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On Mon, Jun 29, 2020 at 06:30:23AM +0000, Robin H. Johnson wrote: |
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> Dear council candidates, |
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> |
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> I'd like to know what opinions you hold about the future of the |
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> Foundation. I intend to publicly post the same question for the |
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> Foundation Trustee candidates when that election starts. |
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> |
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> Q1: What are your feels on the recent history of the Foundation? (last |
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> 2-3 years) |
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> |
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Hi, Robin. I believe the last 2-3 years have been slow but productive in |
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righting ourselves with the IRS. Additionally, I believe the current |
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board of trustees truly understands the role of the foundation within |
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the community. We are here to support financially and legally to ensure |
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that things such an infra is paid for, no copyright infringement, |
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developers have items needed (e.g. NitroKey), etc. |
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> Q2: What should the Foundation do more of? |
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> |
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As I have stated personally amongst the trustees, I would like to |
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explore sponsoring developers to open source conferences and finding |
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other ways to expend our income in a socially and fiscally responsible |
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manner for supporting our purpose as a distribution. |
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|
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> Q3: What should the Foundation do less of? |
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> |
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We definitely need to codify the role of the foundation amongst the |
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distribution to future-proof any attempts or thoughts of overthrowing |
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the council. I personally believe an easy win for this is to modify the |
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by-laws delineating this role and empowering the council. This is not to |
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suggest that the council is not empowered now, but simply ensuring that |
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any attempts of "sea lawyers" to think they can suggest such courses of |
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actions is nullified. |
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|
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> Q4: What should become of the Foundation? |
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> * something not the following list at all? |
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> * long-term continue to exist as-is non-501c6 state |
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> * finish 501c6 state |
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> * convert to 501c3 in some way |
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> * join an umbrella? |
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> ** what should the selection criterion be? |
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> * disband entirely |
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> ** where should the financial holdings go? |
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> ** where should the copyright & trademark holdings go? |
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> ** what actions will be impacted by this? |
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> |
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My personal opinion has been publically stated already and amongst the |
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trustees. I interpret one cornerstone of the social contract as ensuring |
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that Gentoo remains autonomous. I have reservations that an overarching |
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"umbrella" could/would make decisions against the overall ideals of our |
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community. As an example: |
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Umbrella X decides that all subordinate projects must accept License-X |
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for their project. License X is against our "core" values/social |
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contract. We (Gentoo) must now obtain membership or some voting capacity |
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to override such a decision *outside* the scope of our usual internal |
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governance. |
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As such, I believe we ought to reincorporate ourselves as a 501c3 for the tax |
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benefit, retain bookkeeping/tax specialists, and ensure that we codify |
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the role of the council, foundation, etc for the community. Of course, |
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there is a *lot* of items to be unpacked here for discussion. Namely, |
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financial impacts of retaining such services vs income etc. |
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> -- |
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> Robin Hugh Johnson |
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> Gentoo Linux: Dev, Infra Lead, Foundation Treasurer |
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> E-Mail : robbat2@g.o |
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> GnuPG FP : 11ACBA4F 4778E3F6 E4EDF38E B27B944E 34884E85 |
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> GnuPG FP : 7D0B3CEB E9B85B1F 825BCECF EE05E6F6 A48F6136 |
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-- |
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Cheers, |
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Aaron |
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