This may be only of personal interest to me because I was deeply involved in both anime fandom and in furry fandom from their beginnings, but to the extent that RMFC was disbanded because of tax problems, this is very similar to why the first anime fan club, the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization, never incorporated itself as a not-for-profit organization in the 1980s.
When the C/FO “went big” around 1980, from a club in Los Angeles to a theoretically international anime club with chapters in many cities, the theory was that the anime fans in different cities would gather in local chapters – the C/FO-Los Angeles, the C/FO-New York, the C/FO-Denver, the C/FO-Chicago, the C/FO-Toronto, etc. – and we would coordinate through a central HQ to trade anime video tapes, exchange anime news, and so on. (This was in pre-home computer days; we corresponded by regular mail.) It was also assumed that we would incorporate as a not-for-profit organization for tax protection, personal protection of the club officers, etc. The tax protection was particularly important because we had chapters in both the U.S. and Canada.
But you can’t just say that you’re a not-for-profit organization. You have to be approved by the federal government. And there is bureaucracy. You have to send in reports every year to document that money collected by the organization (in the C/FO’s case, for blank video tapes to make anime copies for new chapters) wasn’t going to the officers’ personal profit.
This is where the C/FO broke down. It was a mostly-teenage anime fan club. The fans wanted to watch anime videos and discuss anime, not fill out bureaucratic paperwork. Most of the chapters refused to keep the records that the government required. So the club officers never dared to file for not-for-profit status.
If I understand correctly, the RMFC did file for not-for-profit status, was granted it, and then never bothered to send in the required followup paperwork; and it finally caught up with them. The RMFC certainly had other problems, but this was a serious one that might have been fatal on its own.
This may be only of personal interest to me because I was deeply involved in both anime fandom and in furry fandom from their beginnings, but to the extent that RMFC was disbanded because of tax problems, this is very similar to why the first anime fan club, the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization, never incorporated itself as a not-for-profit organization in the 1980s.
When the C/FO “went big” around 1980, from a club in Los Angeles to a theoretically international anime club with chapters in many cities, the theory was that the anime fans in different cities would gather in local chapters – the C/FO-Los Angeles, the C/FO-New York, the C/FO-Denver, the C/FO-Chicago, the C/FO-Toronto, etc. – and we would coordinate through a central HQ to trade anime video tapes, exchange anime news, and so on. (This was in pre-home computer days; we corresponded by regular mail.) It was also assumed that we would incorporate as a not-for-profit organization for tax protection, personal protection of the club officers, etc. The tax protection was particularly important because we had chapters in both the U.S. and Canada.
But you can’t just say that you’re a not-for-profit organization. You have to be approved by the federal government. And there is bureaucracy. You have to send in reports every year to document that money collected by the organization (in the C/FO’s case, for blank video tapes to make anime copies for new chapters) wasn’t going to the officers’ personal profit.
This is where the C/FO broke down. It was a mostly-teenage anime fan club. The fans wanted to watch anime videos and discuss anime, not fill out bureaucratic paperwork. Most of the chapters refused to keep the records that the government required. So the club officers never dared to file for not-for-profit status.
If I understand correctly, the RMFC did file for not-for-profit status, was granted it, and then never bothered to send in the required followup paperwork; and it finally caught up with them. The RMFC certainly had other problems, but this was a serious one that might have been fatal on its own.
Fred Patten