Moritz - no need to mail the board, but please do send an email if you would 
like to offer a concise explanation 
of why GRASS PSC would like to have this set up with OSGeo as fiscal host - I 
can explain it, but a written note may be helpful.
You are also welcome to join the meeting - here is the time and jitsi link:

https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2021-03-29

Thank you, Helena



> On Mar 17, 2021, at 6:33 PM, Moritz Lennert <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Thanks Helena !
> 
> So no need for a mail to the board on my side, then ?
> 
> Moritz
> 
> Am 17. März 2021 14:40:16 MEZ schrieb Helena Mitasova <[email protected]>:
>> I put it up on the upcoming OSGeo board agenda - there has a been a new 
>> initiative setting up sponsorship infrastructure so it is a good timing,
>> 
>> Helena
>> 
>>> On Mar 17, 2021, at 8:24 AM, Veronica Andreo <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Thanks for looking at all this, Moritz, and for the explanation, of course 
>>> :)
>>> Asking OSGeo to be fiscal host then seems the way to go
>>> 
>>> Vero
>>> 
>>> El mié, 17 mar 2021 a las 8:40, Moritz Lennert 
>>> (<[email protected]>) escribió:
>>> Most foss4g projects are not legal entities, just a bunch of nice people 
>>> organizing to create beautiful software. As they are not legal entities 
>>> they cannot open a bank account, provide invoices, etc. This is what 
>>> fiscal 
>>> hosts are for. They are legal entities that allow groups to act like a 
>>> legal entity by allowing them to open accounts, etc. For more info: 
>>> https://opencollective.com/become-a-host. 
>>> <https://opencollective.com/become-a-host.> 
>>> 
>>> OSGeo is already playing the role of fiscal host for GitHub sponsoring: 
>>> https://github.com/sponsors/OSGeo. <https://github.com/sponsors/OSGeo.>
>>> 
>>> For our current banking account our fiscal host is OSGeo.eu.
>>> 
>>> OSGeo could become a fiscal host at opencollective and so allow all OSGeo 
>>> projects to organize sponsoring through there. I'll ask the board.
>>> 
>>> Otherwise we could use another fiscal host. Fiscal hosts can ask for a fee 
>>> for their services, usually around 5%, but they don't have to.
>>> 
>>> Opencollective uses stripe for credit card payments and also allows payment 
>>> via PayPal. Those payments generally also come with a small fee, so a few 
>>> percent of the money people give is lost on the way.
>>> 
>>> Moritz
>>> 
>>> Am 16. März 2021 21:35:57 MEZ schrieb Michael Barton 
>>> <[email protected]>:
>>> I believe that a 'fiscal host' is a place where you can deposit money and 
>>> keep it until needed or moved to a different local. It could be a bank 
>>> account or other account. 
>>> 
>>> Michael
>>> _____________________________
>>> C. Michael Barton 
>>> Director, Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
>>> Director, Network for Computational Modeling in Social & Ecological Sciences
>>> Associate Director, School of Complex Adaptive Systems
>>> Professor, School of Human Evolution & Social Change
>>> Arizona State University
>>> Tempe, AZ  85287-2402
>>> USA
>>> 
>>> voice: 480-965-6262 (SHESC), 480-965-8130/727-9746 (CSDC)
>>> fax: 480-965-7671(SHESC), 480-727-0709 (CSDC)
>>> www: http://shesc.asu.edu, https://complexity.asu.edu, 
>>> http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
>>> 
>>>> On Mar 16, 2021, at 12:12 PM, Veronica Andreo <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Hi Moritz, 
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks a lot for this initiative! Open collective seems like a pretty cool 
>>>> complement to other existing ways of collecting money.
>>>> 
>>>> I was inspecting a bit which other organizations are there, and I found 
>>>> many well known companies and NGOs (See for example: 
>>>> https://opencollective.com/babel). Furthermore, it seems it also allows 
>>>> for recurring contributions with different categories.
>>>> 
>>>> I do not understand the fiscal host part, but as you say maybe OSGeo can 
>>>> become a fiscal host. Would you ask them too? 
>>>> 
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Vero
>>>> 
>>>> El sáb, 13 mar 2021 a las 16:34, Moritz Lennert 
>>>> (<[email protected]>) escribió:
>>>> Dear all,
>>>> 
>>>> FYI, for our accounting I have created a continuous ledger in 
>>>> https://nextcloud.osgeo.org/ -> GRASS-PCS -> Accounting and have filled 
>>>> it with all transactions in our PayPal and bank account since 2018. The 
>>>> idea is to use this as our central accounting tool and note all coming 
>>>> transactions in this ledger. This will allow to easily extract annual 
>>>> accounts and follow our current financial situation.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> As already discussed we should also review the way we collect 
>>>> sponsorship money, for different reasons:
>>>> 
>>>> - The current PayPal Money pool runs over my personal account which is 
>>>> not very bus-factor resilient.
>>>> 
>>>> - Venka's experience has shown that from some countries it is not easy 
>>>> to contribute without a PayPal account, e.g. with a credit card.
>>>> 
>>>> OSGeo uses a Github sponsorship system which we should advertise as 
>>>> people can dedicate their contribution to a specific project. However, 
>>>> AFAIU, the Github sponsorship system is limited to people with a Github 
>>>> account and only allows deciding on a continuous (monthly), not a 
>>>> one-shot donation.
>>>> 
>>>> In light of this, I would suggest the following for our sponsorship system:
>>>> 
>>>> - https://opencollective.com/ for flexible one-shot, credit-card based 
>>>> sponsorships, including a series of different options and advantages 
>>>> (ex: receipts) for sponsors. How we organize this exactly (via fiscal 
>>>> host) is still to be determined (maybe OSGeo can become a fiscal host 
>>>> for all OSGeo projects ?).
>>>> 
>>>> - https://github.com/sponsors/OSGeo for recurring sponsorship.
>>>> 
>>>> - Our bank account for direct money transfer, mostly within Europe.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Does this sound reasonable for everyone ? If yes, I will look into the 
>>>> details of Open Collective and create our system.
>>>> 
>>>> Moritz
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> grass-psc mailing list
>>>> [email protected]
>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-psc
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> grass-psc mailing list
>>>> [email protected]
>>>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-psc__;!!IKRxdwAv5BmarQ!JYQHuCCW-r_wk5ZkIBeP49QU77SHS7hiB50Ncbo81102GGGA-Ce_UmCsrjjKdZlGnTm0oAE$
>>>>  
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> grass-psc mailing list
>>> [email protected]
>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-psc
>> 
>> Helena Mitasova
>> Professor at the Department of Marine, 
>> Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences
>> Associate director and faculty fellow at the Center for Geospatial Analytics
>> North Carolina State University
>> Raleigh, NC 27695-8208
>> [email protected]
>> 
>> "All electronic mail messages in connection with State business which are 
>> sent to or received by this account are subject to the NC Public Records Law 
>> and may be disclosed to third parties.” 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> grass-psc mailing list
>> [email protected]
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-psc

Helena Mitasova
Professor, Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Faculty Fellow,
Center for Geospatial Analytics
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8208
[email protected]



_______________________________________________
grass-psc mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-psc

Reply via email to