Edward Morrison said:

You know… you can go to the "Investor" page without being an investor… But it 'asks you nicely' not to. …It's not very… convincing. If we want to be secure with this, we should be.

Great question. We do not need to be secure and we do not want to be secure. The ONLY reason that the investor page is restricted is that we are required by law to restrict it to "qualified investors". Before mentioning any opportunity to invest, we have to show that the investor CLAIMS to be qualified, not that the investor actually is.

Also, the manuel says: "Do not mention publicly…that we have a private stock offering". But, it's written there. Do we? If we don't it should read: "Do not mention publicly that we have a private stock offering. We don't." and if we do… well… should it be there? Is that not "public"?

We can't legally say publicly that we have a private stock offering — no matter how much we want to. (Notice in the previous sentence that I do not say whether or not we actually HAVE a private stock offering.) The law makes no sense in our case, but it is a well-intended and well-entrenched federal law with severe penalties for violations. If we have a private stock offering, then we would want everyone to know about it. We have no moral, ethical, or legal obligation to adhere to any more than the letter of the law. So if we have a private stock offering we should do whatever we can to make sure people know about it — without actually saying so publicly and without telling anyone about it (even in private) unless they first claim to be qualified. Of course if you are talking to someone you trust, feel free to tell them anything you like.

If you don't feel comfortable walking this tricky line, communicating what needs to be communicated without risking getting in trouble by luring someone into investing more than they can afford or by tainting a private offering with publicity, then stick to the core of your job as a Community Division Organizer: create a buzz in the community and get people and organizations to sign up.