Homebrew Digest #5942 (June 26, 2012)

HOMEBREW Digest #5942 Tue 26 June 2012


FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
Fwd: The Home Brew Digest, Inc. Update (Patrick Babcock)


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy! *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

NOTE: With the economy as it is, the HBD is struggling to
meet its meager operating expenses of approximately $3500
per year. If less than half of those currently directly
subscribed to the HBD sent in a mere $5.00, the HBD would
be able to easily meet its annual expenses, with room to
spare for next year. Please consider it.

Financial Projection as of 25 June 2012
*** Condition: Guarded ***
501(c)3 automatically revoked; New Forrm 1023 filed
25 June 2012 for retroactive reinstatement.
See Site News on http://hbd.org for details and progress.
Projected 2012 Budget $3191.79
Expended against projection $1572.72
Unplanned expenditures $ 101.95
Projected Excess/(Shortfall) ($ 389.19)

As always, donors and donations are publicly acknowledged
and accounted for on the HBD web page. Thank you


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Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:19:01 -0400
From: Patrick Babcock <patrick.babcock at gmail.com>
Subject: Fwd: The Home Brew Digest, Inc. Update

Greetings, Beerlings! Take me to your lager...

Since traffic to the list is low (ok: abysmal), I thought I would
take this opportunity to provide some updates regarding the HBD as a "going
concern".

First, a bit of history regarding the corporation. In 2007, the HBD
incorporated in the State of Michigan as a not-for-profit corporation, and
remains in good standing. When we incorporated as a NFP, and requested our
federal EIN, we should have been entered into the IRS not-for-profit
database. For some reason, we were not. Because of this, when the pension
act was passed in 2008 (the act added a filing requirement for ultra-small
not-for-profit organizations such as ours), we were not notified of the new
requirement and, therefor, did not fulfill the required filings for
requisite three years following 2008 - however, this did not precipitate
notice of automatic revocation of our status either, as the law requires.
When we discovered this in 2011, I contacted the IRS regarding our status,
and that is when the error in our record was discovered. I was assured that
within 90 days of that March call, our record would be corrected, we could
file our 990N, and all would be right with the world. Of course, that never
happened. After the requisite 90 days (100, actually), an attempt to file
our 990N failed again, and another call was made to the IRS. This time, I
was told we'd have action within 30 days. 30 days later, notice was
received that our 501(c)3 status was automatically revoked for non-filing.
I guess they finally fixed our record...

In any case, we have been asked several times over the years to file an IRS
Form 1023 in order that certain organizations could provide us with grants.
After a couple of years asking for a volunteer to complete the Form 1023
for the HBD, and after the face-splash of cold water provided by the IRS
regarding our 990N, I took it upon myself to complete this task. Though
the paperwork claims to require only hours to complete, it took much closer
to a year, what with finding meaningful instructions, suitable examples,
amending corporate documents to fit the IRS requirements via board
meetings, getting over the IRS form-induced anxiety, and finally, after
finally having a package ready for submission, discovering that the IRS
issued a notice which changed the forms without updating the form revision
date or, for that matter, the forms themselves. Sigh. To shorten this down
to its salient points, our Form 10223 was submitted under Notice 2011-43 on
25 June 2012. Assuming we dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's
properly, and assuming the IRS agent reviewing our case sees fit, we should
have our 501(c)3 status retroactively reinstated. This will hopefully occur
before the end of the year, but I understand there is a significant backlog
of similar Form 1023s, and the end of this year is the expiration of Notice
2011-43, so I suspect that backlog is about to grow huge. Note, too, that
approval and issuance of a letter of recognition of exemption is not the
guaranteed conclusion to this epoch. All in all, this is good: having an
official IRS Recognition of Exemption will open additional avenues of
funding and equipment to the HBD. Something we probably should have gone
after much, much earlier, but, unfortunately or otherwise, as a 100%
volunteer organization, we haven't the luxury of the time to spend freely
on such things. Having such recognition will also ensure that
any donation to the HBD is deductible for tax purposes as well. Cross your
fingers for us!

In preparation for receipt of this letter, the HBD.ORG website has been
reconfigured to provide for the complete public disclosure of records
required by the IRS for holders of such official recognition. As far as
finances, we pretty much always were in good shape, with our ledger on
public display at all times. You can now also review the HBD's corporate
documents and filings, including the newly executed Form 1023.

In terms of the HBD itself, we intend to expand our content relative to the
other realms stated in our purpose statement - though home brewed beer will
always be our primary interest, some of the other lists that the HBD has
hosted regarding fermented foodstuffs have generated content that should be
summarized and published in a more easily researched format than the
related list archives. We will continue to offer these side email lists on
the subjects of other fermented foodstuffs - those available now can be
seen at http://hbd.org/mailman/listinfo - and will host new lists for
pursuit of information on other fermented foodstuffs, as well as
for targeted experiments and activities. We are also investigating an
update/upgrade to the popular Brews & Views Bulletin Board to "modernize"
its approach to presenting information, though we will likely delay any
action here until we have received results of our Form 1023 for no better
reason than we may have access to donated, professional software once
officially recognized.

Financially, the HBD has enough cash on hand to cover expenses through the
start of October, at which point, it goes onto "life support" - ie, on my
whole dime. If you still value the HBD, donations are still appreciated
but, again, I fully understand if you prefer to wait until the HBD's
501(c)3 status is officially sorted out. In any case, and as always, I
will carry the HBD as long as it remains rational for me to do so.

All the best!

Patrick G. Babcock
President - The Home Brew Digest, Inc.

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #5942, 06/26/12
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