Re: OOo Monetary Donations
On 06/09/2011 08:06 AM, Alexandro Colorado wrote: On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 12:57 AM, Martin Hollmichel martin.hollmic...@googlemail.com wrote: Hi, time to introduce myself, I'm Martin Hollmichel, contributor to StarOffice/OpenOffice.org since 1994, member of the OpenOffice.org Community Council (CC) until 2010 and also Chair of Team OpenOffice.org e.V. We founded Team OpenOffice.org e.V. in 2003 to serve for the items described for the items below. All the funds coming in was agreed to spend under the guidelines of the CC (see http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Community_Council/Funding_And_Budgets ). Until September 2010 the CC represents the OpenOffce.org community until the TDF initiative started. Since the remaining CC was preparing the restart of the Community the surprising move of Oracle happened and Team OpenOffice.org in behalf of the CC also applied for driving OpenOffice.org. Some of you might also remember the Team OOo was also the initial holder of the OpenOffice.org trademark in the US. Please understand that we are also got surprised by the announcement last Wednesday and we are currently preparing our point of view in this matter. Generally speaking we are still committed to work with all related parties to initiate and continue the collaborative work on offering our users a stable and useful product. I think the decision to move the project from a one main sponsor thing to a non-profit entity is a good one. Now we are all called to make the best of it, Hope not to initiate another round of intense emails. But my burning question is: why the silence period? There were a lot of things to move forward in but Team OOo never really got a recognition on the lists or any stance on many of the discussions on the Marketing lists, and other direction list. The role of Team OpenOffice.org in the past was just to be the cash box of the CC and let the CC do the work and be the voice. I remember raising some concerns about that back in November but got attacked for even daring to ask, so I didn't insist on questioning Team OOo position in the matter. Also fellow contributors have been asking for Team OOo about cerrtain donation schees that didn't reach their initial goals. As said above, not the problem of the Team OOo but of the CC. The plan was to let settle down the dust of the TDF move and re-initiate the CC. Now the playing field changed again and it becomes quite obvious that not only re-elections of the CC are required but also a re-write of it's charter. But we are also hearing the voices for asking Team OOo play a more central role, e.g. being the link between developers and customers and professionals. This is something which was terribly missed since years. Martin Martin On 06/08/2011 11:31 PM, Dave Fisher wrote: I started looking around at the OOo website. I'm not sure if now is the time to bring this up, but at http://contributing.openoffice.org/donate.html there is a solicitation for funds via three processes. Here's what the page says: Your donation will go directly towards helping this project. Some of the ways in which your funds might be used include: • Hiring independent developers to work with OpenOffice.org. • Paying for participation at trade shows and conferences. • Paying for organization and staff at annual OpenOffice.org Conference, OOoCon. • Marketing banners, collateral, CDs and brochures. Please discuss the tax benefits of donating with your accountant. You can make a donation to our primary treasury, Team OpenOffice.org, e.V. via PayPal or credit card or use bank transfer. Or, if you prefer to donate US dolars (USD) via credit card, cheque or money order, you can use use Software In the Public Interest, Inc. (SPI), and simply identify the recipient project, OpenOffice.org, where indicataed in the instructions SPI provides: SPI Donations for OpenOffice.org . (SPI does not accept PayPal or wire transfers.) Clearly there ought to be changes to the page and process when/if the podling happens. This is probably at the ASF Board level... certainly the hiring developers part doesn't fit... Regards, Dave - To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org - To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org - To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
Re: OOo Monetary Donations
Hi, On 06/09/2011 10:32 AM, Florian Effenberger wrote: [...] Maybe two things to add (and Martin, feel free to correct me): TeamOOo: donations are not tax-deductible, as not approved as not-for-profit, but thus more flexible in handling money spending outside of Germany. FrODeV: donations are tax-deductible, we are approved as not-for-profit and as especially meritorius (besonders förderungswürdig), but thus a bit more limited in spending outside of Germany. Team OOo donation are not tax-deductible, as not want have all spendings as especially meritorious. Of course Team OOo is a non-profit organization and more flexible in spendings. My understanding is that the especially meritorious term also limits spending inside Germany (see German link) http://nw.vibss.de/finanzen/steuern/zuwendungsrecht-spenden/besonders-foerderungswuerdig-anerkannte-zwecke/) I would expect FrODeV can do spending under item 4 Förderung der Jugend- und Altenhilfe (sponsorship of youth welfare) )or item 7 Förderung der Erziehung, Volks- und Berufsbildung einschließlich der Studentenhilfe (sponsorship of education) as described in the charter of FroDev (Der gemeinnützige Verein Freies Office Deutschland e.V. hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, über den Einsatz von freier Software insbesondere im Bereich Bürosoftware zu informieren.) to inform about the deployments of free software wrt Office Productivity. NB: every association can decide if they want to run for it or not, so it is *not* a governmental judgement. yes, this decision has to be made in the charter and get approved by the tax office, Florian Martin - To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
Re: OOo Monetary Donations
Hi, time to introduce myself, I'm Martin Hollmichel, contributor to StarOffice/OpenOffice.org since 1994, member of the OpenOffice.org Community Council (CC) until 2010 and also Chair of Team OpenOffice.org e.V. We founded Team OpenOffice.org e.V. in 2003 to serve for the items described for the items below. All the funds coming in was agreed to spend under the guidelines of the CC (see http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Community_Council/Funding_And_Budgets). Until September 2010 the CC represents the OpenOffce.org community until the TDF initiative started. Since the remaining CC was preparing the restart of the Community the surprising move of Oracle happened and Team OpenOffice.org in behalf of the CC also applied for driving OpenOffice.org. Some of you might also remember the Team OOo was also the initial holder of the OpenOffice.org trademark in the US. Please understand that we are also got surprised by the announcement last Wednesday and we are currently preparing our point of view in this matter. Generally speaking we are still committed to work with all related parties to initiate and continue the collaborative work on offering our users a stable and useful product. I think the decision to move the project from a one main sponsor thing to a non-profit entity is a good one. Now we are all called to make the best of it, Martin On 06/08/2011 11:31 PM, Dave Fisher wrote: I started looking around at the OOo website. I'm not sure if now is the time to bring this up, but at http://contributing.openoffice.org/donate.html there is a solicitation for funds via three processes. Here's what the page says: Your donation will go directly towards helping this project. Some of the ways in which your funds might be used include: • Hiring independent developers to work with OpenOffice.org. • Paying for participation at trade shows and conferences. • Paying for organization and staff at annual OpenOffice.org Conference, OOoCon. • Marketing banners, collateral, CDs and brochures. Please discuss the tax benefits of donating with your accountant. You can make a donation to our primary treasury, Team OpenOffice.org, e.V. via PayPal or credit card or use bank transfer. Or, if you prefer to donate US dolars (USD) via credit card, cheque or money order, you can use use Software In the Public Interest, Inc. (SPI), and simply identify the recipient project, OpenOffice.org, where indicataed in the instructions SPI provides: SPI Donations for OpenOffice.org . (SPI does not accept PayPal or wire transfers.) Clearly there ought to be changes to the page and process when/if the podling happens. This is probably at the ASF Board level... certainly the hiring developers part doesn't fit... Regards, Dave - To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org - To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
