Quote:
Originally posted by AOIIalum
Yes, a Corporation can and does all of these things, but that's just the basics. I don't know for all GLO's, but what I'm familiar with is that the Corp is the actual legal entity of a collegiate chapter. The Corp (not the local chapter itself) owns ALL property (this includes furnishings, various and sundry equipment, artwork, crystal/china, etc, physical plant, appliances, etc.) They handle the hiring and firing decisions along with all necessary human resources needs for legally staffing a chapter house. Also, do not forget that the Corp is the only entity actually authorized to enter into any type of contract on the behalf of the local chapter. Anyone ever deal with a composite company after some uninformed collegiate signed a composite contract, for example?
It's a lot more than just obtaining and managing "the house." There's nothing like running your own (insert your Corp's annual budget HERE) business, and that is exactly what a House Corp does.
Yep, I've actually talked before about turning Corp volunteering into viable resume experience
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This is what I'm most familiar with. One of the questions I can't seem to get an answer to is, does a Corporation have to be renewed? If not, then we should still have a legal Corporation. If it
does, we have to find an alumna who can at least do the paperwork for free, if not the filing fees.
A second problem is getting the current sisters to fully understand the whole
concept, as you've stated so well. They have been collecting Housing Corp. fees, but not delivering them. We understood that, if something broke, if we needed something for the Suite, if we even needed cleanser - we contacted the Property Manager (who was on Housing Corp.) They have been so independent for so long, this is really going to be hard! They've put a LOT of sweat equity into the Suite's current look; I'd just like to see a plan of action, instead of one sister painting a room one color, then another painting it a different color two weeks later.
One MAJOR expense that we'll have is in painting the formal living room. The ceiling is something like 20 feet high at points and is 25'x16', so we need scaffolding. We cannot use scaffolding without using the University. We must pay union wages to the University painters. So, before we spend a small fortune for just one room, I
really think we need a decorating plan, if not a decorator. Let's face it, if you get 10 people in a room, you'll get at least 5 opinions on what should be done (hence the decorator). One of our Junior Leaguers has said that she'll round up a decorator, but we haven't heard anything further.
So, breaking it down:
1) Do we need to file a new corporation?
2) How do you introduce a totally new, but more efficient, system to a chapter, while still asking them to help out with the "sweat equity" - at first.
3) Do other HC's take yearly inventory of the property, and send out newsletters to alumnae? The chapter does the occasional newsletter (usually via email), but I think one combined with the Housing Corp. would work even better (because you can include an envelope, for starters!).
Keep the ideas coming!!!
ETA: We don't have a staff problem, as the University provides the neo-nazi security guards, and there hasn't been a regular cleaning woman since I was in school.