Other stuff

Background on HHS requirement to provide contraceptives in health insurance plans – part 1

I don’t do politics on my blogs.  I’m not making an exception now or anytime in the future.

It is not political to speak up when official government policy will require you or your organization to compromise your faith-formed, scripture-driven, core religious beliefs.

That is the place many people are at with the requirement from HHS to include contraceptives, including abortifacients, in all healthcare plans.

Such a requirement is completely contrary to the beliefs of people from the Roman Catholic tradition, as we saw in the news yesterday. It also violates the core beliefs of many other people and organizations in the religious nonprofit community.  This isn’t a concern for everyone, but it will be a major issue for many traditions.

I don’t follow healthcare issues closely, but I think it is time to provide some background for readers of my blog.

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Jim Ulvog

Are timelines of a document retention policy onerous? Yup.

When you look at the recommended retention times in a document retention policy you will see time frames like three years or seven years. For employment records you’ll see recommendations of seven years after termination.

I’m not an attorney, so I’ll discuss this from the perspective of an accountant.

You may look at those timelines and think that is quite burdensome. Well, yes, it probably is. So is sorting out what stuff gets put in which category.

However, those sorts of timelines are now the best practice for document retention. (more…)

Jim Ulvog

Sample document retention and destruction policies for religious nonprofit organizations

It is becoming increasingly important for nonprofit organizations to have a policy describing how long to keep different kinds of documents. A key part of any policy is to describe how and when to place a hold on document destruction.

Here are a few samples you could use to develop a document retention and destruction policy for your organization. Because of the wide-ranging legal issues, variations by state, and circumstantial application, I’m not comfortable producing a sample policy.

I have found a few that you could use as a starting point.  Here are some samples for your consideration.

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Jim Ulvog

Conflict at TBN goes public

I’ve not been paying much attention over the years to the occassional conflict around Trinity Broadcasting Network. An article in The New York Times this week reports there is a major round of turmoil that is now visible.

Family Battle Offers Look Inside Lavish TV Ministry, by Erik Eckholm, reports on accusations of extravagant spending by Mr. and Mrs. Crouch leveled by one of their granddaughters and accusations of theft by the granddaughter leveled by TBN.

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Jim Ulvog

e-fax – Electronic facsimile services are really inexpensive

I changed my e-fax provider today.

If you hadn’t thought about it before, or were unaware, you can buy an electronic fax service that puts faxes into your inbox via email.  You can dump your fax machine.

Each time I change providers, I find out that the services have gone up and the cost has gone down.

This time around I learned it is a common feature to be able to send a fax from your email software. Just enter the recipient’s fax number plus an extension as if it were an email address, add attachments, and hit send.  Your fax is on its way.  Cool.  Oh, toll-free numbers are now available for no extra charge.

Price?

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Jim Ulvog

Welcome to readers outside the U.S.

While writing a post on my other blog, Outrun Change, about how much personal computers have changed in the last 30 years, I realized how many of the readers of my blogs are from outside the U.S.

On my two main blogs, this one which is Nonprofit Update and Attestation Update, about 20% of the page views in the last 30 days have been from readers in other countries.

Welcome!

Not sure what that means for my writing, but I’ll keep that in mind.

Enjoy!

Jim Ulvog

Really bad ideas for international aid – more unintended consequences

7 worst international aid ideas are Richard Supart’s nominations for the lousiest ways to help people.

Sending a ton of t-shirts or other clothing items to help the poor, naked, helpless people over there seems like a good idea.  Feels good, simple, great pictures, and easy-telling story.

Unfortunately, it is actually quite destructive.  T-shirts are at the top of Mr. Supart’s bad idea list:

1. One million t-shirts for Africa

Why is that hurtful?

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Jim Ulvog

The power of data-mining – calculating which customers are newly pregnant

Have a post at my other blog, Outrun Change, describing the power of data-mining.  Target is looking at their customer sales database to determine who is in the early stages of pregnancy so those mommies-to-be can start getting coupons for baby stuff.

See Predicting who is expecting by their shopping patterns in the second trimester – the power of data.

Might be a bit weird if you haven’t quite yet announced the good news to everyone.

Jim Ulvog

10 year anniversary of Ulvog CPA

On January 28, 2002 I hung out my shingle as a one-person CPA firm.  Ten years ago!

That was an exciting and thrilling step for me.  I’ve never had as much fun in my professional life as I have in the last decade.

My hope is that I’ve helped many organizations in the religious non-profit community improve their accounting and accountability.

I’m looking forward to many more years serving the non-profit community.  Looking forward to serving the CPA community as well.  Also looking forward to having even more fun – the next decade will be better than the last!

Jim Ulvog

Why my interest in the Bakken oil field is increasing

For quite a while now I’ve been fascinated by the rapid increase in oil production in the Bakken field in North Dakota. 

Have had a lot of posts on my blog Outrun Change.  Under 1% unemployment in one county. Production graphs that are going vertical.  More oil produced in ND than California. That kind of stuff.

This month my interest level took off like those oil production charts.

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Jim Ulvog

Benefit Corporations – new form of incorporating that allows goals other than profits to be priority

The Wall Street Journal discusses ‘benefit corporations’ in their article, With New Law, Profits Take a Back Seat.

This is a traditional for-profit corporation modified to so the entity can have social or environment issues as a priority.  Profit or the interest of stockholders can take a back seat to those self-defined issues.

Why take the benefit corporation approach?

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Jim Ulvog

Danger for a church in the midst of success – Hubris

In his article When Hubris Comes to Church, Thom Rainer describes the danger to churches of thinking they are the reason for their success, which can lead to pride and arrogance.

He correctly labels this hubris:

Simply defined, hubris means pride or arrogance. It has its origins in Greek tragedy, where an excess of ambition or pride ultimately caused the transgressor’s ruin.

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Jim Ulvog

Supreme Court agrees religious protections apply to Christian schools

In a huge ruling today, the Supremes agreed that religious schools may hire and fire ministers of the gospel without being subject to court review of their decisions.

Specifically, a terminated employee who is a ‘minister’ role can not sue such an employer for discrimination.

UPDATE:  After reading a few articles, it looks like this was a much more serious case than I thought. By the time the SCOTUS looked at the case, it may have developed into a general attack on all churches who have any pastors.

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Jim Ulvog