JeffT

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Posts by JeffT

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  104

  2020-Articles Of Association--Bylaws--Notice Of Special Meeting! (as of 2020-11-25)

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  2020--articles of association and bylaws--3 pages.. .

  2020--notice of special meeting in december--8 pages.

  if you are a jw read carefully before you sign.. .

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  JeffT

  I can't get the translate to work. Is he just reading the same documents? Did this go out to the whole world (I can't imagine why they would send a doc based on US tax law - but let's face it we don't understand a lot of what they do). Is this possibly going to a Spanish congregation using the same Hall? I'm very curious about why they doing this, whether with one Hall or all of them.

  In any event this is boiler plate language for forming a corporation. It's all dictated by the IRS and your state legislature. See here for an example http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/articles-incorporation-nonprofits

  Regarding "not then in existence" This is more boiler plate. IF (yes I meant to put that in caps) the nonprofit goes out of business any assets remaining after all debts are settled MUST be turned over to another nonprofit. You can designate where you want it to go, or the State can do it for you, but it has to go to another nonprofit. Think of this like an insurance policy. You name your spouse as the beneficiary, but if they're gone the kids get it.

  In this case the any remaining assets go to the WTBS, or IF they're gone some other worthy nonprofit group.

  That's all that means.
  
  
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  104

  2020-Articles Of Association--Bylaws--Notice Of Special Meeting! (as of 2020-11-25)

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  2020--articles of association and bylaws--3 pages.. .

  2020--notice of special meeting in december--8 pages.

  if you are a jw read carefully before you sign.. .

  1. 
  2. 
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  JeffT

  The wording seems to be more crafted around ensuring that moneys go to an entity with tax-exempt status

  The IRS requires this of all nonprofit organizations.
  
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  104

  2020-Articles Of Association--Bylaws--Notice Of Special Meeting! (as of 2020-11-25)

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  2020--articles of association and bylaws--3 pages.. .

  2020--notice of special meeting in december--8 pages.

  if you are a jw read carefully before you sign.. .

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  2. 
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• 

  JeffT

  I believe these documents are addressed to one specific congregation

  The main issue shows up in the Articles of Association and Bylaws, Article 2 Existence and Duration.

  "Since 1989 the Congregation has been an unincorporated nonprofit association."

  Legally an Unincorporated Association is a group of people who get together to do something for the common good. Legally it doesn't exist so it can't do things like own property.

  https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/unincorporated-nonprofit-association-vs-nonprofit-corporation

  So for the last thirty-one years this congregation has operated without any legal authority to do so. It can't open a bank account, collect money, own property etc. I can think of at least two ways they got into what is probably a fair sized legal mess. They may never have filed the appropriate paper work when the congregation formed in 1989, or that may have been the year somebody forgot to file a renewal, and it fell off the radar at that time.

  I can think of several ways the water rights may fit into this, but lacking evidence I won't speculate.

  I do not believe this is part of some big conspiracy, but it does speak to the incompetence of the WTBS in running their business. Thirty-one years is a long time to overlook something this important. How important? Again I won't speculate, but I've seen property lost in foreclosure and/or bankruptcy because some paperwork was missing. How would you like to be on the body of elders that gets to explain that to the head office?
  
  
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  41

  A Salute to Petra/Atlantis

  by Slidin Fast in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  whilst i have never quite understood whether petra and atlantis are one or multiple entities i recognise the value of their work and web of contacts.

  i think it is fair to say that no-one has consistently contributed more solid gold intelligence to this site.

  no one has reliably passed on more bomb shells and solid news as well as day to day minutiae.

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  JeffT

  This is the thread in question.

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5684528944250880/2020-articles-association-bylaws-notice-special-meeting-2020-11-25

  I'm putting a brief comment there about the OP. I may have more to say, right now I've got a raging headache.
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  41

  A Salute to Petra/Atlantis

  by Slidin Fast in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  whilst i have never quite understood whether petra and atlantis are one or multiple entities i recognise the value of their work and web of contacts.

  i think it is fair to say that no-one has consistently contributed more solid gold intelligence to this site.

  no one has reliably passed on more bomb shells and solid news as well as day to day minutiae.

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  JeffT

  What the guys above me said.
• 
  104

  2020-Articles Of Association--Bylaws--Notice Of Special Meeting! (as of 2020-11-25)

  by Atlantis in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  2020--articles of association and bylaws--3 pages.. .

  2020--notice of special meeting in december--8 pages.

  if you are a jw read carefully before you sign.. .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  JeffT

  I think I see what's going on here, but I need to do a little research. We're having an inside our bubble Thanksgiving so it will likely be tomorrow before I can get to it. I'm also trying to finish a rough draft of a (JW related) novel I've been working on for a long time.

  Reminder: I was an accountant (working in real estate) for a long time.

  Petra, you have a PM
  
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  18

  Watchtower's Art Department strange and hidden images

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  watchtower examination has a youtube video about subliminal images drawn by the watchtower's art department.

  i'm not a professional artist but i see too many strange and hidden images in this drawing.

  i have boxed four examples of hidden images.

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  JeffT

  I don't see anything in A and B. C is obviously a shadow of the guys hand. D is a poorly executed drawing of the householder's robe.

  There are a lot of things (cash grabs, sheltering pedophiles etc) actually wrong with the watchtower. I fail to see the point of some people's obsession with bad art and Freemasons. What I really see in these things is somebody who needs to get life.
  
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  15

  Was 2019 the last convention ever?

  by joey jojo in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  in a recent feel-good instagram post about the 2019 international convention, a jw remarked, "was it the last convention we will have?".

  there is no doubt jw's feel they are truly special and that world events revolve around them directly.

  there is also no doubt that whether we get a vaccine for covid or not, and at the moment, its looking very certain that we will, that the world will continue to spin and life will go on, regardless of the beliefs of the jw's.. once the pandemic is over i'm wondering if some jw's will realise that even though they lived through a notable period of time, life kept sailing on, and maybe they aren't that special after all?

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  JeffT

  Every convention I ever went to somebody said "this might be the last one."
  
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  27

  Letter read cong is now an association

  by Yomama in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what does that mean?.

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  JeffT

  Late thought, OK the brain is almost 70 years old and I haven't been in a Kingdom Hall since 1988, the gears turn slowly.

  I seem to recall that we were told not to identify ourselves as Jehovah's Witnesses because only the 144,000 were the actual witnesses. We were "associated with Jehovah's witnesses." Maybe they're going back to old terminology.
  
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  27

  Letter read cong is now an association

  by Yomama in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what does that mean?.

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  JeffT

  I'd like to see the letter. I'm not a lawyer, but I was an accountant for twenty-six years. I have some professional understanding of legal matters.

  This may well be used to try to legally sever the link between the individual Congregations and JW Org,

  I don't think this can be done, at least not with anything like the current configuration of the Witness Organization. As long as money flows up and orders flow down, the link exists, whether or not the WTBS acknowledges it. And, as one of my accounting professors said "the first rule of law is sue somebody with money." I spent fifteen years in three congregations and I can only think of two elders that might have had enough money to make a lawyer interested in suing them.

  In other words, playing word games won't shelter the WTBS