Originally posted by raehl
I guess I need to spell it out, so here goes:
The NCPA is incorporated in the state of Wisconsin as a non-stock incorporation, without members. Its bylaws put control of the organization with the college paintball clubs. Non-stock corporation means that no one actually OWNS it in the sense that you can't buy or sell it or anything like that, but it is its own legal entity.
The NCPA is also OPERATING as a tax-exempt organization - that means we only expend our resources for tax-exempt purposes, specifically, the promotion of national amateur atheletic competition.
I use the word OPERATING because we do not, as of yet, have formal recognition from the IRS of our tax-exempt status. As I mentioned earlier, you are not required to file for such an exemption until 27 months after your incorporation, or until you regularly have gross contributions exceeding $5,000 per year. As we currently receive quite a bit more than $5,000 per year, that makes the 27 month deadline apply, which as I also earlier mentioned, is in December.
Non-profit is generally a state-level legal term, and not-for-profit a layman's term, that refer to certain organizations, of which tax-exempt organizations is a special subset. Note that it is entirely possible to be a non-profit, or not-for-profit, organization, and *NOT* be tax exempt. Not-for-profit means that the earnings of the organization are not disbursed for the benefit of owners/shareholders/etc, non-profit generally means the organization is additionally incorporated as a special type of organization which has additional LEGAL requirements regarding its operation - in Wisconsin, that special type is "Non-stock corporation".
Note that I am NOT a lawyer, and this is a fairly general overview, and details are missing (esp. re: state level law, which varies from state to state.)
To put it more plainly: All the money that the NCPA takes in gets spent on NCPA participants. The vast majority this past year was spent on entry fee waivers for the National Championships, which effectively bought us lots of coverage in local media outlets around the country, plus encouraged things like team uniforms, volunteer staffing, etc. The net result is virtually all of the teams paid $100 in entry instead of the $300 it cost to run the event. Some money also goes to things like the website, mail, flyers, trophies, a banner, a fax machine, and stuff like that. We're getting more and more organized, and some of that money will in short order also be diverted to scholarships, promotional material for college/high school administrations, and oter stuff we may come up with. NONE of the money is paid to any of the NCPAs officers or directors, and the NCPA has no employees.
As for PSP, my main goal with the system was to provide a way for LOCAL event promoters to know if there were national-level players showing up to their events. The only way to do that, obviously, is to get the participation of the national leagues. I managed to convince PSP that I wasn't full of crap first, so that's why the system is live there first. I'm still working on convincing NPPL that the value of using the system far exceeds the slight inconvenience of using the system (mainly actually checking people's photo ID's before issuing tournament ID, and spot checking photo ID on field against each team's roster, two things that are a requirement of using the system, and necessary for the system to be effective at all.)
As for your insinuation that I have ulterior motives for all of the player information that is being collected, you are 100% correct. In the past, when I've been fighting legislation like the WI and Baltimore paintball bans, one thing I've noticed it would be REALLY nice to have is a list of players in a particular city or state. People who vote in a particular jurisdiction are MUCH more valuable in such efforts than those who do not, so being able to alert those people directly would be extremely helpful.
Other than that, the only things the information should be used for will be OPT-IN mailings (the player has to specifically request them), SPPLAT benefits (again, IF the player requests them, they can not share the information with SPPLAT if they don't want the membership), and for event registration (we give your information to promoters if you register for their events. For example,I just sent Lane a list of every team captain's email for each team registered for Chicago Open so he could send them event information.) Additionally, aggregate information will be provided to the industry, press, and public. (Because things like what percentage of players are female, or under 18, and as compared to the previous year, are nice things to know.)
I am THUROUGHLY committed to using the database stricly in a manner that benefits the players. It only works if the players want it to.
Database construction for whoever asked: It's a perl front-end on a mySQL backend. The server we're on is not as good as I'd like, but it's cheap. When we go online with ID printing and handing out SPPLAT benefits and thus have some income, I should be able to move to a better server with more power and better service, or maybe just colocate a box somewhere. I don't know PHP. Although I'm sure some time spent with a PHP book would remedy that situation, I'm just short on that time right now. If you're volunteering some help, drop me an email.
Thanks,
Chris
......But as is so often the case lacking in content with regard to a FULL reply.
