Jim,

The Koha community has struggled with the problem that it does not have, in the U.S. or worldwide a legal entity that can take action, seek funding, register trademarks, etc. for the good of the community. Well, in order to do that we need to move forward and get KUDOS recognized by the IRS as a nonprofit corporation.

This seems to me like we're mixing organizations. KUDOS is a users group for pooling funding and having a place for users in the US to talk to each other - I assume. The future Koha Foundation (whatever it's name) will be the entity to hold and register the trademarks for the worldwide community. Other than that I think the problem is as I said earlier - everyone is thinking too much like how they had to think with proprietary vendors - if KUDOS is a way to pool resources and get grants for developments to Koha - GREAT!! If KUDOS is a way to get users together - it's kind of a waste of time because as Owen said - we already have that in so very many ways. I also think that the D in KUDOS was being ignored - and others have covered that well enough - no need for me to repeat ;) Nicole 2010/1/20 Jim Minges <jminges@nekls.org>:

Hello,

I would like to add a few comments to the debate about the KUDOS bylaws.

The Koha community has struggled with the problem that it does not have, in the U.S. or worldwide a legal entity that can take action, seek funding, register trademarks, etc. for the good of the community. Well, in order to do that we need to move forward and get KUDOS recognized by the IRS as a nonprofit corporation. This is not rocket science and does not require a CPA or attorney, but I think we need to move forward on it. The bylaws can be changed at any time as desired, but we have to have initial bylaws ASAP in order to file the application with the IRS.

There was extensive discussion at the ALA KUDOS meeting about the importance of NOT excluding developers. The bylaws were revised to include any installation of KOHA, which certainly could include a developer who has installed the software. There was general agreement that conflict of interest issues could be dealt with through the conflict of interest policy, and that KUDOS was in general an organization with institutional membership (both users and developers). I do know that the committee that wrote the bylaws and those at the meeting that hashed out revisions were not in any regard exclusionary.

If KUDOS is going to be taken seriously, we need to move forward with the incorporation and sort out the philosophical debates and incorporate them into bylaws revisions later if needed.

Let's take a deep breath, and get moving.

Jim

-- Jim Minges, Director Northeast Kansas Library System 4317 West 6th Street Lawrence, KS  66049 Phone: 785-838-4090      FAX: 785-838-3989 jminges@nekls.org

_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha

Jim, I completely agree that we need to get moving ahead with KUDOS as a registered entity. The other officers and I are arranging a meeting time to go over the changes to the bylaws that were discussed at ALA Midwinter. Just to clarify, to my best knowledge, at no point has KUDOS talked about trademarks. That's up to the global community, HLT and the future Koha foundation to deal with. Mostly we've been keen on having the 501c3 status so we can apply for grants. Cheers, -Ian Walls VP of KUDOS From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Jim Minges Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 1:04 PM To: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Users and developers (was KUDOS - ALA Proposed Agenda) Hello, I would like to add a few comments to the debate about the KUDOS bylaws. The Koha community has struggled with the problem that it does not have, in the U.S. or worldwide a legal entity that can take action, seek funding, register trademarks, etc. for the good of the community. Well, in order to do that we need to move forward and get KUDOS recognized by the IRS as a nonprofit corporation. This is not rocket science and does not require a CPA or attorney, but I think we need to move forward on it. The bylaws can be changed at any time as desired, but we have to have initial bylaws ASAP in order to file the application with the IRS. There was extensive discussion at the ALA KUDOS meeting about the importance of NOT excluding developers. The bylaws were revised to include any installation of KOHA, which certainly could include a developer who has installed the software. There was general agreement that conflict of interest issues could be dealt with through the conflict of interest policy, and that KUDOS was in general an organization with institutional membership (both users and developers). I do know that the committee that wrote the bylaws and those at the meeting that hashed out revisions were not in any regard exclusionary. If KUDOS is going to be taken seriously, we need to move forward with the incorporation and sort out the philosophical debates and incorporate them into bylaws revisions later if needed. Let's take a deep breath, and get moving. Jim -- Jim Minges, Director Northeast Kansas Library System 4317 West 6th Street Lawrence, KS 66049 Phone: 785-838-4090 FAX: 785-838-3989 jminges@nekls.org<mailto:jminges@nekls.org> </PRE> <html> <body> ------------------------------------------------------------<br /> This email message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is proprietary, confidential, and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender by return email and delete the original message. Please note, the recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The organization accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email.<br /> ================================= </body> </html> <PRE>