The past week has been quite busy, even if the items are not flashy.
First, we received our response from the Virginia State Corporation Commission. They were responding to the Articles of Incorporation for New Kent Robotics which were filed on July 1, and we received our certificate. We are officially a corporation authorized to transact business in Virginia!
Next, we applied for our EIN (Employer Identification Number) with the IRS. Even though we do not have any employees, this is an important step with regards our 501c3 status. I did have some trouble deciding on the correct “entity type” for New Kent Robotics, and in fact, the next day I was convinced I had made the wrong choice. Luckily, a CPA friend assured me we filed the form correctly. The response from the IRS was immediate, and we received our EIN: #84-2418665.
Armed with our business plan, our articles of incorporation, SCC certificate, and new EIN – I went to the bank to open a business checking account. The folks at C&F could not have been any nicer or easier to work with! Within a few days, I even received a debit card for purchases (of course, we need some money in the account first!)
Lastly, I have created an account with Stripe, a company I have previous experience with that can process online credit card transactions. In my experience, some sponsors will be much more eager to support a robotics team if they have the convenience of donating with a credit card. We will also be able to accept activity fees from families who want the convenience as well. I am still working on the donations page, but should have it up very soon.
Again, none of this progress is flashy, but all of it is very important to being able to successfully carry out our mission. We are still working on securing meeting space, and hopefully I will have an announcement about that on Friday.
