On Jul 14, 2008, at 16:36, Ted Roche wrote: > Well, that's exactly what we're hoping to achieve, some simple > guidance > for SIGs that say that your structure can be part of GNHLUG if you > follow the same strictures of being a non-profit educational > charity in > the sense of 501(c)(3) as GNHLUG is expected to be, and understand > that > the board or its designees can take on financial obligations on the > part > of GNHLUG. That might be it, right there.
Actually that's what I was suggesting might want to be avoided. :) It might be a useful thought experiment to think about "what if GNHLUG wanted to do an event with SwANH?" We wouldn't make SwANH conform to any IRS strictures to co-sponsor an event. But I suspect that event could still happen. Could we do a GNHLUG/Redhat event? Sure - and they're on the NASDAQ. Same for Ubuntu LoCo - they perhaps already have their rules. But GNHLUG can work with them, no problem to be co-sponsors on events, even recurring ones. > Sounds like you ought to come down to Manchester and offer to help us > with this :) I would if I didn't have a 'last Thursday' meeting that night... > Seriously, short of a group desiring to take on a major project, > all of > this is make-work and much ado about nothing. However, when that > opportunity comes along, it will be too late to start the process. So, > we are trying to lay the groundwork now, and minimize the hassles to > everyone involved. Right, I understand why GNHLUG wants to exist as a legal entity. And I suspect that if a SIG wanted to become assimilated by the GNHLUG at any time this could be done in very short order. However, with legal entities come legal entanglements, so my thought was to keep the degree of such entanglements as small as possible. So, the structure is there, ready to use as needed, but it doesn't pervade all daily activities that would otherwise proceed differently if not for such entanglements. Think about the potential downsides. If PySIG (I'm picking on PySIG again) has a meeting and it's part of GNHLUG and Alex goes nuts and trashes the ABI, then the GNHLUG BoD is legally responsible. If RubySIG decides to pass the hat at the brewpub and buy everybody beers then GNHLUG has to worry about the accounting on that. But if the RubySIG Event is merely co-branded with GNHLUG then this isn't a problem, it's not a GNHLUG event. Does Martha's give free rooms to corporations or just guys who buy beer and talk about strange stuff? There are certainly advantages to having GNHLUG be a State-created entity, but there are potential gotchas as well. My only point is that such gotchas should be kept as small and contained as possible, and that we should have something positive to say for, "what do we gain by doing X?" if we're thinking about doing X. -Bill ----- Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/ Page: 603.442.1833 Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf _______________________________________________ gnhlug-org mailing list gnhlug-org@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-org/
