On Wed, 2002-09-04 at 23:03, R. Scott Belford wrote: > Organizing LUAU as a non-profit corporation can really open the doors to more > opportunity for our LTSP for schools endeavor. I have stumbled across the > articles of incorportation from Research Triangle's linux group . Most > interesting is their organizational structure of a steering committee. I > like this. It seems to be the design that insures the infinite democratic > existence of the group. I wonder if this would work for LUAU? > > http://www.trilug.org/steering.php
This is exactly the direction that I am heading. Last month I met with Wayne and he explained the Articles of Incorporation. Becoming a true non-profit corporation will be the only way we will be able to attract large tax-deductible donations from businesses and individuals. Such tax-deductible donations will be necessary in order to be able to sustain continuous proactive advocacy, and especially in providing hardware and continued support for the "Linux for Schools" projects. > > They schedule monthly meetings. I like this. Wayne just suggested the same > thing. I have seen many attempts to do this by others. Perhaps we should > just set a schedule and do it year in and year out. Same with installfests. > It would be great to have them on a predictable schedule. Yes, we need to make predictable monthly meetings, perhaps a minimum of one organizational meeting and one educational session like a Seminar or InstallFest. This however will only be possible if others pick up the slack, because I cannot do this on my own forever. As part of incorporation we will need several dedicated people to form the Board of Directors (or Steering Committee). I think that such commitment is all that is needed in order to get momentum started. Eventually more and more people will become involved as we become organized, and the infrastructure we build will keep the ball rolling long after I'm burnt out. =) > > As we affirm the values of the list and determine what netiquette we would > like to see all of us follow, this is a good time to think about the group's > structure. Warren is rather amazing in doing so much, but, he is just one > person. I assume that his ability to grow personally and professionally will > mean allowing projects like this to evolve more or less on their own. > > I had mentioned before that I would take care of the incorporation steps. > Warren has mentioned them in the new linux business mailing list. I propose > that we incorporate (non-profit) under the name of LUAU. The articles that > trilug used are a good starting point for addressing the handling of assets. > I also like the idea of a steering committee. Be it now or later, it seems > like a good idea. > > scott The only problem I have with this is the name... What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. There is something in a name. I name means a lot especially to the uninitiated, almost like a first impression. For this reason Wayne had recommended choosing a name that sounded more professional than a "LUG". Perhaps something like: "Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation" Perhaps that name is too long, but it communicates exactly what we do. The important keywords there are "Foundation" and "Education". Those kinds of words make it sound more legit in a professional sense, the kind of organization that a business person would feel happy about making contributions toward. http://www.osef.org/ Wow... Google found the "Open Source Education Foundation" that seems to be similar in concept. We could be the Hawaii equivalent. My other idea was to simply call the official name MPLUG. I am thinking more about this possibility now that I see this TriLUG example. Regarding "LUAU", I have to admit that I still am biased against the name. LUAU is the old group that existed since 1994 but fell apart several times due to various reasons (something about poor management and petty bickering, I don't know the details, I wasn't around back then). To this day several people refuse to join the list only because of the name. (What's in a name?) Two years ago when I revived this Linux community, I wanted to rename the LUAU list and create my own MPLUG group for this reason, but enough people complained that LUAU remained. I should make myself clear that I do dislike the LUAU name, and I would definitely not use it as the official corporation name. As for the LUAU list itself, I have absolutely nothing against it. I am mainly concerned that it is somewhat confusing to new people as an identity, because there is no LUAU group with meetings. I will ponder this further. I know many of you would be against renaming LUAU, so I may end up leaving LUAU as-is and creating other lists. Perhaps I'm making too big a deal about a name, but I feel it is important for the group name and list name to be consistent, and for that name to sound professional. I invite comments about this incorporation process. We need the following: 1. Professional sounding name. 2. Board of Directors (Steering Committee) who are willing to take on various tasks in keeping the group functioning and legal under the law. Wayne could you provide more specific details to the list about the responsibilities of the Board? 3. Web Master/Sys Admin... details coming soon when I actually get around to installing a content management system on Videl. Warren
