I’m doing some research into the Skull and Bones society, and I could use some help looking at their taxes

I'm currently looking into the Skull and Bones society and I could use some help for those of you familiar with tax forms. After digging into the mystery about room 322 the speculation about the room having a connection to school and bones let me down a rabbit hole looking into secret societies that gets more and more fascinating the deeper you dig. Because of the nature of these societies, there’s very little information that is concrete. We know about how it started and it’s early history, but almost nothing about its modern day activities. So I decided to look into what is publicly available as of right now like the tax returns to see what information there is to glean.

Researching specifically the Russel Trust Association, which is the 501(c)(3) organization which finances the society’s activities.

Here’s a link to their 2017 tax return

Russel Trust Association, Incorporated

Things of note in their 2017 Tax form:

• Declared number of employees – 5, number of officers - 12
• $3.9M in assets, of that, $3M is in publicly traded securities (Part X, Line 11)
• Tax preparer’s info: Linda Cohen of Parillo Cohen and Co – Woodbridge CT 06525
• Expenses - $286,304
• Revenue - $7,875
• Investment Income - $53k (2016), $178k (2017)
• “Other” expenses - $317k (2016), $301k (2017)
• Of note, other than $100k in salaries, ALL of their expenses are listed as “other")
• Declared that it did NOT contribute to political campaigns either directly or indirectly (not familiar with tax law, but I imagine there are ways to work around having to declare this since the society is technically a different entity than the RTA, which acts as its "wallet")(Line 3)
• Declared that it did NOT participate in lobbying activities (Line 4)
• Declared that it did NOT maintain collections of works of art, historical treasures, or other similar assets (would the bones of Geronimo count?)(Line 8)
• Declared that it was related to a tax-exempt or taxable entity (need to see Schedule R)(Line 34)
• Declared tax-exempt entity declared from above is Deer Island Club (EIN 13-1897694) declared “Social Club”
• Declared it kept notes and documented meetings held by the governing body (Part VI, Line 8)
• Land value - $791,998 (Schedule D, Part IV)
• Declared purpose: (pg 2) - “To provide structured programs of intellectual inquiry, sensitivity training and personal development for students of Yale University focusing on topics of intellectual, political or cultural importance. Recent topics have included homeland security, corporate governance and US international relations.”

Schedule B, Schedule of Contributors

Section A – Officers

• Wesley J Spear – President
• Jon McBride – Director
• Sean Crotty – Director
• Muhammad Saleh – Director
• Lauren Popper Ellis – Director
• Carnell Cooper – Director
• Caroline Edsall – Director
• Robert Murchison – Director
• Dana Kirchman – Secretary
• Andrew Klaber – Treasurer
• Timothy Penna – Asst Treasurer
• James Petela – Administrator
• Harry Davison – Investment Chair

Is there anything from the tax form on here that is of note that I've missed? Anything you guys can glean from these details?

Submitted October 20, 2019 at 06:46AM by jpagel https://ift.tt/2BsVDqq