Church of Scientology Western United States

The Church of Scientology Western United States (CoSWUS) is a California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

n 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, located in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. CoSWUS is integrated within the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Church of Scientology. The corporation is composed of several individual Scientology organizations and entities, among them so-called churches, such as the "Church of Scientology of Los Angeles", which delivers services to public

Public

In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individuals, and the public is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the Öffentlichkeit or public sphere. The concept of a public has also been defined in political science,...

members of Scientology.

In its application for tax exemption, CoSWUS described the structure of the corporation as follows:

"The CSWUS corporation houses six distinct ecclesiastical organizations that includes three churches, each of which
ministers religious services at a different level of the religious hierarchy described above; two supervisory organizations and an ecclesiastical support organization. [...] Except for the Church of Scientology of San Diego, all of these church organizations are located in Los Angeles where they share a large complex of buildings and facilities. [...]"

The core of CoSWUS' organizations are located around L. Ron Hubbard Way in Hollywood, where three so-called "service organizations" are located: the already mentioned "Church of Scientology of Los Angeles", the "American Saint Hill Organization" (ASHO) and the "Advanced Organization Los Angeles" (AOLA). In this area is also the former "Cedars of Lebanon" Hospital located, which was purchased by the Church of Scientology during the 1970s and which serves today as a dormitory

Dormitory

A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...

for the Scientology staff members

Employment

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...

, who work in the adjacent buildings or elsewhere in Los Angeles.

Corporate Information

Basic Information
On April 8, 1971 a new Scientology organization was incorporated

Incorporation (business)

Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...

in San Diego - the "Church of Scientology of Jolla". Its name was later changed to "Church of Scientology of San Diego". Finally, on May 20, 1985, the organization was transferred and re-incorporated in Los Angeles under the new name "Church of Scientology Western United States". The Board of Directors of the newly named corporation had adopted the organization's new Bylaws on May 19, 1985.

At present the official address of CoSWUS is 1308 L. Ron Hubbard Way, Los Angeles CA 90027.

In 1993, the Church of Scientology International submitted to the Internal Revenue Service a list with all the corporate officers of the Scientology network. At this time, CoSWUS was officially managed by a Board of Trustees. Its members were Mariette Cynstein, Ivan Obolensky and Mary Pinat. The organization's Board of Directors

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

was composed of Linda Sereda, Lawrence Lynn and Eugene Skonetski. The President

President

A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

of CoSWUS was Lawrence Lynn, with Linda Sereda as Secretary and Eugene Skonetski as Treasurer.

On August 18, 1993, CoSWUS filed an application for tax exemption

Tax exemption

Various tax systems grant a tax exemption to certain organizations, persons, income, property or other items taxable under the system. Tax exemption may also refer to a personal allowance or specific monetary exemption which may be claimed by an individual to reduce taxable income under some...

under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

Internal Revenue Code

The Internal Revenue Code is the domestic portion of Federal statutory tax law in the United States, published in various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large, and separately as Title 26 of the United States Code...

. In the same year, the Internal Revenue Service

Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...

granted CoSWUS' request for exemption.

As of March 11, 2000 CoSWUS had the following corporate officers

Board of directors

: Vicki Shantz (Chief Executive Officer

Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

/President), Wayne Carnahan (Secretary

Secretary

A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...

) and Vincenzo Contrafatto (Chief Financial Officer

Chief financial officer

The chief financial officer or Chief financial and operating officer is a corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the corporation. This officer is also responsible for financial planning and record-keeping, as well as financial reporting to higher management...

/Treasurer

Treasurer

A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...

).

As of May 2, 2008, CoSWUS' official agent has been the attorney Jeanne Gavigan. Her official address is 6400 Canoga Park Avenue, Canoga Park, CA 91367

Corporate Activities
The Religious Technology Center (RTC) is the holder of Scientology's trademarks and service marks. As such, RTC entered with the CoSWUS on May 23, 1985 an organizational covenant, granting CoSWUS the right to sell and deliver the "Advanced Technology" to its public members while guaranteeing weekly payments of 6 % of the monetary value of the "Advanced Technology"-services that are being delivered to the public from CoSWUS towards RTC.

The Church of Scientology International (CSI) presents itself as the mother church

Mother Church

In Christianity, the term mother church or Mother Church may have one of the following meanings:# The first mission church in an area, or a pioneer cathedral# A basilica or cathedral# The main chapel of a province of a religious order...

of the Church of Scientology worldwide. As such, it has the right to use and sub-license various Scientology trademarks and service marks. Consequently, CSI has entered a number of agreements with other subordinate organizations in the Scientology hierarchy

Hierarchy

A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...

, such as the CoSWUS:

License
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...

Agreement. On June 15, 1982, CSI entered a license agreement with the "Church of Scientology of San Diego", which regulated the use of the service marks and trademarks by that organization. When this organization later became the "Church of Scientology Western United States", the license agreement remained valid for the newly re-named corporation.

"Ecclesiastical Support Agreement". This agreement from January 1, 1992 acknowledges CSI's dominant role and control over all the functions and activities of CoSWUS and guarantees a steady, weekly payment of 12.5 % of the organizations' net income towards CSI.

"Motion Picture Exhibition Agreement." It guarantees CSI the weekly payment of 11 % of the revenue
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....

by CoSWUS for their use of Scientology training courses. It also forces the organizations to use certain equipment, such as tape recorders, which CSI provides for the same use.

Organizational Structure and Management

According to its 1993 application for tax exemption, the corporation

Corporation

A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...

CoSWUS consisted at that time of six different sub-organizations or sub-entities:

"[...] 1. Church of Scientology Advanced Organization of Los Angeles ('AOLA') - AOLA is one of four advanced organizations in the world and the only one located in the United States. As an advanced organization AOLA is authorized to minister the Scientology advanced technology to the level of New OT V and religious training to the level of Class VIII auditor as well as most of the lower levels of auditing and religious training. [...] AOLA's activities consist of the ministry of religious services and administrative and executive functions necessary to support this ministry. AOLA's staff includes auditors, case supervisors, course supervisors and other staff directly involved in administering services, as well as executive and administrative staff [...]"

"[...] 2. American Saint Hill Organization ('ASHO') - ASHO is one of only four Saint Hill Organizations in the world [...], and the only Saint Hill Organization in the United States. Saint Hill Organizations are so named because they specialize in delivering the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course ('Briefing Coursel') and other Scientology religious services at a comparable level. The Briefing Course is a very extensive, advanced course in auditor training which includes a chronological study of the written and recorded Scientology Scriptures. ASHO also ministers other religious training and lower-level and intermediate level auditing. The religious services ministered by ASHO generally emphasize training. [...]"

"[...] 3. Church of Scientology of San Diego - Church of Scientology of San Diego is a Class V church of Scientology and is authorized to minister Scientology auditing to the State of Clear and auditor training to the level of Class V auditor. It is a local church of Scientology for the San Diego area."

"4. Continental Liaison Office West U.S. ('CLO WUS') - CLO WUS is an intermediate level ecclesiastical management organization which acts as a liaison for CSI. [...] CLO WUS administers Church programs and provides guidance and advice to Scientology churches in the Western United States. There are 30 separate churches under CLO WUS's ecclesiastical jurisdiction [...] CLO WUS reviews operations of the Scientology churches within its ecclesiastical jurisdiction and liaises with
CSI. [...]"

"[...] 5. Commodorets Messenger Organization Pacific ('CMO PAC') - CMO PAC oversees the execution of programs from the Commodore's Messenger Organization International of CSI and acts as a liaison between CSWUS and CSI with respect to those programs."

"6. Pacific Base Crew ('PBC') - PBC is the organization responsible for maintaining the complex of Scientology buildings and other facilities used by CSWUS and other Scientology organizations in Los Angeles. PBC is responsible for renovations, some construction and most repairs to these facilities. Its staff also provides meals and berthing to the staff of all Scientology organizations located in the Scientology complex. [...]"

Corporate Information

Organizational Structure and Management

See also