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

[Nicole Engard]

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 at 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 at nekls.org
>
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