Articles of incorporation

Meeting minutes and other club information.
Post Reply
Fraser
MIJC Treasurer
MIJC Treasurer
Posts: 993
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:14 pm
MIJC Member: Yes
Full Name: Fraser Yarker
Member page: http://mijc.org/members/u-z/yarker-fraser/
Location: Pekin, IL
Contact:

Articles of incorporation

Post by Fraser »

Are they on the web site somewhere? I did some looking but no luck. The bank wants them in order to open a new account.
1998 TJ (Wrangler) - usually driveable
19xx J-truck
Parts
TSEJEEPERS
Posts: 2609
Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:14 am
MIJC Member: Yes
Full Name: Tom and Sally Evans
Member page: http://mijc.org/members/e-j/tom-sally-evans/

Re: Articles of incorporation

Post by TSEJEEPERS »

The lawyers should have a copy of it.
It's hip to be square!!! []lllll[] NVRDUN9 93 YJ SOA XJ spring stretch, High pinion 9" rear Detroit locker, Dana 44 front ARB locker, 4.56 gears, Sanden OBA, Warn M8274 winch, 36" Iroks, Turtle enterprises swing out tire carrier
LarryWilson
Posts: 163
Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 3:59 pm
MIJC Member: Yes
Full Name: Larry Wilson
Member page: http://mijc.org/members/u-z/wilson-larry-jennifer/
Location: East Peoria, IL

Re: Articles of incorporation

Post by LarryWilson »

Hi Fraser,
Since I didn’t know the answer to this myself, I asked a few other members and they all said that you need to contact the lawyer. If you need their contact information let me know.
Larry
User avatar
wdln
Web Admin
Posts: 1577
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:23 am
MIJC Member: Yes
Full Name: Dave Lennie
Member page: http://mijc.org/members/k-o/lennie-dave-carrie/
Location: Bartonville, IL
Contact:

Re: Articles of incorporation

Post by wdln »

It is possible that the club is still registered to my old address on Rose in Bartonville, the House-I-Never-Thought-I-Would-Move-From. Prior to that it was registered to your old house near Bradley, Fraser, which is why I made the change when I was filing the incorporation paperwork with the attorney (you had sold it quite awhile ago at the time). I do still own my house on Rose; my friend Vance lives there, so if something arrived I would get it. But yeah, the lawyer would be the one to check with, and if it is still set to that address, it should be changed. But there is no rush... I know there was some paperwork to file with the state the last time I did it and it takes time.

Hopefully our incorporation has not lapsed. As I recall the attorney's office was not great about getting in touch with the club in a timely manner so that we could file the paperwork. That whole thing with the address change meant that we had to file a deadline extension for the other paperwork until that went through, as it was almost already late. I believe part of that paperwork is our "annual report" which is the minutes from one of the end-of-year meetings, maybe December when the new officers are voted in. I remember having a conversation with a paralegal from the attorney's office about how they had some outdated phone numbers, and Fraser's old address, so they weren't sure how to get in touch with us. I half-jokingly pointed out that we are the #1 search result for MIJC, Mid Illini Jeepers, or Mid Illini Jeep Club. :-)

We do have members who don't plan on moving anywhere, but it might be good to spend a bit of money and get a PO box somewhere that would alleviate this problem. I did some checking... an extra-small (3x5.5") PO box in Pekin is $96/year. In Bartonville it's $62/year. Downtown Peoria is $82/year, but they don't have any that size available at the University street post office. East Peoria is also $82/year. Morton $62/year. Just for fun I looked up Tremont... $54/year. It seems like the smaller the town, the cheaper it is, although I'm not sure why Pekin costs the most. Availability, maybe.

Someone would of course need to check the box periodically, but when I was looking around on the USPS site I saw you can link a PO box to a USPS.com account. With that link set up, they'll send you pictures of any mail that arrives, so you could only go when there's something there. I do that for my home now. Or maybe we have an officer who is already checking a PO box regularly and we could get a box at that same location.

We definitely have the money for this, in my opinion, but it's a question of whether it would be worth the cost to make the club's address independent of any one specific member. And is it too much to ask our officers to check the box. I'm not sure what the answers are there... perhaps a topic of discussion for a meeting. For the record, if I ever win the lottery, my plan is to purchase a physical property and building for the club to exist in, and set up an endowment to pay things like utilities and property taxes. :-)
Image___Image___Image___Image
. . . . . . '83 CJ-7 . . . . . . . . . . . . '89 Grand Wagoneer . . . . . . . . '78 Postal DJ-5 . . . . . . . . '99 Grand Cherokee ZJ . .
LarryWilson
Posts: 163
Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 3:59 pm
MIJC Member: Yes
Full Name: Larry Wilson
Member page: http://mijc.org/members/u-z/wilson-larry-jennifer/
Location: East Peoria, IL

Re: Articles of incorporation

Post by LarryWilson »

Thank you again Dave! The information that you have provided has given some background into this situation and answers a few of my questions. It is probably good to have this information out on the website so that if the topic comes up again, we can find it.

As for the post office box, I think that it is a good idea. I had no clue that if you had an account with them that they would send pictures of the mail in the P.O. box. But this topic is something that we can discuss at a future meeting and get a consensus from the membership.

Larry
User avatar
wdln
Web Admin
Posts: 1577
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:23 am
MIJC Member: Yes
Full Name: Dave Lennie
Member page: http://mijc.org/members/k-o/lennie-dave-carrie/
Location: Bartonville, IL
Contact:

Re: Articles of incorporation

Post by wdln »

As I re-read my post just now, it occurs to me that even the cheapest PO box I found seems like quite a bit of money to spend just to have a club address. I'm definitely not married to this idea; I just thought it was worthy of discussion, as we have now had addresses become out of date at least twice now since the club's creation (but admittedly, 2-3 times in 20+ years isn't too bad). It doesn't take an act of congress to change our incorporation address with the state, but it does cost us some legal fees to have the lawyer fill out and file the proper forms, and because this always sneaks up on us every year, late fees can apply. One could argue that all those fees would have paid for a PO box.

Some additional food for thought: if we do continue the practice of using a seemingly stable member's address, even if they don't move, what if they get out of the Jeep game? We've lost even long-time members before, both amicably and not-so-amicably. Even if that person stayed in the club, they can't stay in the same MIJC officer position for more than 4 years. Is it fair to require the owner of our club address to continue to serve as an officer? On the other hand, is it weird to have the club registered to an address belonging to a non-officer?

To look at it one way, if we opted for a cheap PO box, the dues that two members pay per year would pay for it. To look at it another (perhaps more reasonable) way, based on our 2018 membership numbers, about $1.50 out of everyone's $30 membership dues would pay for a PO box.

Honestly, these are all questions I should have asked before I changed the address last time, and I'll cop to that. Hindsight is 20/20.

This is definitely something to discuss. We've got the cash... thanks to our always-seemingly-huge 4wd Hardware rebate, we always have lots of money left at the end of the year which we mostly end up giving back to the membership as gift cards and spending on the cost of the banquet. But if other opinions prevail, it won't offend me.
Image___Image___Image___Image
. . . . . . '83 CJ-7 . . . . . . . . . . . . '89 Grand Wagoneer . . . . . . . . '78 Postal DJ-5 . . . . . . . . '99 Grand Cherokee ZJ . .
Fraser
MIJC Treasurer
MIJC Treasurer
Posts: 993
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:14 pm
MIJC Member: Yes
Full Name: Fraser Yarker
Member page: http://mijc.org/members/u-z/yarker-fraser/
Location: Pekin, IL
Contact:

Re: Articles of incorporation

Post by Fraser »

I received a copy of the Articles Friday from the lawyers and opened a new bank account Monday. Someone authorized on the old account (Jon, Tom or Sally) will have to close it and have the funds transfered to the new one. At the dinner, I'll gather signatures and other info for the other officers who should be authorized for the new account.
1998 TJ (Wrangler) - usually driveable
19xx J-truck
Parts
User avatar
wdln
Web Admin
Posts: 1577
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:23 am
MIJC Member: Yes
Full Name: Dave Lennie
Member page: http://mijc.org/members/k-o/lennie-dave-carrie/
Location: Bartonville, IL
Contact:

Re: Articles of incorporation

Post by wdln »

I stopped by the Bartonville post office on other business this morning and asked whether it was possible to forward mail from a PO box; Rose suggested in passing at the banquet that this would be a good way to avoid having to make a trip to pick up the club's mail. The guy said you can forward it, but as soon as the forward goes through, the PO box account is cancelled, since you wouldn't be receiving any mail in the box. So the only way to do it would be to NOT forward the mail, use the electronic delivery notification so you know when there's something that was delivered, then pick it up in person.
Image___Image___Image___Image
. . . . . . '83 CJ-7 . . . . . . . . . . . . '89 Grand Wagoneer . . . . . . . . '78 Postal DJ-5 . . . . . . . . '99 Grand Cherokee ZJ . .
komats
MIJC Secretary
MIJC Secretary
Posts: 134
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:51 am
MIJC Member: Yes
Full Name: Rose Bortolussi
Member page: http://mijc.org/members/a-d/bortolussi-rose/

Re: Articles of incorporation

Post by komats »

Well I get an A for effort. Maybe we should just wait for the meeting for other suggestions. Little less of a public forum :wink:
User avatar
wdln
Web Admin
Posts: 1577
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:23 am
MIJC Member: Yes
Full Name: Dave Lennie
Member page: http://mijc.org/members/k-o/lennie-dave-carrie/
Location: Bartonville, IL
Contact:

Re: Articles of incorporation

Post by wdln »

Agreed; this needs some discussion. I was originally not going to be able to come to the meeting on Saturday but my TV game on Saturday got cancelled, so I'll be there now.

And you do get an A for effort... that was a good idea! Too bad the post office doesn't see it that way.
Image___Image___Image___Image
. . . . . . '83 CJ-7 . . . . . . . . . . . . '89 Grand Wagoneer . . . . . . . . '78 Postal DJ-5 . . . . . . . . '99 Grand Cherokee ZJ . .
Post Reply