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

[David Schuster]

Again thanks for following through and making suggestions:

http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=139515,00.html  - an article
about having a policy to deal with conflict of interest.

The concern for having the 501c3 exemption status pulled by the IRS was the
concern.  The board will have to put this policy together and submit it as
well with the application.  

If KUDOS in the future does fund development we were trying to look long
term and avoid conflict of interest through membership.

It will be part of the board members duty(as volunteers) to provide
diligence that the policy is maintained and followed.  It is hard to
anticipate how this will work so again it is hard to write when we haven't
done it before.  Again we are open for suggestions and comments!  Keep them
coming!

David Schuster

MJ Ray-2 wrote:
> 
> 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
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> 
> 

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