And the wheel goes round and round

I woke up this morning at 9:00 AM when the cell phone rang six inches from my ear and Ghazi jumped over top of me landing on the floor with a thud.  It's not that I'm an especially late sleeper, but somehow the curtain of bliss had blessed me with an extra couple hours.  Ghazi, a young and aptly named Black Lab / Border Collie mix, wasted no time heading for the front door as dogs are prone to do.  That caught the eye of Pasha, our 16-year-old Portuguese Water Dog who is hard of hearing, sees poorly and barks loudly when reminded that the world is still turning.   I expected the call to be from my wife Doris, who is on her way back home from a family emergency in Arkansas.  Instead, it was someone else near and dear to my heart—the IRS.  The potential for bliss to turn on a dime into chaos was definitely there.  Maybe it was just the startled awakening, but I thought I heard a deep soothing voice saying "It is not your time". The call was from my IRS advocate.  Yes, I am awake now and yes I do have an advocate at the IRS.  Never heard of such a thing?  Neither had I until I was assigned one.  Ironically, the U.S. Government employs a corps of agents to advocate for citizens who have found the IRS to be overly complex or unresponsive.  I don't know how many of these advocates are on the payroll, but I do know that they are well schooled in the nuances of bureaucracy—and dealing with the public. 

Seven years ago,  Doris and I were introduced to (and embraced by) the remarkable extended family of the 416th Bomb Group.  The veterans of this WWII combat unit have held annual reunions in one form or another virtually since the war ended.  We hosted a couple of these reunions at Branson, Missouri and will host the 2013 reunion in Gainesville, Missouri this coming October.  At one of the Branson reunions the topic of historical preservation came up.  There really was not any active repository for the treasured memories and memorabilia of these veterans.  The issue had become pressing due to the fact that many of those veterans had passed on and their spouses sometimes were faced with difficult choices about disposing of photos, documents, letters, diaries, etc.  As an interim measure, we agreed to store any of these objects that families were not prepared to retain themselves.  

Not too long after that, the local "City Hall" in Gainesville was listed for sale when the city government moved into larger quarters.  The old facility was built from hand-cut limestone in 1935 in the style of many WPA buildings of that era.  Doris and I purchased the building and began an extensive remodel and restoration.  Although privately owned, this building soon became the home of the 416th Bomb Group Archive.  The Archive has been registered with the State of Missouri as a non-profit corporation with a Board of Directors and survivorship provisions.  In October of 2012, the Archive filed an application form (and $400 fee) for 501c3 tax exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service.  The form instructions optimistically tell the filer to call the IRS if a response is not received within 30 days.  The time passed and the call was made.  The IRS agent contacted was polite but seemingly unconcerned.  He stated that the application was being held up because more information was needed.  When asked what information was required, he could not provide that information.  When asked who could provide that information, he stated that the application had been assigned to "someone" who would contact us in this matter.  The winter came and went and the IRS remained silent. 

After several months had passed, we appealed to Senator Blunt's office for assistance in resolving the issue with IRS.  It was because of this appeal to the Senator that the IRS assigned an Advocate to us.  Since this application is really a formality, and there is no significant monetary impact on the U.S. revenue system, one would think that it would be less expensive to find the paperwork and approve it than to hire an advocate and perpetuate the paper trail with added human resources and further delays.   Instead, the advocate asked that we provide essentially the same justification that we did in the initial application as well as income/expense statements and impact statements—which we did.  The purpose of the call from our advocate this morning was to advise that our information had been received and would be forwarded to the IRS department responsible, but that "Expedited" action by the IRS was not likely.  Say What?  The U.S. government has been sitting on this application for seven months and it would take "Expedited" action to approve it?  My blood pressure was beginning to rise, but the disarming nature of the Advocate diffused what could easily have become a melt-down (not that a melt-down would have done any good).

The whole point of requesting 501c3 status is to facilitate federal tax deductions for donations made to the Archive.  Since the Archive pays no rent, has no paid employees, no compensation for directors and no expense accounts for managers, there can be little confusion about where the income from donations goes.  It is used entirely for operational support.  The Archive website at http://416th.com is one of the most comprehensive resources and valuable online research tools of any WWII combat unit.  The Archive Facebook page has drawn together 416th family and friends from across the country and even from England and Europe.  The Archive video taping program has preserved more than 50 hours of interviews with 416th veterans.  The black granite Wall of Honor at the Archive has some sixty names of veterans already engraved and more to come.  The Archive digital and original copy files already include tens of thousands of pages of directly related historical documents and new accessions are constantly adding to that resource.

When will the IRS see fit to approve the 416th Bomb Group Application?  That's a question for the ages.  Rest assured it will not be this week as everyone is on holiday celebrating the contributions of these same veterans.   It reminds me of the old folk song about the "Man who never returned".  Meanwhile, the uncertainty does little to encourage growth and the window for capturing memories of these WWII veterans is rapidly closing.  Fortunately, we have an advocate on our side.  What might the situation be without this government generosity?

Have to run now, the dogs are at the door barking to get back in.