PADESTA :: The Pennsylvania-Delaware String Teachers Association

PADESTA Completes Process for Incorporation

In summer 2009, our PADESTA chapter completed its process for incorporating as a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. We are officially registered in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a non-profit entity. This process was initiated by a requirement from the national ASTA office that all state chapters be incorporated. In addition, with the multiple name changes of the organization in recent years, plus the merging of ASTA and NSOA, it was essential that PADESTA be current with all records. The following has now been done:

1. Our records with the IRS are current, including a merging of the records for PADESTA and our previous entity, ASTA (Pennsylvania Chapter). New IRS laws require that all non-profit organizations now file annually with the IRS. Previously, we were exempt from this requirement as an organization with annual income of less than $25,000. At this time, we do not need to file the full 990 (the non-profit equivalent of an individual 1040), but just an annual notification of our activities.
2. We have engaged the law offices of Michael Cherewka (Wormleysburg, PA) as our official legal representative. State law and IRS regulations require that we have an actual physical address for our association. Because PADESTA has no paid staff and no actual business location, we are using Mr. Cherewka’s office as our official address for all legal issues. Mr. Cherewka’s office will also serve as the repository for all official PADESTA documents. This will be extremely helpful, especially as the leadership of PADESTA changes every two years.
3. We have official articles of incorporation on file with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
4. We have updated our by-laws, which were approved by the PADESTA membership in 2007.
5. We have updated our executive board handbook.

As you can imagine, this was an incredibly time-consuming process, especially given that all of those involved from the PADESTA side have other full-time jobs! We are extremely grateful to those who contributed countless hours to bring PADESTA’s records current and incompliance with state, federal, and association guidelines. In particular, we would like to thank Irene Guerriero, Susan Basalik, Robert Gardner, Steve Benham, and Marie Weber who were most closely involved with this process.