[Koha] Next Foundation Meeting?

[MJ Ray]

Thomas Dukleth wrote:
> The Conservancy has no voting or membership fee and project affiliation
> does not extend to voting on conservancy policies.  The Conservancy is run
> by many of the same people who run the Software Freedom Law Center who
> have as old and as trustworthy a standing in supporting free software as
> anyone and running FSF.
> 
> Conservancy projects run themselves and determine their own voting
> procedures.  The Conservancy provides the non-profit status and other
> legal necessities so that the project can accept donations, etc.

So, SFC seems about as unaccountable to users and developers as the
FSF.  Slightly worse in fact: I think FSF have associates and fellows
who sit on advisory groups that are consulted by the unelected board.
SFC is a much younger organisation than FSF, but presumably it could
also press on in a similar way (ignoring many user and developer
questions) as long as it gets enough donations to sustain its basic
administration.

I think that's a bit worrying and asking us to take more on trust than
we ought to, especially with a four-year-old opaque org.  After all,
like the sign by my prof's office said: in God we Trust - all others
bring data.

Is there data about the relative performance of member-led
organisations and trust-style self-perpetuating groups?  I suspect
it depends how you measure performance, but maybe someone knows.

[...]
> http://www.spi-inc.org/treasurer/associated-project-howto.html .  "Your
> Liaison may decide that your project is quitting SPI at any time.  Any
> assets and money held by SPI for your project may be transferred to the
> 501(c)3 US non-profit of your choice, or simply held until expended." 
> Perhaps that is a legal constraint in the US for 501(c)3 organisations.

I think I've been told that it is, but I have no reference for it.

> MJ, would you please try to obtain an answer from SPI about what
> possibility there is for transferring assets to a non-US organisation when
> a project would leave SPI?

I sent a request which should appear soon on the page
http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.org.spi.general
with any replies or comments linked from there, probably at
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.org.spi.general/917

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