On Thu, 2008-10-02 at 09:49 -0700, Steve Foerster wrote: > Wayne wrote: > > << WikiEducator 3.0 refers to the phases of our strategic plan: >> > > Oooooh, okay, fair enough.
I've started a stub for Wkieducator 3.0 --- The idea being to provide a synopsis of our strategy and concise history of the project as the basis to ask the community to help us identify the strategic and operational priorities of Phase 3 in our development. > << TImeline: Startup of the new International Center for Open > Education is scheduled for 1 May 2009. COL has agreed to fund the > technical infrastructure of WIkiEducator for the first 3 years, that > is servers and technical support staff. COL's future support for > WikiEducator is conditional and requires that WikiEducator is > established within a new legal framework that COL considers > appropriate for such support. Our discussions have been around > setting up an independent and appropriate non-profit entity. >> > > I agree that this is critically important. In order to set up a non- > profit organisation, it must have by-laws, yes? And these would > presumably refer to a governance structure, e.g., Board of Directors > or Trustees or what have you? I ask because if that's the case then > this would effectively replace our Draft Policy on Governance, and if > that's so we must be the ones to write it. Steve, replacing our Draft Policy on Governance -- not necessarily. My personal view is that we should do everything we can to respect and support the autonomy of the WE community taking into account our history and what's been achieved to date and the legal requirements. It is conceivable to have an independent non profit that is responsible for maintaining the technical and operational infrastructure of the WikiEducator community in accordance with the policies approved by the WikiEducator Community Council without interfering with the governance of the community. I'm not a lawyer and we'll need to get legal advice on this question. So let's wait till we have feedback from the experts. > > << Steve the Open Education Centre comes under an employer - employee > relationship. This is subject to the normal confidences afforded to > employment agreements. >> > > I hope that doesn't mean that you foresee your relationship with Otago > would require confidences that would preclude you from sharing > relevant information with the WE community. Nope -- I don't see it that way at all. We all have multiple roles and identities. My participation in WE is as an equal member of the WE family. For example, you work at a University -- but participate in WE as a member of the community. What I anticipate is a job description which gives me the time to work for the WikiEducator project as an organisational allocation of staff time. Increasingly, I hope to see more institutions officially donating FTE (Full time equivalent) staff time to the project. I've been thinking about launching an FTE for WikiEducator initiative where institutions commit real staff time to the project. > > > << The moment I have definitive detail on the relationship between the > operations of the International Centre for Open Education and the > WikiEducator project -- I will be the first to let our community know. > >> > > Fair enough. > > > << Suffice it to say, the establishment of an independent legal entity > for administering the funding for the WE project is a critical path > decision for moving forward. Currently -- WE has no legal status. WE > is a community of association whereby individual members are > personally responsible (and liable) for their activities in the > community. >> > > Very good, on this I think everyone agrees. Can we assume the non- > profit group would be chartered in NZ? (Fine with me if it is, so > long as NZ recognises public domain dedications.) Yes -- the non-profit would be chartered in NZ. To the best of my knowledge, NZ recognises public domain dedications. The final form of the non-profit is not my decision, nor should it be. This has to do with taxation status of different kinds of entities, for example an Educational Charitable Trust versus a non-profit company with charitable purposes. In the case of NZ Educational Trust, to retain "tax free" status has implications regarding disbursements -- this has nothing to do with the form of the entity but local taxation law. As an international project we must ensure that WE can continue its work at an international level. This international stuff gets pretty complicated -- our server sits in Germany and we will more than likely have our Phase 2 hosting located in Canada. Each country has its laws around these things as well. I'm not a lawyer and we will rely on the advice of legal professionals working in the field. There is also the question of legal liability of the organisation that funds operations etc. So lots of detail that needs to be worked out. > << I have always acted in the best interests of the WIkiEducator > project. I hold the highest number of edits in the community and the > accolade of being the first member of WikiEducator :-). Since the > inception of the project I have always put community first and will > continue to do so. >> > > I know. I really hope you don't think that I'm asking you these > questions because of any doubt of that, as for the record I have none > at all. And hopefully everyone understands that you can't know > everything yet. I'm only bugging you this way because I want to > ensure that the community is as involved as possible in what happens > to us, and you can't reasonably facilitate that if we don't do our > part by asking what we need to know. I respect and admire your approach and ongoing commitment to our project since the early days :-) --- keep bugging! Cheers Wayne > > -=Steve=- > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
