Happy New Year Primetimers!
Wow. That was some year wasn’t it? Joy and heartbreak. Hope and turmoil. 2024 had it all. And I don’t know about you, but I’m really glad I had this circle of Primetimers to keep things on an even keel. In a time of uncertainty, it is our friends that keep us going.
Thank You Louise
With that said, I do have some news that some of you already know about. Our Grand Poobah Louise has stepped down from leadership of Primetime after three years of steering the vessel through some pretty uncertain waters, including a pandemic and a great deal of political uncertainty. She wanted me to share the following with you.
Well, here we are in the part of the year that Australians call “the silly season.” I always thought “crazy” was more appropriate, but tomatoes, tomahtoes, I suppose, since either way we are just a few days away from a new month and a new year. Perhaps you are working on your New Year’s Resolution, or maybe your resolutions went the way of Y2K disaster predictions! Like some, you might be quietly reflecting on the year past.
I have been reflecting on the past three years—the time I’ve spent as Organizer of PrimeTime—which has been a labor of love in addition to both an honor and pleasure for me.
That being said, however, I feel that the time is right for me to pass the management of the community on to the capable hands of Gregg Perry. He’s been an invaluable part of our Leadership Team, and has a lot of experience with many service groups in our area. That, along with his legal qualifications, make him uniquely qualified to be the new “Grand Poo Bah.”
Of course, no Grand Poo Bah is a solo act, and I would like to thank the following people who served on our Leadership Team and worked during part or all of the past three years behind the scenes: Lisa Kriger, Andy Jackson, Mireya Mata, Jeffrey Solomon, Barbara Abbate, Pat Watson, Tom Davis, and Gregg Perry. We have already been planning for 2025, most notably: The PrimeTime Mardi Gras on February 22! Mark your calendar NOW!
I would also like to thank our fantabulous Event Organizers who keep our calendar filled with a plethora of events for our community! You are the life’s breath of our group and keep us going and growing! I continue to maintain that we are unique among Austin Meet-Up groups in both the number and variety of events on our calendar! Be sure to thank your Event Organizers—it takes planning and organization to make what they do look easy!
Thanks to all of you–our membership–who help make PrimeTime the wonderful community it is; and special thanks to GW for all the patience, help, transportation, and ❤️.
With love and hugs,
Louise
Let me add my personal thanks to Louise. We are all volunteers in this group, and I can tell you that sometimes keeping this ship afloat is not an easy task. So the next time you see Louise (and by extension her partner Greg) you should take time to thank them and maybe take them some cookies or buy them a libation. They deserve it.
Welcome to Primetime 2025 & Beyond
Many people have likened Primetime, in all its messy glory, to that fabled herd of cats. But what most people don’t realize is that there are often initiatives going on in the background that we don’t necessarily announce to everyone right away while we lay the groundwork. One of those initiatives has been in the works for awhile now and has been a long time coming.
One of the biggest challenges to running a group of this size is coming up with a workable leadership and financial structure where members get their say and there are sufficient monies available to fund projects. For that reason, we have been discussing for several years the creation of a legitimate non-profit organization to conduct our affairs. This seemed as good a time as any to put my law degree into action and help us towards that goal.
So I am happy to announce that we have started filing the paperwork to create the PrimetimeATX Foundation, a tax-exempt social club under Section 501(c)(7) of the Tax Code. What that means in English is that we will be for all intensive federal and state purposes a tax-exempt corporation, with a Board of Directors and a standard leadership structure common to such organizations.
First let me distinguish between this and a charity organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Tax Code that you may be more familiar with. To qualify as a 501(c)(3) charity (and to make contributions to that charity tax deductible) an organization must take any contributions and spend them on outside non-profit charitable activities or administrative expenses associated with collecting and distributing those outside donations. The money cannot be spent on the members of the organization. And although we’re all old, collecting money for a swell party for our members is not a charitable purpose.
The good news is that other than that limitation, we will be a fully tax-exempt, non-profit entity, and because of that, a whole new world opens up for us. We will have both a federal and state non-profit organization status and tax numbers. We will be able to open a bank account in the group’s name. We will be able to fundraise. We will be able to buy supplies free of sales tax thanks to the fact that Texas does not distinguish between a 501(c)(3) and a 501(c)(7). We will not have to file a tax return, although there will be some standard and uncomplicated maintenance forms that need to be filed with the feds and the state.
I’m still working out some details with a lawyer, but the Board of Directors will likely be elected by you, the membership of Primetime, once a year. The Board, in turn, will be responsible for appointing members to take charge of specific needed tasks and setting the policies of the group. To start, and as is this case with most new foundations and corporations, we will have an group of “organizing” directors to take care of things for the first year until we have our first membership vote for the Board. Not surprisingly, these organizing directors will be made up of mostly current leadership, including myself, Patty, Tom, and with much gratitude, Andy is returning to leadership primarily to act as our Treasurer and take care of overseeing financial matters. Patty and Tom will also have their specialties while we make this transition.
Patty has agreed to become the main starting contact for helping to recruit and support Event Organizers and Hosts. Note that this doesn’t mean Patty (or any of us) will be able to attend every event. Most of you guys and gals know my schedule and know that at present I cant attend events Saturday through Monday. The rest of the Board is equally slammed. But what Patty has agreed to do is act as a resource for new hosts who need help setting up their first event or navigating the website, as well as a point person for ongoing questions, such as “Can I get reimbursed for certain expenses on an event?” or to advise how to handle a problematic attendee. Big stull will still be brought to the board. But as the old saying goes, let’s not sweat the small stuff, and it’s all (mostly) small stuff.
Similarly, Tom has agreed to become a kind of “Membership Poobah” to recruit members, make them feel welcome, and answer general questions from new and old members, giving them a single point of contact to either get answers or to bring something before the board and officers. Over the next few weeks, the email that goes out to all new members will appear to come from Tom, giving newbies at least one person they know in the group.
Naturally there will be some overlap in duties as we implement this structure. The idea is to start compartmentalizing the needed functions of Primetime and prevent everything from falling on one or two people. And there will likely be new positions created and perhaps more board positions created as we see the need. But this should get us started.
In particular, and for our bigger events, we are hoping to have one to three members in charge of putting on single events with full board, officer and financial support. Because of venue and band scheduling, these events often need to be planned several months in advance. It’s not hard or particularly time consuming, but it does take a dedicated team who would like to contribute to Primetime in a limited, perhaps once a year way and earn the undying gratitude of everyone. You guys know I (and often Andy) personally put a lot of thought into our larger movie nights. I do that because its fun, and because I really enjoy creating something that you guys and gals enjoy. If you think you might also find that rewarding, contact one of us and we’ll talk. I personally will do everything I can to help you, especially at the beginning while we’re trying to figure out how all this is going to work.
Finally, let’s talk money. As soon as I get our new tax number from the IRS, I plan to go to the bank and open a business account in the name of the PrimetimeATX Foundation. I will then get our current funds from new member fees transferred into that account, and I will be making a healthy contribution to those funds to ensure we have enough to do what we want to do for the next year or so. The standard $10 new member fee will then go directly into this account. Note that once in the account, that income will become tax exempt and therefore can only be used for membership events and expenses (which is how it should be). We have pretty much always done it that way, but this formalizes the process and makes it transparent to our members, again, as it should be.
One of the biggest advantages of this structure is that we will be able to fundraise to support our events and activities. I’m already working on some cool swag, but if any of you artistic types would like to design some awesome t-shirts or coffee mugs or whatever, I would like very much to talk to you. I have purchased some heat transfer machinery and equipment to keep our printing costs down, at least for small-scale runs. So look for some Primetime and other appropriate swag in the near future. All profits will go to the foundation.
Whew…That’s A Lot to Take In…
But I can’t express how excited I am to make all this happen and to build a sustainable and welcome place for those of us knocking on the door of our later years. There’s lots more to come. I am honored that I have been asked to lead this new journey for Primetime, and I think with the teams we are putting together the best years of an already enviable group of people are ahead of us.
Keep on truckin’, Primetimers.
