Gentoo Archives: gentoo-nfp

From: Donnie Berkholz <spyderous@g.o>
To: gentoo-nfp@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-nfp] CDs and t-shirts
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 07:56:27
Message-Id: 1082965644.29918.12.camel@localhost
In Reply to: [gentoo-nfp] CDs and t-shirts by Daniel Robbins
1 On Mon, 2004-04-26 at 02:49, Daniel Robbins wrote:
2 > Corey wrote:
3 > > What about paypal donations in regards to the NFP transition?
4 > > The proceeds from the store will go towards Daniel's debt, and that
5 > > has been agreed upon.
6 >
7 > This is not an accurate summary of what I said. What I said is, and I quote:
8 >
9 > "OK. The purpose of this is to allow me to continue to support my family by
10 > doing things like pay for a house, pay for food, and potentially pay off
11 > some of the $20,000 in debt I accumulated during my tenure as Chief
12 > Architect of Gentoo, etc."
13 >
14 > So, to make try to make this impossible to misunderstand -- what I said is
15 > that the Store would be used to support me and my family in our ability to
16 > cover _basic living expenses_, and *potentially* help pay off *some* (notice
17 > I did use the word *some* in my original email) accumulated debt. That is
18 > probably more wishful thinking than anything. That's why I used the word
19 > "potentially." People seem to have focused on the fact that I mentioned the
20 > word "debt" and ignored the main thing I said.
21 >
22 > The main reason for continuing to run the store is to ensure that my family
23 > has its basic living expenses covered. This NFP transition involves some
24 > financial risk on my part. I need to make sure my family doesn't get hurt in
25 > the transition. This could happen if the funding I am currently receiving to
26 > work on Gentoo full-time disappears. This would be very hard for my family,
27 > since as I've pointed out, I have $20K in debt. We have no savings,
28 > investments or retirement at all. I have no money to pull from if I lose
29 > funding. If I were just a single guy then I could justify making some risky
30 > decisions, but I have a wife and two small children and they shouldn't have
31 > to suffer due to any risky decisions I make. Making a smooth transition that
32 > works for the NFP and my family involves some careful planning on my part.
33
34 This all seems like it's not worth arguing over. You're the store
35 employee, you get the money. Seems pretty clear-cut to me. Replace when
36 Corey said "debt" with "living expenses" and the whole point becomes
37 moot, as far as I can tell.
38
39 >
40 > > Will the donations go into an account that gets controlled by the NFP?
41 >
42 > Another thing I explained in prior emails is that the Store would continue
43 > to cover the costs associated with setting up the 501(c)(6), and the legal
44 > fees by the time this is completed would probably be around $7-$10K (also
45 > including misc. legal stuff and continuing costs associated with federal
46 > trademark apps, logo usage agreements etc..) I'd hope that donations could
47 > go towards paying these tabs before we look at re-routing this money to set
48 > up an operating budget for the NFP. It really isn't enough for any kind of
49 > real budget anyway.
50 >
51 > I think I'm going to avoid answering financial questions because the stuff I
52 > have already said gets misinterpreted and distorted. I don't want to
53 > continue to participate in what seems to be an unavoidable downward spiral
54 > of confusion. It doesn't seem to be helping anyone. I really do try to be
55 > clear in my emails, but that doesn't seem to be enough.
56 >
57 > To be honest, after having to put my financial situation in writing, it
58 > seems rather stupid for me to be making any kind of personal commitment to
59 > keep the store running and get the money to cover $7-$10K of Gentoo legal
60 > fees. It would probably be best if I get a job as soon as possible and bail
61 > out of Gentoo after the NFP is set up next week, and leave the NFP to
62 > continue running the store and arrange its own funding for the 501(c)(6)
63 > application process. But that would be really high-stress for everyone and
64 > is what I am trying to avoid.
65
66 I'm getting deja vu here -- we've gone over this ground before.
67
68 What does putting your financial situation in writing really have to do
69 with commitments to the store and the NFP anyway? It's not that big of a
70 deal -- public officials are required to share their financial
71 situations, for example. This seems awfully dramatic. I'll tell you all
72 about mine, if you like.
73
74 From what I gather, you sort of look at Gentoo and its developers like
75 your children and you want to do what's best for us. But sometimes the
76 "children" like to understand _why_ things are happening too -- thus the
77 questions. Yeah, it may be aggravating, but I believe it's for the
78 better. (Have your kids hit that stage yet?)
79
80 --
81 Donnie Berkholz
82 Gentoo Linux

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