Provisional Status

This is a page concerning a policy or procedure in development.
Once fleshed out, we'll consider it for adoption as official policy at Free Geek.

If measures taken by the organization to meet the following benchmarks are not adequate or timely to the judgment of the review group, provisional or ongoing status (and with it the Free Geek name) will be revoked.

As with the preview guidelines, progress must be approved by the review committee before the organization moves on to the next item.

1. Filing for 501(c)3 status is an ordeal. There is help out there (and here). Some things that need doing: Draft a mission statement. Recruit a board of directors. We recommend recruiting at least one person with accounting experience and a background in nonprofits. Develop a non-heirarchical, democratic governance structure. Write up bylaws. Write up a budget. Develop up an accounting system.

2. Open email lists to other Free Geeks. Publish minutes somewhere. Develop a record-keeping system for gizmos, documentation, volunteers, meeting minutes, vendors, etc. that will be necessary in keeping with a sound environmental health and safety plan, for audits, for environmental certifications through other organizations, and for sending Free Geek reports to Free Geek Intergalactic.

3. The new Free Geek sends regular Free Geek reports to Free Geek Intergalactic.

4. Secure a space. Present to Intergalactic some kind of assurance that you won't be kicked out of that space tomorrow.

5. If it pleases the review committee, Ongoing status will be granted to the startup. A Free Geek with Ongoing status is subject to new responsibilities, as outlined on the Ongoing status page.