Transparency and SHoWLE

On October 14th we had our annu­al mem­bers meet­ing as required by our bylaws. This is the time mem­bers get a pre­sen­ta­tion on the year pre­vi­ous includ­ing finances. We then hold elec­tions for the Board of Directors.

SHoWLE has always been a mem­ber run group. The mem­bers vote on Board mem­bers and the Board choos­es the offi­cers for the day-to-day oper­a­tion of the group.

Members can always ask ques­tions and have a right to see the full account­ing books we keep. Members can call a meet­ing to remove direc­tors or oth­er mem­bers. All the pow­er rests with the mem­ber­ship.

I found­ed the group in 2018 and want­ed it to be mem­ber­ship run from the begin­ning. Even with being the founder I still nom­i­nate myself and sub­ject myself to Board elec­tions. I also sub­ject myself to being elect­ed as an offi­cer. At any­time I could decide not be President or not serve on the Board.

This fall I start­ed my 30th year as a leader of a Humanist group. I served on the Board of HCCO in Columbus for 14 years and was President for two years and served as Treasurer for a year. I also serve on the Board and am the trea­sur­er for Toledo Integrated Media Education that oper­ates WAKT 106.1 FM and the Toledo Free Press news­pa­per.

SHoWLE is a 501 3 ( c ) char­i­ty under the umbrel­la of the American Humanist Association. We have to file IRS form 990s each year and in Ohio we have to reg­is­ter with the state since we sol­stice dona­tions. We are also incor­po­rat­ed as non-profit with the state. Because we are a 501 3© dona­tions are tax exempt. We also updat­ed our Candid (for­mer­ly Guidestar) pro­file and got the Platinum Transparency stick­er for 2025

Last year our income and expens­es were less than $3000 and that was out of char­ac­ter only because we had the Gloria Steinem speak­ing fees and we spon­sored the Bronze lev­el for the traf­fick­ing con­fer­ence our bud­get in 2025 was orig­i­nal­ly $1800 and that was approved by the Board in November of 2024. I am not paid to be the President — no Board mem­ber is paid. Over the years I have per­son­al­ly donat­ed hun­dreds of dol­lars to the group as well as hun­dreds of hours of my time.

Even though our FY2025 state­ment showed we spent $170 more than we brought in as rev­enue we have more than that in our bank account. Currently we have $600 in the check­ing account and almost $400 in our sav­ings account. 99% of the sav­ings is tar­get­ed for direct­ed dona­tions to sup­port our projects like the hol­i­day gift dri­ve we do with Lucas County Childrens Services.

My phi­los­o­phy has been for big tick­et items, we solic­it dona­tions for it and use mem­ber­ship dues for items like our postal box and to buy more brochures if need­ed.

I would agree with peo­ple who say we don’t oper­ate like a pro­fes­sion­al non-profit and that is because we aren’t a pro­fes­sion­al non-profit. We aren’t the Boys and Girls Club or the United Way. Our pur­pose is focused on our mem­bers and pro­vid­ing a sup­port­ive, diverse, local com­mu­ni­ty for human­ists and oth­er non­the­ists, while pro­mot­ing eth­i­cal and rea­son­able sec­u­lar world views through edu­ca­tion, com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice, out­reach, activism, and social events.

We have a small mem­ber­ship but we aren’t alone. I sit in on zoom calls with oth­er chap­ter lead­ers around the coun­try and they say the same thing — their mem­ber­ship skews old­er and they are small too.

SHoWLE is open to all Humanists in sub­stan­tial agree­ment with our prin­ci­ples and our pro­gram­ing is based on what our mem­bers want to do. I am open to new ideas and we have tried new things over the years. My idea to encour­age mem­bers to take on host­ing duties for an activ­i­ty is some­thing I start­ed to do last year.

I would love to have our own build­ing and a paid staff and have pro­grams for the gen­er­al pub­lic like a teen drop in cen­ter but that takes more than dreams — it takes peo­ple will­ing to take a risk and sig­nif­i­cant fund­ing. That’s why we are trans­par­ent as we are, why we accept mem­bers in agree­ment with our prin­ci­ples and we try to do out­reach like our info booth and pod­cast.

Members are free to reach out to me or oth­er Board mem­bers with ques­tions about finances or the oper­a­tion of the group and if you have an issue we want to hear details so we can work with you to resolve those issues.

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Written By Douglas Berger — President of SHoWLE

For fur­ther info includ­ing past Board min­utes and trea­sury sum­maries check out our gov­er­nance page

Video Recording of our 2025 Members Meeting

Folder with all the charts and fig­ures used at the mem­bers meet­ing

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Photo by Anh Tuan To on Unsplash