That's great Elizabeth. I think the community would like to hear more and, more importantly, learn how they can get involved. I think it would be prudent to have representatives from several Evergreen projects involved in the formation of any foundation.
Lori On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 6:44 AM, McKinney, Elizabeth < [email protected]> wrote: > > > The Georgia Public Library Service is currently working towards forming a > foundation to which the licenses and trademarks for Evergreen can be > transferred. After the Evergreen conference we identified a viable avenue > for forming a foundation, and we have jumped at the opportunity. There is > nothing further to report at this moment. We will keep everyone in the loop > as this develops. We are very happy to see interest from the community. > > Elizabeth McKinney > PINES Program Director > Georgia Public Library Service > A Unit of the University System of Georgia > 1800 Century Place, Suite 150 > Atlanta GA 30345 > 404.235.7141 > [email protected] > http://www.georgialibraries.org/ > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Catherine Lemmer" <[email protected]> > To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" < > [email protected]> > Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 9:35:44 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern > Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Evergreen foundation (again) > > > > I am in favor of a foundation and would be willing to work on a > committee to review the existing options and/or set up a new foundation. > In one of my past lives, I did a good deal of legal work for non-profits > doing exactly this--establishing 501(c)(3) corporations. I would tend > to be counted among those that would find a stand alone Evergreen > foundation, rather than a joint Koha/Evergreen/all other open source > software, best way to proceed. I simply believe that the market forces > that are involved do not make one universal foundation a possibility. > > Catherine > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > Hyman, Ben EDUC:EX > Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 11:10 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Evergreen foundation (again) > > I concur entirely with Dan (thanks for reviving this discussion Dan), > and would love to see the community celebrating the creation of just > such a Foundation at the conference in Grand Rapids. Perhaps that's > being unrealistic, but sooner is better, IMHO. I suppose Foundation > establishment should precede celebration...perhaps an exploratory work > group could be nominated by the community? > > Ben Hyman > Manager, Library Policy & Technology > Public Library Services Branch, Ministry of Education, BC > Phone 250.387.4043 or Toll Free 800.663.7051 > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > www.bced.gov.bc.ca/pls/ <http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/pls/> > > From: Dan Scott <[email protected]> > > Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 4:22 PM > > Subject: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Evergreen foundation (again) > > To: Evergreen Discussion Group > <[email protected]> > > There was a brief discussion shortly after the Evergreen Conference > about the possibility of setting up an Evergreen Software Foundation [1] > and most recently a proposal to set up a joint Koha + Evergreen > foundation (which is probably a function better served by something like > http://www.code4lib.org/ <http://www.code4lib.org/> in any case). > > I posted a response to George's blog post [2] about the difficulties > that the Koha community has undergone recently and their renewed effort > to establish a foundation, but in that context I would like to revive > the discussion about an Evergreen Software Foundation by suggesting that > if such an entity is formed, it should roughly have the following > responsibilities: > > * Hold the trademarks, logos, and evergreen-ils.org/open-ils.org related > collateral in trust for the use of the community > > * Extend the community's development capacity (for example, by funding > the creation of developer training tutorials and workshops, where > development should be defined broadly to include documentation, > usability, design, testing, etc) > > * Coordinate joint funding for the development of new features > > * Organize the Evergreen International Conferences > > Further, I suggest that we would be foolish to turn down the Software > Freedom Conservancy's [3] offer to serve, for free, as the 501(c)(3) [4] > shell organization that would be able to hold the collateral and > financial assets in trust for the foundation, and would accept donations > to the foundation and maintain corporate records and file the tax return > (again, for free). It has been stated several times that "it's not that > hard to file the paperwork for a 501(c)(3)", but I would argue that an > advantage of the Software Freedom Conservancy is that it is a neutral > entity. > > [1]. > http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.education.libraries.open-ils.general/1258 > <http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.education.libraries.open-ils.general/1258 > > > > [2]. http://www.parser.ca/z678/2009/09/16/koha-manoeuvres/ > <http://www.parser.ca/z678/2009/09/16/koha-manoeuvres/> > > [3]. http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org/ > <http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org/> - "As a fiscal sponsor for > FOSS projects, the Conservancy provides member projects with free > financial and administrative services, but does not involve itself with > technological and artistic decisions." > > [4]. As a Canadian, I don't care about 501(c)(3) status because I get no > tax advantages from it. > >
