On Sun, 5 Apr 2009 21:33:43 -0500 Nathan Ingersoll <ninge...@gmail.com> said:
agreed. i know i'm not into the idea of yet more paperwork than i already have! :) let someone else take care of it! focus on what we do... hacking stuff! :) > Attempting to revive this thread... > > Do we realistically have the resources to perform the necessary > accounting, paperwork, pay the necessary fee, etc to be outside of > something like the SFC? > > IMO, we should avoid the legal hassles as much as possible, unless > there is a significant problem raised by being a part of SFC or other > umbrella organizations. > > > On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 9:10 AM, Ravenlock <ravenl...@ravenlock.us> wrote: > > On 02/07/2009 01:24, Toma wrote: > >> I did a little leg work to see what the Gnome and KDE folks are doing. > >> > >> http://foundation.gnome.org/legal/ > >> http://foundation.gnome.org/finance/ > >> (Yes, the 2007 books are not available! Naughty Naughty!) > >> Looks like they run the show themselves, but get free-ish legal > >> services from SFLC > >> > >> http://ev.kde.org/ > >> These guys also run the show themselves. > >> > >> Do we know just how much time gets spent doing all this book keeping > >> and ground work for these foundations? I get the feeling its a bit of > >> work at the start to setup all the copyright, trademarks, bank > >> accounts, tax forms etc etc, but once its going its probably not that > >> hard to do. (No im not putting my hand up...) > > > > I honestly have very little idea what would truly be involved for us to > > do it ourselves. I know many orgs do it themselves. Those you already > > mentioned, FreeBSD and Apache come to mind. > > > > One of the reasons I think the other big orgs are able to do their own > > thing is there is much more organization to their Organization. They > > have a very well defined structure and development processes. E on the > > other hand has intentionally resisted creating any structure. This is > > not bad. Just the way it is. But I think that fact makes it difficult > > to run a formal NPO. > > > > I think the things you just mentioned are quite a lot of work. And I > > think some of them require knowledge I'd be willing to bet few of us > > already own. Which means there is more work involved in learning what > > to do, and how to do it right/well. And then there is the work involved > > when something goes wrong somewhere (think legal dispute, IRS issues, > > donator wanting proper receipts?, others?). > > > > Now, it may very well be that all is required to form an NPO is to fill > > out an IRS form, open a bank account if we desire to accept donations, > > and file yearly IRS forms. Bang, done. In many cases I suspect that > > would really do. So we might get away with it. > > > > But, lets go back to the beginning here, and ask "*Why* do we need to > > form an NPO?". A good question, especially considering E might very > > well be older than some of its contributers, and its gotten along > > without for so long. > > > > The impetus for my looking into it last year, and again this year is > > simply GSoC, and the large donation Google makes to us. They provided a > > rather large donation to E, that had to be accepted by a US resident. > > Said US resident carried that tax liability. This will happen again > > this year provided we are in fact accepted. The only other need we have > > had to my knowledge up to this point would possibly be other peoples > > donations. Technically the donations we've accepted in the past had tax > > consequences for both the person who accepted them for E and for those > > giving the donations. Presently those donations are not deductible. If > > we were an NPO those donating would have the ability to deduct them. > > > > So, to answer my own question... I'm sure we could get by without > > forming a NPO. Our perceived needs are quite small. But I brought it > > up to get people discussing it, to see if more needs get kicked up. In > > my head I keep thinking legal cya. Legal representation is one of those > > things you may never need, but if you do you'd be quite sorry to not > > have it. Now SFLC may represent an org even if they are not an NPO, not > > sure. So that there may further reduce our need for NPO. > > > > I think its very easy to argue we do not need one. But what I am hoping > > to do here is get people to discuss, and see if maybe we do in fact have > > a genuine need, and simply never knew it. > > > >> > >> Toma > >> > >> 2009/2/7 Ravenlock <ravenl...@ravenlock.us>: > >>> Hello, > >>> > >>> [Not a development topic.. but I need to hit the right audience] > >>> > >>> Last year, with our acceptance in GSoC, it came to my attention that we > >>> might possibly benefit from forming an official 501(c)(3) Non Profit > >>> Organization. This has become fresh in my mind again this year due to > >>> GSoC, but also due to the "Bounty" that has appeared regarding the E > >>> File Manager. > >>> > > > > [snip] > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Create and Deploy Rich Internet Apps outside the browser with Adobe(R)AIR > > (TM) software. With Adobe AIR, Ajax developers can use existing skills and > > code to build responsive, highly engaging applications that combine the > > power of local resources and data with the reach of the web. Download the > > Adobe AIR SDK and Ajax docs to start building applications > > today-http://p.sf.net/sfu/adobe-com > > _______________________________________________ enlightenment-devel mailing > > list enlightenment-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/enlightenment-devel > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > enlightenment-devel mailing list > enlightenment-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/enlightenment-devel > -- ------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" -------------- The Rasterman (Carsten Haitzler) ras...@rasterman.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ enlightenment-devel mailing list enlightenment-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/enlightenment-devel
