tschnell wrote:
n Germany flying clubs are usually operated as non-profit-organizations and very strict rules regarding governance and structure must be followed. In return, various tax exemptions apply and some limited public funding may be available.
A prepaid-fraud scheme would be nearly impossible in this setup, for various reasons:A club needs to have a board, elected by the members. The board members can be elected out of their offices at any time, thereby losing control of the finances
Payment of club officials is tightly restricted, and any surplus being taken out of the club must continue to be used for not-for-profit-endeavours.
A club needs to have a provision in its statutes defining what happens when the club dissolves. Usually the remaining assets would then be donated to another charitable organization. In this sense the notion that club members “own shares” in the club’s assets is not correct.
No club member may receive any more money than what he payed for initiation when he leaves the club or when the club dissolves.
Well summarised. In a German club, nobody can gain any personal financial benefit from being in that club, neither the board members nor the ordinary members. The only tangible benefit members can get is by pooling their financial resources they gain access to opportunities they would not otherwise have.
That can be quite easily explained with flying clubs: A single working class German could not afford an aircraft, but 100 of them organised in a flying club can easily purchase new aircraft with their club membership fees alone (and subsequently use them at a discounted rate).
As tschnell said, the laws and rules governing how such clubs are organised would prevent the kind of prepaid-fraud scheme from Peter’s OP.
