InfraGardNCR status and governance

I am writing today with some serious news. I wanted to reach out to each of you to avoid any rumors or misinformation about our chapter. We recently found out that the IRS has no record of our tax filings for the last three years and has revoked our federal tax-exempt status. This letter is to explain what the Board of Directors has done to date regarding our taxes and the steps we are taking to rectify this situation.

As you may know, we have worked very hard to make our chapter one of the best in the nation. We have professionalized many functions, added extremely competent people to our Board of Directors, and led some incredible national efforts to elevate the stature and reputation of InfraGardNCR.

At a recent InfraGard leadership retreat, we noticed that our chapter was not listed under the National organization's umbrella for federal tax-exempt status and inquired to find out why. This was, coincidentally, at the same time as our recertification with InfraGard National. From this we found out that the IRS has not logged any tax filings for our chapter for the last three years.

We cannot express how much of a surprise this was to us. When I assumed the presidency of the chapter in 2015, the Board immediately made some personnel changes to assure that our finances and taxes were in excellent order. We canvassed for a new treasurer and, after one brief replacement, we were fortunate to attract another qualified and willing candidate. We also connected with a professional accounting firm that specializes in non-profit work, to assure that our taxes were completed and filed properly. Since 2015, we have engaged with that tax accountant to complete our taxes on time. However, while the Board assumed that those tax returns were filed on time and our chapter was in good standing with the IRS, we recently learned they were not.

The Board has been working feverishly with both our accountant and our treasurer to get our chapter back on track. We have begun the process of reinstatement with the IRS, retroactive to 2014. The Board has also prepared a recertification remediation plan to make sure our chapter is in good standing with InfraGard National. Our expectation is that before the end of September 2018, our chapter will have completed the InfraGard recertification process and been reinstated with the IRS. In addition, we are taking advantage of this process to revise the chapter's bylaws and hold chapter elections, which have not been occurred since 2012 and 2014, respectively. Hopefully you saw the canvass for nominations that went out on Monday!

I appreciate your reading this letter and your continued support of InfraGardNCR. If you have any questions about this issue, the Board of Directors vacancies and/or elections process, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at infragardncr@gmail.com.