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-------------- by William Gale Already, before any development begins, some of the goals for which we have been working to develop SEE are being realized. On Thursday, April 16, the Dallas Morning News carried an article on SEE and the FMF. The article was thoroughly researched by David Snyder, who interviewed not only FMF members working to bring the vision of SEE to reality, but also many of the people in Bastrop with whom we have interacted. Snyder continually raised the question of whether we were a cult. I discussed the concerns we have over being identified as such, and what we plan to do to avoid that identification. But perhaps the best evidence that we are succeeding came from his interview with Charles McKeown, one of Bastrop's four county commissioners. Richard Crews and William Gale had talked with McKeown when they were in Bastrop last summer. McKeown said, "I asked them real bluntly, 'Are you a cult?'. And the more I talked with them, the more it struck me that they were not. That they were real people who had a vision, but had done their homework, and were planning to be part of our community." Snyder said that even without the community started, the advanced state of our plans, with land bought, and corporate papers being worked out with lawyers, made this a newsworthy story since it had not been written up in any Texas newspaper before. The Dallas Morning News is a statewide newspaper, and is available widely at newsstands throughout the country. Thus SEE is beginning to result, as we had hoped it would, in publicity for the FMF and our vision of settling the galaxy on a long term sustainable basis. Our work proceeds as scheduled, and we will be making a second call for participation when a firm date for a start can be given. It appears now that this will be in October at the latest, although interest from the story may make it sooner. The date depends on when a few "pioneers" can move to Austin, and make the final arrangements which depend on people being in the area. I contacted the electric company, and the request for service was molding in a file. They had written to ask for the required easement (and I got a copy of that letter), but there had been no notice taken that the owner of the land south of ours to whom they had written had not replied. They said they would write again, but I have not gotten a copy of a letter from them. I expect to call them again this week. At the suggestion of one of the lawyers, I had a CPA who does accounting for several co-ops in the Austin area review the articles and bylaws. It was her opinion that the plan for the co-op to own all buildings, selling leases to finance the buildings might well be construed by the IRS as the co-op having two classes of stock. Such a construal would mean that expenses, especially interest, could not be passed through to members to take as personal homeowner deductions. It is not clear to me how important this is, but I have also learned from the lawyers that it is possible for individuals to own buildings on co-op land which they do not own. So we might use that route, with the co-op structures then being eligible for homeowner pass-throughs. The co-op lawyer has reviewed the papers to his satisfaction and turned them over to an associate. She will send me revised drafts for articles and bylaws. Incorporation will likely take place on May 3.
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