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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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Questions about USIS? Here's the information!
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What is USIS' mission?
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Briefly, the mission of USIS and affiliates is to help create a space faring society during our lifetime. We focus on the space policy problems, legal matters, and societal concerns. Our style is to supplement the U.N. International Treaty Regime with functional entities where appropriate people can assemble, work, and actually execute an effort for the benefit of Humankind and its settlers in outer space.
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What is the underlying concept for the mission?
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Impressed on our mission is the “common law” development for 750 years. This experience of legal importance commenced in England during the dark ages, circa 1200 A.D. It was citizen-oriented; ran parallel to the established King’s Court of Law; relied on the Church Court; and required as its first principle that “no remedy at law” was available to the citizen (in the King’s Court). The second legal principle was that the remedy requested must be “equitable” to all concerned. The kings and queens of England permitted this commoner’s regime to flourish by not objecting. Eventually, circa 1600 A.D., the Queen’s Bench merged the common law into its structure calling it the “Court of Equity.”
We analogize the recognized and established regimes of the U.N. and its space faring member nations as the kings and queens of space. How we relate to this circumstance philosophically is detailed under HOW. Also, see WHY.
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What is USIS?
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United Societies in Space, Inc. is a Colorado non-profit corporation filed on August 12, 1993, with its formation dating to the first formal meeting of the original board on August 4, 1994, in Cuchara, Colorado.
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What is the tax status of USIS?
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Effective by an IRS letter dated February 1995, the corporation was determined to be “exempt under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code as an organization described in section 501(c)(3) and would be treated as a publicly supported organization and not as a private foundation during your advance ruling period.” This advance ruling period ended on September 3, 1997. Pursuant to re-examination of tax returns and information provided to the Service on form 8734, the “Public Charity” status was granted on a permanent basis, (rather than the private foundation status). This was based on a finding that USIS qualified for the highest possible exemption under IRC sections 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) and/or 509(a)(1) or 509(a)(2).
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Who are the Board of Directors and Officers of USIS?
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The current Board of Directors and Officers are listed under WHO, the address book. The original board of directors included 12 persons, 7 of whom were lawyers or paralegal professionals. The first Board who attended the first organizational meeting in Cuchara, Colorado, included Declan J. O'Donnell, Dr. Henry Cheung, Dr. Philip R. Harris, Mr. John K. Reynolds, Mrs. Jeri Mercer-Fike, Mr. Robert P. Kuntz, and Mr. Jerry Dickenson. The Board of Directors is self-perpetuating in actual practice although the O’Donnell law firm on behalf of the World Space Bar Association, Inc., has a supervisory role as described below.
An advisory committee was constituted under Article VI, par. (b), of the Corporate Charter. Attorney George S. Robinson III was the first President of this COUNCIL OF REGENTS. Original members included Josh Abend, Oleg Alifanov, Larry Bell, Bruce Cordell, Frank P. Davidson, Jonathan E. Ericson, Marsha Freeman, Nathan Goldman, Albert A. Harrison, Stewart W. Johnson, Beatrice Lacoste, Charles Lauer, Scott F. March, Ivan Pavlovets, Jesus Raygoza B., Marshall Savage, Willy Z. Sadeh, Michael Simon, John S. Spencer, Harold M. White, Stewart B. Whitney, Kathleen Woody, Robert A. Wyckoff, and Robert Zubrin.
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What is the Corporate Charter of USIS?
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The Corporate Charter recites in part that the purpose shall include “the promotion of outer space as a place to live and work as a society of peoples and to help create a basis for governance of societies in outer space and to educate people on the benefits and burdens attendant upon migrating into space as a society.”
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How is the USIS Supervised?
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This movement began as a project of the World Bar Association (now known as the WORLD SPACE BAR ASSOCIATION). It exerts oversight at Article V, par. (a), of the Corporate Charter where a class of membership known as Humankind votes for the Board of Directors of USIS. All of these shares are kept in trust by the O’Donnell law firm as the managing agent of this bar association. It acts only as a veto power in case the purpose of the corporation is frustrated, except in one important particular, as follow:
“at the appropriate time and not later than creation of the meta nation, this Trustee shall assign said trust to a proper International or United Nations Instrumentality to hold for Humankind permanently, under the new nation’s constitution.”
Ten billion shares of membership were in fact issued to the O’Donnell professional corporation as manager of the World Space Bar Association. It will endeavor to perform this charter requirement when the Regency of United Societies in Space (ROUSIS) dissolves itself into the meta nation, i.e. a true government of space settlers in the territory of space. This metamorphosis is foreseen as likely by 2101 A.D., 100 years from inception of The Regency. It would be constituted by settlers aloft, on the Moon, in orbit, and at Mars.
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What are the Corporate Bylaws of USIS?
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Highlights from the standing bylaws of USIS provide as follows: AN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE is authorized to handle interim board matters. It consists of the president, vice president, and two board members. ANNUAL MEETINGS are to be called with notice to the Board and other interested parties. All meetings are to be open to the public. We usually have these on August 4 every year in Denver, Colorado. ELECTIONS to fill a vacancy are by majority vote of the remaining Board Members. Terms are for four years. Nominations are made by any Board Member or Regent. All of those elected to date first served on the Regency Advisory Committee.
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WHAT’S THE POINT of having a space governance movement?
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The reason for our movement is not entirely instinctive nor intuitive. Since Earth nations and the U.N. are in charge of space exploration, why not leave it to them to provide government in space. That is the logical and instinctive response, but we object. There are hidden problems in this arrangement and we believe more is needed to solve them.
The overall objective of the space activist movement is to advance the day when we are a space faring society, according to the National Space Society mission statement. We join in that objective. Relatively few U.N. member nations, however, care to advance a humans-in-space agenda. Note that we are approaching 50 years into the Space Age and only two nations have human rated launch facilities: America and Russia. America forbids citizens to enter space. (Consequently, when civilian Dennis Tito made a considerable donation for the privilege of a space flight, he flew from a Russian launch facility). The humans to space movement is in trouble.
In this paper, we will list some of the problems of a space policy and space law nature that constitute barriers to space travel by humans. The top 10 space policy problems at 1995 were listed in a publication by this author: See endnotes 1 and 2. Since then nothing has been solved, albeit the not so obvious problems have become worse, pandemic, and more covered up in some cases.
Then our regime of direct space governance will be summarized. The reasons for it will be stated in terms of how the space policy problems are cured as a result of its existence and/or its expected operations.
Lastly, there is an analysis of how this remedy dovetails into the space treaty regime. The combined effect of the U.N. regime and the Regency of space activists, playing off each other, will create a good synergy for Humankind. It will definitely advance the day when we are a space faring society because it will redefine and restate space law and policy for humanity and all nations, thereby reducing legal uncertainty for investors.
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What are the top 10 space policies issues in 2002?
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The policies issues have not changed much since 1994. Paramount, there appears to be a Legal Void. Apart from the policy disincentives for financing space projects, (referring to the lack of any monetary and fiscal policy in space venues), there are true voids in legal practices. For example, there are no agreements for protecting intellectual properties such as patents and copyrights. There is no criminal code; no contract law; no property law; no tax code, (no objection to this, but see 26 USC 863(d) providing that all income derived by a U.S. citizen from space activity is taxable by the USA); no tort law; no traffic regulation or rules; no orbit allocation or protection of rights of way; no rescue, docking, boarding, and entry standards; no medical law, plan, or provision; no educational system; no social welfare; no worker’s compensation; no social security; no subsidies; no creditor’s or debtor’s rights; no foreclosure and no way to obtain a secured property interest in space resources; no mining regulation; no exploration rules, i.e. what is a placer claim and where is it to be registered; no law enforcement agencies to protect these things when they come into existence; and, of course, no space money.”
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