[UgaBYTES] No good news abour registration process of BCTN : I met the Director General this morning !

Fri Jun 6 01:58:59 GMT 2008

Hi, Jean Paul

Read the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal in Canada that allowed 
VCN's to be granted charitable status (it's the "court decision" link at 
the address Peter sent you).  While the law regarding charities in 
Burundi is no doubt very different from ours, some of the principles may 
be helpful.  The key to VCN's eligibility for is that we provide a way 
for everyone to take advantage of the internet (the "information 
highway") and the many resources it makes available.  That was seen as 
just as much in the public interest as maintaining roads and bridges 
were hundreds of years ago in England (before there were highway 
departments), because transportation made commerce and many other things 
possible. 

Relieving poverty by helping low-income people find jobs and helping 
community economic development can also be charitable in Canada, as the 
attachment from our government's agency explains. 

The comparison is even stronger now than it was in the mid-90's, when 
governments and businesses were just starting to use the internet as a 
primarly way to communicate and provide services.  Now it's sometimes 
the only way to get important information, and it's almost always the 
cheapest and fastest way.  Since the global economy is heavily based on 
the internet, people who can't afford commercial internet access would 
be excluded from fully participating in society if organizations like 
yours were not available to provide access at affordable rates. 

I'd be surprised if all organizations that charge a fee for their 
services were excluded from recognition in Burundi as non-profits and/or 
charities.  Every organization has to have some way to meet its 
expenses, and charging a nominal amount for certain services is just one 
way (along with fund-raising, donations, government funding, etc.) to do 
that.  The test is whether the organization's purpose in raising money 
is to make a profit for itself or its owners or members, or whether it's 
to pay expenses so as to carry out its mission.  From what you say, your 
organization is clearly raising money to pay expenses and thereby 
support your public interest, charitable goals.  Charging a modest fee 
for that purpose shouldn't disqualify you from recognition as a non-profit.

Good luck in your meeting tomorrow!

Jim

PS:  Revising your constitution is a nuisance, but if that's what you 
need to do, it's better than not getting status at all.  We usually 
advise people to try to comply with the government's requests rather 
than fighting them in court.  Sometimes you can set  up a second 
organization to act as a charity, and have it provide funding for the 
charitable activities of the existing one (but not for anything that 
isn't considered charitable).  You may need legal help in your country 
if that kind of set-up is needed, though.

Peter Royce wrote:
>
> Hi Jean Paul,
>
> Here is a link to most of the information that would be of use to you
> in making the case that your work is non-profit/charitable.
> http://www2.vcn.bc.ca/charitablestatus Unfortunately, Industry Canada
> has moved their excellent "Charitable Incorporation Kit" prepared by
> Pippa Lawson.
>
> Good luck, Peter
>
> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 1:21 PM, Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> Hi Jean Paul,
>>
>> I'm not sure if it will be of any assistance but the Vancouver (Canada)
>> Community Network (VCN) (where I'm on the Board) ran into the same problem
>> about 10 years ago and won a quite famous court case which determined that
>> VCN was in fact a not-for-profit even though it did charge for some of its
>> services.
>>
>> I'll copy this to the current VCN President Jim Sayre (a lawyer) and Peter
>> Royce (who was VCN co-ordinator at the time) if you have an interest in
>> getting more information on what happened in the Canadian circumstance.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> MG
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org
>> [mailto:ugabytes-bounces at lists.ugabytes.org] On Behalf Of NKURUNZIZA Jean
>> Paul
>> Sent: June 5, 2008 4:31 AM
>> To: ugabytes at lists.ugabytes.org
>> Subject: [UgaBYTES] No good news abour registration process of BCTN : I met
>> the Director General this morning !
>> Importance: High
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I met this morning the Director General of the Ministry of Interior today
>> morning. The bad thing is that the Advicer in charge of our file had
>> attached a very little notice on our file saying that : BCTN is not a non
>> profit organization. He wrote this because in our text, we described some
>> services generally offered by telecenter ( Internet access, photocopy,
>> Library, community radio, ...). As he saw that offered services are not
>> free, them he argued that BCTN is not non profit. But I explained that the
>> major role of the network is essentially to support telecenter initiatives
>> by capacity buildings, lobbying and content for Development, etc... as it is
>> clearly stated in our objectives. I also explained that low fees are paid to
>> telecenters for their sustainability issues. At the end, he told me to
>> contact back the Advicer and explain him. This because the Director General
>> can't go against technical advices from his colleague. So, we scheduled the
>> meeting with the Advicer tomorrow as he was not in his office today. It
>> looks like that we will be obliged to modify our  constitution text and then
>> begin all the registration process again if the Advicer doesn't understand.
>>
>> --
>> NKURUNZIZA Jean Paul
>> Président du Réseau des Télécentres Communautaires  du Burundi Secrétaire
>> Général de BYTC B.P 7031 BUJUMBURA BURUNDI
>> Tél: 00257 22 21 96 45
>> Tél Mob : 00257 76 60 49 46/00257 79 981 459
>> Fax : 00257 212485 ou 00257 222147
>> E.Mail : nkurunziza at bytc.bi ou
>>         jnkurunz at hotmail.com
>> Site web : http://www.bytc.bi
>>
>>
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>>     
>
>   

-- 

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