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

Thu Jan 21 07:32:58 NZDT 2010

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 at lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Jim Minges
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 1:04 PM
To: koha at 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 at nekls.org<mailto:jminges at nekls.org>
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