Hey David and Michael, As previously noted on G+ [0] I do have various questions WRT how the donations are being handled and would love some answers.
0. I think it would help a great deal if the community could get an outline of how exactly the donation process works. To that extent a lot of the question below seek to better understand how it works, where money goes and how it eventually ends up in an applicant's bank account. Could you perhaps document the process either on the funding page on ubuntu.com or somewhere else so the community as well as possible donors know exactly how the process works and how money ends up where it ends up? 1. Were the funds described in [1] simply part of Canonical's revenue stream during the mentioned time period? 1.1. If so, are the 'donations' now still part of the regular business finance or are they somehow kept apart (separate bank account and/or accounting)? 1.2. How is this working presently? Is Canonical managing the assets on behalf of the community or is it revenue that is graciously given to the community? 1.3. As the original setup (during the time period in question), where money was apparently [2] simply used for day-to-day business expenses, is in stark contrast to what the donor was and is being suggested when making his contribution. Is this still the practise for donations made towards non-community 'sliders' (e.g. phone development, juju development...). Or to perhaps put it more clearly: are all donations now actually target-directed as suggested to the donor, meaning they are used in the relevant departments within Canonical and only there? 1.3.1. If not, why not? 1.3.2. If not, would this be something that could be implemented in the interest of not misleading the donor? 2. Who actually owns/holds/administers/accounts the funds until they are distributed? 2.1. Assuming it is Canonical, are the donations then actual taxable income? 2.1.1. If they are taxable incoming are the numbers we see in the community funding report before or after tax? I guess what I am asking is whether Canonical is paying tax on these funds without actually forwarding these costs, i.e. in a way paying the tax out of Canonical's pocket. 3. What measures have Canonical and the UCC specifically taken to make sure that donated funds are correctly reported and accounted for as part of the funding reports in a reliable way without them entirely or partially disappearing in Canonical's revenue stream as apparently was the case previously [2]? 3.1. In case the answer entails relying on numbers coming out of Canonical. Is there a process in place to verify the correctness of these numbers to ensure everyone is working with accurate numbers and no one made a mistake along the line? For example: can the UCC request a look at the actual books pertaining to the public community funding? 4. Since recently a community member was incorrectly listed as having received community funding when in fact he only had been approved but not received any, could you please elaborate on how the reports are compiled such that an inaccuracy like this happened? 4.1. Are measures to make reporting more reliable already being discussed? In particular with regards to the fact that the incoming numbers for Q1-2 2013 were incorrect and funding being accounted for that has not actually taken place. Finally I would like to point out that I strongly believe that trust should never be part of an equation that involves money. In particular with regards to funds that are considered donations collected on behalf of the community for the community. As a member of the community I feel that donations collected on my behalf need to be managed with the utmost care and at the end of the day every penny ought to be accounted for and be invested towards the end we promised it would be invested. That being said, I at least would feel much better if there was a transparent peer review in place. For instance by having donations go into a non-profit entity of which the UCC or the entire Ubuntu membership are members and can look into the books and verify the accuracy of accounting and management of the donations. [0] https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MyriamSchweingruber/posts/4VFRygUzyzA [1] http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2015/05/27/community-donations-report-oct-2012-apr-2013 [2] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-community-team/2015-May/000510.html HS -- kubuntu-devel mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/kubuntu-devel
