[Koha] Users and developers (was KUDOS - ALA Proposed Agenda)

[MJ Ray]

David Schuster wrote: [...]
> I hate confrontation and love constructive criticism - and am open for
> suggestions on how to make this work for the community in North America.  I
> don't want to put people at opposite poles, but also must work within the
> regulations of the IRS. [...]

I think the IRS is pretty well-documented online, as is the non-profit
law of quite a few states of the USA, so I know I don't know the law
there, but I hope it's online.  The IRS non-profit web homepage is
http://www.irs.gov/charities/index.html?navmenu=menu1
but I didn't find the Pennsylvania Nonprofit Corporation Law online.
What particular IRS regulation is motivating developer marginalisation?

Some UK charities exclude workers from membership needlessly and I
feel that's because someone misunderstood the limits on commercial
activity.  As long as the non-profit is clearly structured so it can't
be used for tax evasion or other naughties, there shouldn't be a
problem, should there?

I'm pretty sure that KUDOS has got to answer the question of corporate
membership anyway because many user libraries will be corporations
rather than individual librarians, so can developer corporations
be handled by the same protections?

> I am open to suggestions on how we can get KUDOS up and running so as to
> function to benefit all of us.  I see KUDOS as a major help in getting
> conferences to work, possible joint development/grant writing/managing -
> IMLS is always looking for collaborative ventures between various library
> types.  WE ARE IT!

Open the membership, open the organisation, gather members, build
consensus.  Maybe when we've a bit more information, people can
suggest or do more specific actions.

Looking at the bylaws again for suggestions: I think there should also
be a minimal activity requirement for good standing and an ability to
refuse to renew members who are not in good standing.  Otherwise, it
is possible to become paralysed with idle members.

Other failure cases I've seen are a present-but-idle majority on the
board and a failure to organise board meetings or elections.  It looks
like http://kudos.koha.org/bylaws/ doesn't handle those yet either.
It would be good to give the wider membership a last chance to regain
control of the corporation legitimately, but I don't know how that
sits with local laws.

Hope that helps,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef)  Webmaster and LMS developer at     | software
www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk        |  .... co
IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html |  .... op