding created by this statement because
our fiscal
> DRAFT relationships have not been sufficiently communicated.
We are taking
> DRAFT active steps to change that.
> DRAFT
> DRAFT We wish to clarify that our role as fiscal sponsors
for other
> DRAFT organizations is merely tactical. We understand that
this fact has not
> DRAFT always been clear. We simply collect and distribute
money for some
> DRAFT Indymedia projects. This tactical role does not imply
that we hold a
> DRAFT position of power over these projects.
> DRAFT
> DRAFT We now recommend that, when our volunteers speak of
our role as fiscal
> DRAFT sponsor, they should use the following statement:
> DRAFT
> DRAFT   The Indymedia network operates on principles of
autonomy and
> DRAFT   non-hierarchy, and the UC-IMC strongly affirms these
principles. The
> DRAFT   UC-IMC, a 501c3 non-profit organization, hosts the
funds of a number
> DRAFT   of other projects, including some other Indymedia
collectives.  This
> DRAFT   is a service we provide only at the request of these
other
> DRAFT   organizations.
> DRAFT
> DRAFT We will also provide a link to a FAQ about our role as
fiscal
> DRAFT sponsor. In the interest of increased transparency,
the FAQ will
> DRAFT include up to date information about who we fiscally
sponsor and how
> DRAFT our fiscal sponsorship process operates.
>
> Text of this statement can be found here:
>
> http://misc.chambana.net/statement.txt