Ian Lynch wrote:
That's fine, but if there is likely to be any delay, why not just set up
a bank account and company limited by guarantee for marketing? It can be
done tomorrow - just have the Lead and Co-lead as the CEO and company
secretary and as signatories to a bank account and get started. When the
main decisions are clear about a foundation there is no reason why the
company can not be dissolved after transferring its assets to the
foundation.
I'll point out that the German and French NL teams have both gone that
route (more or less). There's no reason why the MP leads shouldn't have
the authority to setup a bank account somewhere to handle money. The MP
lead is in Australia and the co-lead in the UK. Both countries have a
the concept of a company limited by guarantee. So either one could setup
one such.
FYI: A company limited by guarantee is sort of between a full company
and a non-profit. It is allowed to make money but not give it to the
members. The rules about what the company can do are very lax. Unlike a
non-profit (charity) that has very strict rules.
In the UK, setting up a company limited by guarantee is really really
easy. It takes one afternoon, and you do it on-line. In Australia it's
more difficult, but still a lot easier than setting up a non-profit in
the US.
I know this because the OpenDocument Fellowship has been through this.
We started out with a company limited by guarantee in Australia (Jean's
Friends of OpenDocument) which stills handles our finnances. We now have
a limited by guarantee in the UK and a non-profit in the US. And I can
tell you which one was easier to setup :) One of the reasons we are not
using the US one is because the rules for those are very very strict.
For example, you are not allowed to lobby for legislation. So right now
we only use it for the ODF members who serve in the OASIS TC (because
non-profits get an easier treatment) and that's it. And those people are
aware that they must follow the restrictive rules of a US non-profit.
In summary: Get a limited by guarantee in the UK or Australia. It's
quicker and easier, and gets the job done well enough.
The one advantage I see to the US non-profit is that US companies get
tax-free donations. So here's an idea: Sun transfers the ownership of
the website to this non-profit, and instead of paying for it, Sun makes
a regular donation to the nonprofit to cover that cost. Split the tax
break between Sun and the non-profit, so Sun saves money and the
non-profit has some money left over to spend on marketing.
Cheers,
Daniel.
--
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