[LGM] finances

Fri Nov 24 01:28:14 UTC 2017

Hi, Louis.

The hang-up on SPI is not internal to LGM at this point. I was indeed
unable to get the finance committee together, but the organization as a
whole did approve sending the letter, and I will send it next week. The
next series of hurdles will involve identifying what steps we need to take
in order to satisfy SPI requirements. We will have a better idea of that
once we receive a response to the letter.

Hi, Dave.

Does the beneficiary organization need to be a 501(c)3? If not, we could
have an organization set up next week and a bank account by mid-December.
If it must be a 501(c)3, I might be able to persuade a local 501(c)3 to
step in this one time.

On Thu, Nov 23, 2017 at 3:30 PM, Louis Desjardins <
louis.desjardins at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> 2017-11-23 16:05 GMT-05:00 Dave Crossland <dave at lab6.com>:
>
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> Google is a big company, but Google Fonts is not a big team, and it would
>> be just me handling this, and I don't have time to administer individual
>> reimbursements. What I do have time for is a single sponsorship agreement
>> (using a Google template contract) and cutting a single check to an LGM
>> entity, be that an umbrella one or a direct one.
>>
>> Am I right that if Google Fonts was to offer to sponsor LGM with a single
>> $15,000 payment in December (ie, get the agreement signed before end of
>> this month, next week, then invoice within first two weeks of December)
>> then this wouldn't be possible because LGM has no legal entity that could
>> sign a sponsorship agreement and invoice the money?
>>
>> If so, that's a pity, because it may be easier for me to offer than now
>> then next year, due to the nature of 'end of year' liquidity.
>>
>
> This is a fan-tas-tic opportunity we ab-so-lu-te-ly cannot let go!
>
> I strongly urge the LGM organisers to enforce the decision that was made
> years ago when we thoroughly discussed about the finances as to go for SPI
> without delay.
>
> If we feel we need a vote, then let’s organise one.
>
> More infos are posted here:
> https://www.spi-inc.org/projects/associated-project-howto/
>
> It takes a couple months (there is a 60-day delay once the Board has
> accepted), so we’re not ahead of time. The Board of SPI has to meet
> (monthly) and analyse the project before they submit it.
>
> If this is too long and puts the Google Font subsidy at risk, then the
> only other viable solution I can think of, is to ask the GNOME Foundation
> to make the Google transaction for LGM and then transfert that money to SPI
> once we’re accepted officially. They will be both US 501(c)3 Non-Profit
> Organizations and so can send money to one another with not fiscal impact
> (at least, this is what I understand and it would be advisable to check
> this first with both SPI and GNOME). Whether GNOME would still take a % off
> the grant remains to be discussed. We should be able to negociate a no-fee
> transaction for such a particular case.
>
> If someone has a better idea, please step in quick. This is an urgent
> matter.
>
> Thanks Dave!
>
> Louis
>
>
>>
>> Cheers
>> Dave
>>
>> On 22 November 2017 at 19:05, Louis Desjardins <
>> louis.desjardins at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi folks,
>>>
>>> After reading tonight’s log, here my 2-cents.
>>>
>>> I strongly support that we connect with SPI.
>>> https://www.spi-inc.org/projects/services/
>>> and let them handle the money and the reimbursements.
>>>
>>> *The tax-deductible thing is really only noise in the discussion. Each
>>> country handles its fiscal law regardless of others. There is no practical
>>> solution to this problem. If we go the SPI way, money donated by
>>> individuals from within the USA will be tax-deducted, other money won’t.
>>> However, a regular compagny that would provide a subsidy to LGM from
>>> anywhere in the world will probably enter it into its expenses and thus
>>> will reduce by the same its bottom line... and hence will pay less income
>>> tax. Again, not an issue. (Also, considering the average amount we got from
>>> individuals (in Pledgie), this was less than $50 so tax-deductible would
>>> only be a fraction of small amounts. Nothing worth establishing a global
>>> multinational organisation to save little money. Let’s not get hysterical!)*
>>>
>>> I suggest we vote on this to give some weight to the decision. If the
>>> majority votes for SPI, we’re in; money can go there.
>>>
>>> What’s left to us is to find sponsors. SPI won’t help us. But they can
>>> handle the money, in and out.
>>>
>>> If we’d prefer, we could vote on the reimbursements and ask if we want
>>> to pursue, or not.
>>>
>>> In any way, we need to clarify things quick.
>>>
>>> We also need to think long-term.
>>>
>>> Cheers!
>>>
>>> Louis
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2017-11-19 6:36 GMT-05:00 Louis Desjardins <louis.desjardins at gmail.com>:
>>>
>>>> 2017-11-18 16:13 GMT-05:00 Dave Crossland <dave at lab6.com>:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi
>>>>>
>>>>> I think Google Fonts may be interested in this sponsorship, with a
>>>>> focus on bringing people together to do focused work on Variable Font
>>>>> support in all libre graphics applications.
>>>>>
>>>>> Felipe Sanches was working on Inkscape support and got stuck, so if he
>>>>> can attend and meet Inkscape core devs to make progress towards being ready
>>>>> to ship, that would be great.
>>>>>
>>>>> What were the total budgets for lgms in the past?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Roughly :
>>>> - Europe LGMs : 10-15K USD
>>>> - North America LGMs - 20-30K USD
>>>> - Outside “Occidental North” is much higher (from rough evaluations).
>>>>
>>>> The numbers greatly vary from the needs of travellers and we have no
>>>> way of accurately predicting this until late in the process of organising a
>>>> LGM (ie, after we know who’s coming from which team, who makes a talk, who
>>>> animates a workshop, who’s in need of travel sponsoring).
>>>>
>>>> If you can have money from Google (say, they reserve an envelope of 15K
>>>> for Sevilla), the best way to handle it would be through them directly
>>>> (Google money to sponsored participant directly), using their
>>>> administrative way, forms, money handling, etc.
>>>>
>>>> If this is not feasible but Google accepts to sponsor the event, then
>>>> we need an organisation to handle this.
>>>>
>>>> From experience, the reimbursement process is not easy because of the
>>>> many variables that are unknown at some point in the reimbursement process,
>>>> including bad bank infos, missing documents, impossibility to handle a
>>>> reimbursement based on where in the world the transaction ends (some money
>>>> get stuck months in intermediary banks). Probably things that a company
>>>> such as Google would handle best.
>>>>
>>>> *
>>>>
>>>> To those who have been participating in the past discussions on that
>>>> subject:
>>>>
>>>>    1. I am permanently out of this process now, given a) the level of
>>>>    dissatisfaction and b) the level of non-enthusiasm the detailed proposals
>>>>    I’ve made to solve the issue in a sustainable manner have received.
>>>>    2. We definitely had a final decision of moving to a international
>>>>    non-profit organisation who already handles the money of many FLOSS
>>>>    projects, for a decent fee. Side note: I am *very surprised* to see that in
>>>>    the past 3 years, and after the heavy discussions we had about finances,
>>>>    nothing has moved forward (although the decision was made). Lots of talks,
>>>>    no action.
>>>>
>>>> It’s never to late for action. Either give up on reimbursements or make
>>>> it happen.
>>>>
>>>> To me, if Dave can have Google be on our side again and handle the
>>>> reimbursements, I support this strongly. I think it’s the most simple way
>>>> and it will take away from us the most difficult task in the organisation
>>>> of LGM.
>>>> As a long time LGM supporter and organiser, I am still ready to help,
>>>> with other stuff.
>>>>
>>>> Have a wonderful day!
>>>>
>>>> Louis
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Nov 18, 2017 10:38 AM, "Gregory Pittman" <gpittman at iglou.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 11/18/2017 10:01 AM, ale rimoldi wrote:
>>>>>> > hi
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > so, if i understand it correctly, the current status is that we will
>>>>>> > not have any "official" reimbursement of travel costs from the
>>>>>> global
>>>>>> > lgm for 2018.
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > if anybody is not comfortable with this, please step up before the
>>>>>> next
>>>>>> > lgm meeting and let us discuss it!
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > (for reference: it has also been suggested that we should get (and
>>>>>> > help...) the teams to collect their own money).
>>>>>> >
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think another way to look at this is to try to see it from the
>>>>>> outside. Why would or should some outside organization donate to this
>>>>>> meeting? What's in it for them? We know it doesn't have to be some
>>>>>> monetary return for some corporation, but still, of the various
>>>>>> meetings
>>>>>> and organizations that are out there, why donate to LGM?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We have to try to begin to answer this question.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Having said this, I have put out a feeler to Red Hat, and so far the
>>>>>> response has been rather feeble.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Greg
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Libre-graphics-meeting mailing list
>>>>>> Libre-graphics-meeting at lists.freedesktop.org
>>>>>> https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libre-graphics-meeting
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Cheers
>> Dave
>>
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>>
>>
>
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