On 8/29/20 3:47 PM, William Hubbs wrote:
On Sat, Aug 29, 2020 at 01:15:51PM -0400, james wrote:
On 8/28/20 5:10 PM, antlists wrote:
On 28/08/2020 19:10, james wrote:
A council member, from say England, could manage how 1/2 of what they
raise is spent. It could even "english centric" but must comply with
USA IRS standards. Our council could be expanded to many members, from
other countries, with a centic goal of spending Gentoo funds
WHY? As a Brit I wouldn't want to touch the Americal Legal System with a
barge pole!!!
Truly, there is no other globally recognized tax system
like the USA-IRS (bad ass && world class open). That's why in times of
trouble, entrepreneurs world wide flock to the "dollar". Also, being
in elite standing with the USA-IRS opens many door doors to enhance
and promote and deploy GENTOO globally.
And as a Brit, while HMRC may be a pain, I have precious little to do
with them. My employer deals with them, and at the end of the year I
occasionally get a letter saying I've overpaid my taxes and here's some
money back. Do I REALLY want to get involved with some foreign system
that's WAY more complicated?
Get rid of your rose-tinted spectacles. For the MAJORITY of Brits, our
tax system is way less complicated than yours. You'd be better off
moving the foundation to somewhere that doesn't have your insane mix of
state and federal taxes, and doesn't offload the responsibility onto
people who don't understand the system.
Cheers,
Wol
Each group of gentoo users, by legal status of the country they reside
in, has to be responsible for keeping their gentoo activities safe,
legal and prosperous. You are absolutely correct. I too struggle with
American laws; I feel your pain and outrage at the USA government.
Never the less, Gentoo is anchored, legally, in the USA?
So that is my perspective. My efforts. My area of involvement with
Gentoo is centric to and under the auspices of the USA tax codes and
other legal requirements. I know that England is a wonderful place, as I
have many friends there.
I assume we are stuck with the American legal system, as that is where
Gentoo, historically, choose. None of that precludes Gentoo from forming
legal branches in other countries, except for costs and a mountain of
ever expanding legal requirements. So, that is often, the overwhelming
reason many global charities choose the USA
and all of the legal encumbrances that are required.
If you or others wish other legal foundations for Gentoo, make your
offers and suggestion to the Gentoo Council? Gentoo Devs? Besides if
the new triumvirate:
Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand is successful, then you can
compare Gentoo being registered therein, or keeping things in the USA?
Sound to me like you are an excellent candidate to join the Gentoo
Council? If so, contact Mgorny for pointers.
The functions being discussed in this thread belong to the
trustees (the board of directors for the foundation) [1]. Thhey are
definitely not part of the council's skill set [2].
The Gentoo social contract is fine; as long as folks do not take and
expanded interpretation of those tenets. That is expansive
interpretation, going beyond what is clearly stated, is a slippery
slope. Too often that is the exact problem. I'd suggest a tight,
conservative interpretation of the Gentoo Social Contract. If not
clearly delineated, do not expand it's interpretation.
https://gentoo.org/get-started/philosophy/social-contract.html
mgorny and others are advocating disbanding the Gentoo foundation
and transfering all of Gentoo's assets to an organization such as the Software
Freedom Conservancy [3] and allowing the council to exist as it currently does.
The post, at first read, he makes in sound as if "Gentoo" is in some
sort of trouble. Now that we clearly know, Gentoo is currently
sufficiently funded, WE should move very slowly. Caveat Emptor.
As a member of the council, I'll be the first to say I don't know
anything about trustee functions. For me, the question is, do we want to
control our own destiny as an organization or do we want to have another
organization control it in some way? To be honest, I do not have that
answer because I don't know how much control an umbrella organization
would try to exert, and since they would control our purse strings, I
don't know what the scope of control they would be able to exert is.
Amen! So let us flush out the clear roles and authorities, BEFORE we
make any changes. Thank you for your clear, precise focus, as folks,
including myself, tend to get very excited when is it presented that
'gentoo is in trouble'. I've been here since 2002, after selling a large
ISP (CFTnet) in 1999. Integrity is everything, in any organization. ymmv.
James
William
[1] https://www.gentoo.org/inside-gentoo/foundation/
[2] https://www.gentoo.org/glep/glep-0039.html
[3] https://sfconservancy.org/
