Hello,
Our lawyer proposed us three structures:
* ASBL (Association sans But Lucratif)
* AISBL (Association Internationale sans But Lucratif)
* Fondation privée (private foundation)
The issue with the ASBL is that the status and the future of an asbl
can be changed by its member. Another issue is that once a year a vote
should be casted to acknowledge the work of the board : this is
difficult for us because tryton users and wannabe asbl members are
scattered all around the world.
The international ASBL does not have the issue of the vote but require
the government to sign a paper and this is not easy in Belgium ;) (but
it can be manageable). The issue of the take over is still present
though.
The solution would be to use the "Fondation privée". This is a
structure that must follow the rules that are defined in its status.
Nobody can change those and the belgian state ensure that it is the
case : anybody can go to court if he thinks that the foundation does
not respect its goals.
Our lawyer has prepared the draft of the foundation status (in
french), the stuffs in red are to be discussed the rest is probably
just legalese:
http://www.b2ck.com/~nicoe/Statuts_Fondation_Tryton_00017733.doc
We tried to explain it at the TUL, here are the stuff I wrote about
that. Do not hesitate to correct me / add some stuff I forgot.
* Agreement on the term members
* The definition of what the foundation do is *really* important.
Currently : "Protect, promote and develop the free software named
Tryton"
- Mathias: we should just keep protect
- Dominique: we should not be forbidden to do stuff. People could
go to court because we do stuffs that are not in the status
- nicoe: what does develop means ? Is it technical ? Is it to be
taken in a broader meaning ?
- cedric: we should not be too specific
* Dominique propose that the board selects the members then there is a
vote. It seems to be OK for everybody.
* Sharoon propose to be inspired by the PSF : http://www.python.org/psf/
Everybody seems to agree on this.
- cedric: this is a foundation of the USA there are probably
differences
* Should paid members have a vote ? No agreement. In the PSF they do
but they must renew their membership by paying a fee.
* We can also have sponsors that do not want to vote. Everybody seems
to agree on this
* Can company be members:
- Dominique: people are clever not companies
- Cédric: we work for companies
* Do you have to renew your membership ? Do you have to pay ?
- PSF use non paying eternal membership for people with an
emeritus status for people that don't want to be involved
anymore.
- KDE makes it mandatory to vote and be present at 50% of the KDE
Summit
* We need to be able to kick out members/admin : How ?
- members: make a vote at 2/3 of the members
- administrators: vote of the board or a vote of the 2/3 of the members
* Having personalities ?
- People from outside the tryton world but well known in the free
software world could give their impression
As we said, we can discuss this for a short amount of time and then we
(b2ck) will go back to our lawyer to express what the community think
and see what can be done and then get the stuff going.
--
Nicolas Évrard
B2CK SPRL
rue de Rotterdam, 4
4000 Liège
Belgium
Tel: +32 472 54 46 59
E-mail/Jabber: [email protected]
Website: http://www.b2ck.com/
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