*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do *** The IRS tax issue on the use of the Internet is bceoming a very important issue to explore. It has not gotten the attention FEC explorations did last year. See <http://captn.org/policy/irs/> for more information. Steven Clift Democracies Online ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 08:48:15 -0500 From: CAPTN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: CAPTN's Log - December 11, 2000 CAPTN's Log - December 11, 2000 A Service of the Communications and Policy Technology Network 1. IRS Tax Law Specialist Judith Kindell to Address CAPTN's Table 2. CAPTN's Task Force (IRS Notice) Agrees to Industry-Wide Campaign 3. Learn From This Year's Golden Dot Award Winning Internet Campaigns 4. Internet Voting -- Less Willing? / Can't Wait? 5. CAPTN Membership and Sponsorship **************************************************************************** 1. IRS Tax Law Specialist Judith Kindell to Address CAPTN's Table TABLE: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 -- Noon to 1:30 PM TOPIC: IRS Notice for Comments on Possible Regulations for Nonprofits PLACE: U.S. Chamber of Commerce - 1615 H Street, NW GUEST: Judith Kindell, Internal Revenue Service Register online at http://www.captn.org/tables or call (202) 263-2951. $10 - Members / $15 - Nonmembers / Press - welcome free of charge. The Internal Revenue Service has recently issued a notice for public comment on the possible need for regulations on how nonprofit organizations can use the Internet. They will be accepting comments until February 13, 2001. At the December CAPTN's Table, we will be providing our members, and representatives of nonprofit organizations, an opportunity to hear directly from Judith Kindell (IRS Tax Law Specialist, Exempt Organizations - initiator of the Internet notice, and the person charged with accepting and routing public comments) what concerns prompted the notice. We will then open up the floor to questions and discuss how best we can help the IRS understand make decisions on this issue which will help our organizations. For more information on this serious issue, go to http://www.captn.org/policy/irs. **************************************************************************** 2. CAPTN's Task Force (IRS Notice) Agrees to Industry-Wide Campaign On Thursday, December 7th, the CAPTN Task Force on IRS Notice 2000-84 conducted its first meeting. The gathering consisted of CAPTN members and representatives of other leading nonprofit advocacy groups working together on a strategic campaign to mobilize the nonprofit community and to work with the Internal Revenue Service on this important issue. The campaign the Task Force agreed upon will consist of three areas: 1. Drafting industry comments, which will be brief and non- controversial, allowing all CAPTN members -- as well as nonprofit, public opinion and industry leaders -- to easily sign onto, showing broad community support for important key principles. 2. Orchestrating a grassroots campaign to encourage organizations to take advantage of the detailed and instructional comments being drafted by organizations like Independent Sector, the Alliance for Justice, OMB Watch and the Center for Democracy and Technology, and to use them as guides in drafting comments for their organization to submit. 3. Providing a bridge between the IRS and the nonprofit community to promote a greater understanding of what nonprofit groups are doing online and how regulations would affect our organization's efforts. The Task Force leadership team will consist of: Dan Solomon (mindshare Internet Campaigns) - Chair Holly Ross (TechRocks) - Progressive Outreach Tim Hathaway (The Hathaway Group) - Conservative Outreach Phil Attey (CAPTN) - Internet Industry Outreach Lisa Silverberg (consultant)- Nonprofit Support Industry Outreach Help Needed: The Task Force is looking for individuals with media experience to help with nonprofit press communications and others who could help with outreach to the nonprofit support. If you have experience in either of these areas and would like to help with any specific part of the campaign, please email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Special thanks to Jillane Smith, Katarina Kopp and the Benton Foundation for providing space for this important meeting. **************************************************************************** 3. Learn From This Year's Golden Dot Award Winning Internet Campaigns! Congratulations to the organizers of this year's Politics Online Conference (December 4th) for their remarkable job in pulling together an outstanding day of provocative speakers and record breaking attendance. In particular, our industry should applaud Jackie Linde, Ronda Brown, Chris Arterton, Mike Cornfield, Dan Solomon and the dozens of students from George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management who made the conference flow so smoothly. Most of all, please join CAPTN in congratulating the winners of this year's Golden Dot Awards. The announcement of the Golden Dot Awards, has become a highlight of conference since their inception in 1998. The "Golden Dots" are awarded during election years to candidate Internet campaigns and in off-election years to issue advocacy campaigns. They are selected by the conference's advisory board which is made up of a diverse collection of industry pioneers and leaders. Please visit their sites of this year's winners to see why they were selected for excellence in the following categories and to inspire you in the strategic planning of your next campaign: Award for Innovation AlGore.com (Wireless Campaign) - www.AlGore.com/pda Award for Message Jean Elliot for Congress - www.JeanElliotBrown.com Award for Public Accountability Jean Elliot for Congress - www.JeanElliotBrown.com Award for Public Support YRock.com (Young Republicans) - www.YRock.com Award for Local Campaigning Rick Johnson for Congress - www.rickjohnson2000.org For more information about the Golden Dot Awards or the Politics Online Conference, go to http://www.gspm.org/politicsonline **************************************************************************** 4. Internet Voting -- Less Willing? / Can't Wait? There's nothing quite like a hotly contested Presidential election to bring out the best and the worst in our political system. Regardless of which candidate will eventually take the Oval Office, one outcome of this year's roller coaster race for the White House has been the enlightenment of America that while relying on paper ballot and punch card technologies, we can not hold dear the sacred claim that in America EVERY VOTE COUNTS. It has also provided our industry an opportunity to loft an initial test balloon on the merits of Internet voting into the public square. The concept has been met by some as a strong solution to current tallying problems, voter apathy and misinformation fostered by sound-bite politics. Others see it as a Pandora's box, which will increase the chances of voter fraud, election hacking and vote buying. While others believe it's a good idea....but until we've addressed digital divide issues, it will unfairly increase the political power of the economic elite. While CAPTN has not taken an official position on this issue, we encourage you, as an industry professional, to keep a close eye on the discourse around it, as it may greatly affect our role in the political and governmental process. Here are a few sites you should check out, in case you haven't already: The Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility's Recent Report on Voting, Computers and the Human-Computer Interface www.cpsr.org/issues/voting.html The Center for Voting and Democracy www.fairvote.org The California Voter Foundation's Forum on Voting Technologies www.calvoter.org/votingtechnology.html The Brookings Institution's Symposium on the Future of Internet Voting www.brookings.edu/comm/events/20000120.htm PoliticsOnline's Archive of Press Articles on Online Voting www.politicsonline.com/pol2000/onlinevoterecon.asp Election.com www.election.com SafeVote www.safevote.com **************************************************************************** 5. CAPTN Membership and Sponsorship CAPTN can not continue to grow and support our professional community without you! If you are not yet a member of CAPTN, please take the time to register online, www.captn.org/membership. For $35/year you will become part of the growing number of professionals in our industry who believe in the importance of networking around issues that affect us all and learning from each other's successes. If your company believes in helping our profession grow or wants to be recognized as a friend to our industry, please look into sponsoring CAPTN. You can sponsor one of our well attended monthly luncheons or become a year-round sponsor and be recognized throughout the year as an industry leader! For more information about corporate sponsorship, go to www.captn.org/sponsors or contact Phil Attey, 202.263.2951 or at [EMAIL PROTECTED] **************************************************************************** The CAPTN's Log is a service of the Communications and Policy Technology Network. Please feel free to forward the CAPTN's Log to other colleagues in our industry. To submit content suggestions or to be removed from this list, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Communications and Policy Technology Network 919 18th Street, NW, 10th Floor, Washington, DC 20006 202.263.2951 phone 202.263.2960 fax [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.captn.org **************************************************************************** *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To unsubscribe instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please forward this post to others and encourage *** *** them to subscribe to the free DO-WIRE service. ***
