I tossed out an idea at the meeting which, if not well-received, was at least not immediately tossed back. For the benefit of those who weren't there:
I propose incorporating our non-profit under a name other than GNHLUG. For the sake of discussion, let's call this organization "NH Linux Weenies", or "NHLW". The purpose of NHLW will be the same as we've been talking about: To provide legal support for the efforts of the various groups we loosely assemble under the banner "GNHLUG". It may well be that NHLW will end up being the legal owner of such "intellectual property" as the GNHLUG mark, the <gnhlug.org> domain name, any Internet server(s), and the like. That is fine. So why the separate name? Mainly as a convenience. Right now, while this thing we call "GNHLUG" lacks any real legal status, most of us do believe it exists in some way. There are a bunch of people who feel a very strong sense of membership (if not a share of common ownership) in GNHLUG. I feel that incorporating GNHLUG without their consent would be something of a betrayal. At the same time, obtaining "their" consent would be an administrative nightmare. On the other hand, there is nothing keeping any number of people from going off any forming any number of separate organizations. If we incorporate NHLW, I don't see how any GNHLUG could object. Likewise, If NHLW wants to donate Internet hosting to these "GNHLUG people", great! They can even pay for the DNS registration. We can thus get legal status on a fast track. We could incorporate NHLW today. We can then work on accommodating the malcontents at our leisure. There is plenty of precedent for this. Debian doesn't exist as an organization; rather, Debian is a mark of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. SPI was created to be the legal entity behind projects which resist definition, like Debian. The science fiction conventions put on by NESFA (New England Science Fiction Society) are actually operated by MCFI (Massachusetts Convention Fandom Inc). And so on. Anyway, two more cents for this discussion. (We're going to have quite the pile of loose change before this ordeal is done.) -- Ben _______________________________________________ gnhlug-org mailing list gnhlug-org@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-org
