Re: [gentoo-nfp] Questions For Gentoo Foundation Trustee Candidates

[Aaron Bauman]

On Sat, Jul 13, 2019 at 09:03:35PM +0200, Michał Górny wrote:
> On Sat, 2019-07-13 at 16:50 +0100, Roy Bamford wrote:
> > On 2019.07.13 14:39, Michał Górny wrote:
> > > On Sat, 2019-07-13 at 06:17 -0700, Raymond Jennings wrote:
> > > > What are your plans regarding future relations between the trustees
> > > and the
> > > > council?  I noted that the council isn't even mentioned in the
> > > bylaws
> > >
> > > I've answered this in detail in my Manifesto [1].
> > >
> > > Long story short, I believe the distribution should be self-governing,
> > > and Foundation should support it without interfering unnecessarily.
> > > This means that Council makes the majority of the decisions regarding
> > > Gentoo, and Trustees should work with the Council and respect
> > > the decisions made by it.
> > >
> > > [1] https://dev.gentoo.org/~mgorny/trustee-manifesto-2019.txt
> > >
> > > --
> > > Best regards,
> > > Michał Górny
> > >
> > >
> >
> > Michał,
> >
> > The ideals "self-governing" and "professional umbrella" appear to be at
> > variance with each other. The professional umbrella will have a board
> > of directors that Gentoo devs have no say in the appointment of.
> >
> > How do you reconcile these apparently contradictory ideals?
>
> Just like with every other external company, we will need to negotiate
> and sign a contract.  This contract must guarantee that the umbrella
> will give Gentoo appropriate freedom in handling its own affairs.
>
> We don't have a say in appointing directors of banks, service providers,
> CPA... yet I am yet to hear that we can't use their services because of
> that.  In fact, with most of those companies we probably have even less
> say than with the potential umbrellas.
>
> Finally, do Gentoo devs really have much say in appointing Trustees?
> Just like Alec said -- when was the last time people actually had
> a choice between candidates, rather than between accepting the few who
> volunteered and leaving Foundation without Trustees?  An umbrella will
> at least be bound by specific contract, while GF right now can make
> arbitrary decisions disregarding Gentoo developers.
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Michał Górny
>

Even if the 501c3 umbrella can be held to a contract (which is highly debateable
and I have not found precedent for it), they still retain the same legal
authority, legal bodies, and decision-making ability that they foundation has.

All that to say, it would have to be one very long and highly scrutinized
document to ensure the ideals, social contract, etc are maintained under the
umbrella.

-- 
Cheers,
Aaron