from Robert Powell, Unification Chair
Unification Underway
After two years of discussion and planning, MKP USA’s re-unification into a single nonprofit organization begun in earnest. Impelled by the Stanford ACT II presentation [hyperlink], the MKP USA Council voted to move forward with one of the presentation’s major recommendations: consolidating the 33 Center nonprofits into one USA corporation.
Earlier this year, the MKP USA Board invited Centers to self-nominate for being among the first Centers to effect Unification (as the consolidation effort is now called). Anticipating three or four candidates, the Board was very pleasantly surprised when a full quarter of the USA Centers stepped forward. In the end, it was agreed that all would be accepted and we would trust that the process would work itself out.
Joint Statement of Intent to Unify (JSIU) were circulated and signed as the first step in the legal process of unification. The JSIU allow the nonprofits to disclose internal data to each other under a protection of confidentiality and non-disclosure. This sets the scene for a formal review of a large number of documents and associated data that will allow MKP USA and each Center to evaluate the impacts and benefits of unification.
The Centers actively engaged in this first step toward unification are: Arizona, Los Angeles, Memphis, and New Mexico. Greater Washington has notified MKP USA of its decision to sign the JSIU. In addition, the three Texas communities (Houston, North Texas, and Central Texas) and the New Orleans community are in the process of merging into a single operational Center and intend to then effect Unification with MKP USA. Finally, the USA side of the Windsor-Detroit Center, informally now called the Michigan community, has also stepped forward for Unification as a logical alternative of setting up a separate, interim Center.
