<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Having gone through the process of creating a 501(c)3 in the United States, and one that has recieved IRS-blessing (which as far as I can tell, the Koha Software Foundation in Ohio has not yet received - not surprisingly, it takes a while and what was submitted to the State of Ohio wasn't anywhere near as detailed as the IRS would need to approve it. I have no idea if they submitted the paper work to the IRS not.)*, I can tell you that it is not a simple process and too many cooks will most likely spoil the soup. I doubt it is any different, and in fact may likely be more so in other countries. I think starting the discussions around concrete proposals will be a much better approach. That doesn't mean that pieces of each can't be crossed off, added, combined, or changed by the community, but a discussion with a large group of people via e-mail or IRC chat
starting from scratch is very unlikely to be productive. <br><br>Edward<br><br>* To search for organizations granted 501(c)3 status by the US federal government, see http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/ Whiel there are some thigns that come up with Koha, the oen from Athens does not. The ones that do come up appear to be family foundations.<br><br>--- On <b>Thu, 9/16/10, Chris Nighswonger <i><cnighswonger@foundations.edu></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><br>From: Chris Nighswonger <cnighswonger@foundations.edu><br>Subject: Re: [Koha] LibLime responses to some of yesterdays postings<br>To: "vtl@scls.lib.wi.us" <vtl@scls.lib.wi.us><br>Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz<br>Date: Thursday, September 16, 2010, 4:10 PM<br><br><div class="plainMail">On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 3:23 PM, <a ymailto="mailto:vtl@scls.lib.wi.us"
href="/mc/compose?to=vtl@scls.lib.wi.us">vtl@scls.lib.wi.us</a> <<a ymailto="mailto:vtl@scls.lib.wi.us" href="/mc/compose?to=vtl@scls.lib.wi.us">vtl@scls.lib.wi.us</a>> wrote:<br>> I'm wondering if it would be possible to work out a joint proposal via one<br>> or two IRC chats prior to Kohacon. I don't quite understand why individual<br>> parties need to prepare proposals. I would prefer to see a joint effort<br>> that satisfieds all parties involved.<br>><br>> However, I'm admittedly very naive as to how a foundation should be set up.<br>> So, if protocol requires individual proposals, could a chat or two be held<br>> where people share their ideas of what should be included in the proposals?<br><br>Chatting tends to be very non-productive on issues where many people<br>have many different ideas about what the right decision is. A read<br>through the irc logs from meetings discussing re-licensing will
serve<br>to prove this point. Things digress very quickly in this context.<br><br>><br>> At the very least, I would like to know what will happen with these<br>> proposals. Will we be "voting" on them as presented? Will there be some<br>> type of integration done to get the best from all of them?<br><br>As Chris Cormack pointed out: these are proposals, not line items for<br>a vote. They are far more detailed. I seem to remember several<br>proposals floated around during the founding of KUDOS. Perhaps that<br>may serve as a point of reference for you in this aspect of the<br>process.<br><br>Presenting a pre-compiled, detailed proposal will cut loads of time<br>off of the opening rounds of discussions.<br><br>As for integration... this is another point in favor of written<br>proposals... we have the option of cherry-picking should we so desire.<br><br>><br>> Some of us may need a little more help than others to come up to
speed on<br>> this process. I have tried to do some self-education on open source<br>> foundations, but there is a lot of information out there and apparently<br>> different types of foundations. I have participated in some IRC meetings,<br>> but apparently not the ones where foundations were discussed, or it went<br>> over my head. Would someone be willing to compile the previous discussions<br>> into one document that is readily accessible?<br><br>There are plenty of resources on the internet regarding this. You can<br>search both the list archives and the irc log for discussions that<br>have occurred in the past.<br><br>I'm also sure that Thomas Duklath will weigh in at some point with a<br>very through explanation of this sort of thing.<br><br>Kind Regards,<br>Chris<br>_______________________________________________<br>Koha mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz"
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