On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 4:02 PM, Rob Weir <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 3:29 PM, Wolf Halton <[email protected]> wrote: >> Summary: SPI has been collecting moneys for the OpenOffice.org project >> for quite a while. They wanted to help the project and their help is >> appreciated. Now that we are part of the ASF family, we have some >> important choices to make. >> >> First and foremost, we must request SPI to stop their collections >> efforts. AOO cannot receive the money directly as ASF does that. >> Second, we need to find out how much they have collected so far. >> Third, we need to decide how we would like to use the money they have >> collected. >> In general, it would make sense to use the funds for holding >> or supporting events, with guidance from the ASF Conference Committee >> >> travel assistance with guidance from the aptly named >> Travel Assistance Committee >> >> and possibly marketing with help from the Trademarks Committee >> and Marketing Committee >> >> We absolutely cannot pay people to develop our software with >> the money, per ASF rules. >> I volunteered to move this forward and I would like your feedback, >> maybe a general poll of what you, the community, would like to do with >> the money. >>
Thanks for the link, Rob. I must have been channeling the page with my list above, as it is essentially the list on the original page. :-) > > When OpenOffice.org was collecting the funds, it told contributors > that the funds would be used for certain purposes. You can see the > language that was used here: > > http://web.archive.org/web/20100105132519/http://contributing.openoffice.org/donate.html > > I think we have latitude to use the funds for any purpose that is > listed there, *and* which is also something Apache is able to spend > money on, per charter and per policy. > > As you mentioned, we cannot use the funds to pay for developers. But > the other uses listed there, like travel assistance for conferences, > etc., makes sense to me. > > Hopefully, if there is no objection to that general outline, we can go > ahead and transfer the funds. I think the goal should be to transfer > the lump sum balance to Apache, and them disburse individual payments > from that fund rather than to make individual requests to SPI. We > should look to get the lump sum, and them use ASF mechanisms for > approving the detailed disbursement plan, and that might occur over a > longer period of time. > > Also, when you contact SPI, be sure to thank them for their past > efforts in helping OpenOffice.org collect donations in the US. They > did a fine job and we are grateful for that work. But the reason for > using SPI was to enable easier collection of donations from US > residents. Now that we're at Apache, a US-based non-profit > corporation, this help is no longer needed. > > -Rob > >> Once I have some idea of your wishes, I will connect the dots to close >> this issue. >> >> Cheers, >> >> Wolf Halton >> >> -- >> This Apt Has Super Cow Powers - http://sourcefreedom.com >> Advancing Libraries Together - http://LYRASIS.org SPI has been very helpful - working in the background, as have so many other organizations and entities. I am planning to thank them for all their efforts on our behalf. -- This Apt Has Super Cow Powers - http://sourcefreedom.com Advancing Libraries Together - http://LYRASIS.org
