[2507] in APO Printshop
Re: Question in regard to print job
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lori Tsuruda)
Fri May 12 04:17:49 2006
Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 04:17:42 -0400
To: apo-printshop@MIT.EDU
From: Lori Tsuruda <lori@pmd.org>
In-Reply-To: <200605112036.k4BKaJAs031889@zamboni.csail.mit.edu>
Hi, Mitch et al.
It is legal for nonprofits to provide services similar to those in
commercial industry, particularly if it falls within their missions.
Insurance, health care, and catering (as part of a job training
program) immediately come to mind.
If outside the mission of their tax-exempt status, then sometimes
nonprofits report and pay Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT).
This usually depends on the transaction relative to gross income.
So if one compares <$10 business card income minus expenses
to the total income of MIT or APO national, then this revenue
would be negligible.
So if print jobs are still accepted based on whether anyone is interested
and available to complete them, then I would let the press-op/journeyman/
training assignment acceptance "system" determine whether this job
gets done. (And I would add at least $4.05 for USPS priority mail
for mailing expenses if required.)
Although "outside" jobs (non APO, non MIT) may not be done much
now, the shop has samples of business cards, invitations, envelopes,
personal stationery, etc. from my era.
Lori
You wrote:
>I know that it's not legal for us as a nonprofit to provide
a service that essentially amounts to competing with commercial industry,
At 04:36 PM 5/11/2006, you wrote:
>Hi Chris,
>
>Just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about you. Sadly,
>I don't feel qualified to answer the question about whether we'll do an
>outside job - I know that it's not legal for us as a nonprofit to provide
>a service that essentially amounts to competing with commercial industry,
>and at the same time, I know that the Chapter's printshop has occasionally
>done jobs like this in the past for people who knew someone in Alpha Chi.
>
>I discussed this with Len some time ago, and with Ellen yesterday. Len,
>at least, has some reservations about doing an outside job. Ellen
>recognizes the issue, but doesn't seem particularly opposed to it. Though
>I don't feel I should be the one to make this decision due to the issues
>involved, I recognize that this is an ideal type of job for us to use as
>a training or qualifying run, and my personal preference would be to
>accept it.
>
>I'd asked Len to either give me enough history and perspective to be able
>to make a responsible decision, or to reply with an answer himself, but
>it doesn't seem that that's happened yet, so I figured I'd let you know
>where we are and that this hasn't been dropped on the floor.
>
>Mitch
>
> > Mitch, Len and other press-ops / journeymen,
> >
> > Do we still provide printing services for people
> > outside of the MIT community? In particular a
> > friend of mine is starting a new business and would
> > like a run of 200 business cards, (text only no logo).
> > How much would this cost and about how long would
> > it take to complete the run (given that it is the end of term)
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Chris Falling
> >
> > YiLFS and aka as someone
> > who took training a long time ago but
> > never proceeded to the next step in print shop
> > operations :-).
> >
