[CREATE] [LGF] Get a status : association, foundation ...

[Camille Bissuel]

Hi all,

we now have to discuss a status : is the "LGF" project should be an
association, a foundation, a network, an informal group ?


Here are the most important thoughts we have collected so far :

---
Dave Neary in response to a.l.e :
"
> i still don't know what the SFLC is, but i guess it's a US american
> company which would do a similar work for, us as the gnome foundation is
> currently doing for the LGM.

SFLC = Software Freedom Law Center, a non-profit, funded by donations
from various corporate sponsors, to provide free legal services to free
software projects. Founded by Eben Moglen, they currently have 3 lawyers
working for them (Karen Sandler, Aaron Williamson and another I don't
recall right now) and Bradley Kuhn, formerly of the FSF, who also works
for them but isn't a lawyer. Brandley also donates some of his time on
another SFLC project, the Software Freedome Conservancy, which provides
fiscal agency, financial and administrative services to (you guessed it)
free software projects. Including, as Jon said, Inkscape.

> what i'm still missing are the advantages against just creating a very
> simple association and using an external organization (like the gnome
> foundation) to manage our funds.

"Create a simple association" implies a certain number of things in my
mind: By-laws & statutes, a membership structure, a governing
jurisdiction, a board of directors, tax returns, elections... basically,
a formal structure, registered with some government somewhere, governed
by the rules of that government (and if you want to give tax deductible
relief to sponsors, or you want to not pay taxes on donations yourself,
you have a lot of paperwork to do to justify your organisation).

By putting yourself under an existing umbrella organisation, you avoid
that - informal elections or nominations of the people who will deal
with the umbrella folks would be useful, but you don't need to have
legally water-tight statutes & by-laws, AGMs, treasurer reports
submitted to the IRS every year, etc. You're getting all the benefits
and none of the down-side.

Plus, in general, the only reason to create an association for a free
software project is a bank account, some kind of co-ordinated
marketing/branding campaign, and elected representatives. You don't need
an association to do the 2nd & 3rd.

> or would the SFLC be the full politically correct partner boudwijn was
> suggesting we shold look for?

The Software Freedom Conservancy probably would be (the SFLC is slightly
different, but very much related).

* Whatever the name is:
** Ask the Software Freedom Conservancy (affiliated with the SFLC) to be
a fiscal agent and provide basic non-profit services for the group
(address, bank account, ability to accept tax deductible donations in US)
* Move the Create project under the ambit of the Create Foundation or
whatever
* Get benefits of a non-profit without the paperwork and administrative
overhead
* Can be put into motion quickly and works super well "


---
a.l.e :
" basically, a foundation is an organization managing founds with a moral
goal; an association is just a group  of physical or moral persons following
a common goal. this is what i recall from the law courses i followed several
years ago. "


--- Femke Snelting :
*Association*
- The Libre Graphics community is a network.

We should not want a Foundation.

The work of the Libre Graphics community brings together very different
goals, ideas, flavors, methods and perspectives. The energy buzz of LGM is
about seeing work that none of us could have imagined on our own. At LGM we
discuss standards and workflows for example. Not because we want to
constrain creativity, but because we want to participate in interesting
interfaces between developers, artists and designers.

Now LGM is growing away from an informal network, we cannot avoid imagining
some form of organisation that supports Libre Graphics or the Libre Graphics
Meeting long term. But however it plays out, we need to take care of the
diversity that drives this community.

A foundation exists to define and converge; an association can support a
network. I think it is a mistake to use this term for Libre Graphics, even
(or even more so) the organization is legally set up as an association.

---


On another hand, hera are already existing organizations witch from we may
ask help (advices, founding management, paper work help...) :

- Gnome foundation (already hosting LGM plegdie and accounting)
- KDE foundation (had helped Krita project for example)
- http://www.oneclickor.gs (suggestion from Dave Crossland, they help him
for the Open Font Library)
- Software Freedom Law Center (suggestion from Dave Neary)
- we can inspire in some way from the Mozilla organization (see
http://www.mozilla.org/about/organizations.html)
- we can surely expect some help from FSF or Blender Foundation.



Sorry if I missed something or someone, please correct any mistake.

Please submit your suggestions, feelings, ideas, and so on !

Cheers,
-- yagraph
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