Good! Y'all've obviously thought about this a bit. I didn't know, for instance, that there was a 'literary' form of non-profit (is NPO common? I've seen NGO and nonprofit, but not NPO).

So ... if you'll permit further pushing, let me lay out some thoughts. It seems clear (with condolences to the Arnold family) that Bob's recent death brought this to the forefront. When a random collection of friendly (and perhaps not so friendly) individuals collaborate to provide a sort of forum for those who express the interests important to them, how can the community that develops be safeguarded against the loss of one of those who has stepped forward to take on responsibility?

A nonprofit is one answer, but as Angela Rasch pointed out, it's not the only one. In order to preserve continuity, one needs an organization; it need not be a 501(c)3 in American jurisprudence. At the least-formal end, an organization might be established with (verbal/electronic) agreement among the participants, and a vaguely expressed determination to bring in new blood to keep things going. At the most-formal end, a nonprofit. Between the two, perhaps a contract-based not-for-profit (every participant agreeing to sign the charter as a condition of entry), or even a for-profit (not every for-profit need necessarily make profit, although that's more or less what not-for-profit is for).

Individuals publishing stories on their own may have less concern (but then, perhaps it *matters*?). My stories will go away if I croak; I don't know anyone who'd be likely to take them on. Other author-specific websites are likely the same. Should this organization reach out to such people? Well, and generally: what does "membership" mean? How are additional members of the directing/executive body found? How are additional worthy projects adopted?

Supposing a nonprofit, what's the investment guideline should a windfall appear? Imagine a million dollar bequest to the organization (this is not impossible; as our stories indicate, "crossing the line" can be fraught with all sorts of pain and sometimes with violence, and the emotional impact on survivors could conceivably be such that they wish to make such a bequest, if there were an organization there to take it). Granted, of course, that it is *most likely* that the organization will instead be concerned with pinching pennies, but what would be done with a windfall?

Your point about providing services versus administrative costs is taken ... by me. Suppose an auditor with an agenda who wants to revoke (or refuse) certification as nonprofit?

Since I'm being a pest, here, I want to repeat: I like the idea. I really want to see y'all think it through, work it through, plan it out so that it will work for the benefit at least of authors, and ideally of all of us who find ourselves with a knife in one hand and a keyboard in the other, desperately searching for *just one person* that's *like me*, enough like that the knife can be set aside.

The question of copyright is likely to arise, and given that at least some authors in the community have adopted CC licenses, each story needs clarification (which isn't currently showing, at BC/TS, btw). An author might release on a supported site under a particular license, might release for publication on that site reserving copyright, might assign copyright. What the site (and the organization) can do with these things (for fundraising, among other things) depends upon what the author permits--and that gets a little weird on the net, where nothing ever *really* dies (how many people have copies of Ellen Hayes's original, and author-deprecated, Tuck Seasons? It can still be found, last time I looked). Clear description of ownership of Precious Intellectual Property probably ought to be spelled out clearly, submission by submission, to avoid the possibility of random lusers showing up to sue the organization (which is presumed to have deeper pockets than a person).

Amy!