Re: [gentoo-trustees] New bank account

[Corey Shields]

Been meaning to chime in on this..  just low on time right now.

I have over $100 from LWE we could bootstrap the BoA account with if we wanted 
to go with Bank of America  (I'm all for it).

As for the paperwork, #5 will be the tough one.  We don't have the IRS 
paperwork done yet (I'm dropping the ball on that right now, I need to get 
some stuff to jhuebel), but on the other hand we can't very well get a 
notorized letter around to all of the trustees (maybe a partial list?)

Let me get the irs stuff to Jason...

-C

On Tuesday 23 August 2005 03:18 pm, Donnie Berkholz wrote:
> Over the past couple of weeks I've been researching a new bank account
> that would allow us:
>
> 1) to get verified with Paypal so we could actually get our money out of
> there without a limit; and
>
> 2) to allow international trustees to have access if they wanted it.
>
> At the FLOSS summit a couple of weeks ago, the Eclipse Foundation's
> director mentioned that it uses Bank of America, which has a number of
> enhanced online banking features beyond what most banks have.
>
> I've met with bankers at the Bank of America twice now, and I think they
> can fulfill our needs.
>
> What regular banks to that gets Paypal to verify them is get everyone
> who has access to the account to sign a signature card. This means that
> the signature card would need to get sent all over the world, to each
> trustee who wants access to the account. It would be useful to minimize
> this, so I propose that only our officers do this and therefore have
> access to the account.
>
> For the international case, the signature card would be mailed to the
> local U.S. embassy or consulate, and our trustees would need to go in
> and have their signatures notarized there.
>
> The enhanced online banking, called "Online Business Suite," [1] runs
> $15/month. What this gets us:
>
> 1) Separate logins/passwords for each person with access to the account;
>
> 2) A big list of financial features, some of which we may use, some not.
> One of these is direct deposit to employees, which we might be able to
> leverage to send Gentoo devs money for their funding requests, but it
> looks like this could cost another $10/month.
>
> Point 1 is probably the most important here. We want to be able to
> identify exactly who's doing what with our money.
>
> If you'd like to read more, go to bankofamerica.com and click the "Small
> Business" link at the top.
>
>
> Technical details on opening the account:
>
> While the signature card's being sent around, only the signers present
> at the initial account opening have access to it. Since Corey and I are
> both in Corvallis, it would make sense for both of us to sign it so we
> have a little insurance.
>
> What we need to open an account:
>
> 1) Person authorized to act on behalf of the foundation as indicated in
> its corporate resolution;
>
> 2) The foundation's tax ID number;
>
> 3) The foundation's Fictitious Name Certificate, or the Certificate of
> Trade Name if the account name is different from the corporate title;
>
> 4) The articles of incorporation;
>
> 5) The IRS ruling letter of tax exemption, or a notarized statement from
> the officers or directors on Gentoo letterhead, saying the foundation is
> exempt from tax reporting under 501(c).
>
> They will not accept a document that hasn't been filed with the
> appropriate state official.
>
> We don't need an official storefront to open an account; we can just
> give a home address.
>
> We need $100 to open the account.
>
>
> Technical details on using the account:
>
> In Europe, Deutsche Bank ATMs can be used for no fee;
>
> Debit-card purchases are free, but credit-card purchases are assessed an
> additional 3% of the transaction;
>
> They're having an ongoing special called "Business Deal Days" where the
> usual $2500 minimum balance is waived forever if you open an account
> during this time. If we open an account outside this special, we need to
> meet a minimum daily balance of $2500, or some other, larger monthly
> average balance, or pay $9/month.
>
> The type of account we want is called "Business Economy Checking."
>
> The banker I've been working with is Erica Lewis, at the Corvallis
> branch. It would be nice to open the account with her, if we do open it,
> because she's been quite helpful in answering my questions.
>
>
> I'm heading out for two weeks to get married and go on a honeymoon, so I
> won't be able to reply until then.
>
> Thanks,
> Donnie
>
> 1.
> http://www.bankofamerica.com/smallbusiness/accountaccess/index.cfm?template
>=acct_obs.cfm

-- 
Corey Shields
Gentoo Linux Infrastructure Team
Gentoo Foundation Board of Trustees
http://www.gentoo.org/~cshields