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I am nominating myself for trustee. |
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Pros or cons, depending on the reader: |
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|
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* Developer since 2003 |
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* I'm a vanilla developer with no managerial roles |
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* Independent outsider candidate |
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Here are a few things I see that have room for improvement and I'll push |
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for: |
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|
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* Communication: |
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|
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a) Scheduled meetings with minutes. It may not be required by law for |
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the type of non-profit Gentoo Foundation is, but I think it would serve |
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the foundation and Gentoo community better if all topics and the |
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outcome of votes were made public. Since the foundation has no role in |
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development, I don't think it will need nearly as many meetings as other |
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big OSS projects, although I'm sure this next year will be a busy one |
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since so much needs to be decided. If the number of trustees and |
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timezones make regular meetings impossible, a new system should |
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be put in place for calling votes and making the outcome public. |
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|
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b) Legal - I can understand not making transcripts of conversations with |
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the foundation's lawyers public, but I think the foundation can be a |
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little more informative without giving up lawyer-client confidentiality. |
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There are no pending cases, so I think we can at least give status |
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reports of what has been passed by the lawyers and what is still waiting |
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for review. If you read -nfp you'll see Daniel gave out his lawyer's |
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phone number when he formed the non-profit and said he'd be happy to |
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take calls. So, I think we can loosen up a bit. |
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|
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* Gentoo Store: |
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|
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The store seems to be improving in terms of quality and quantity of |
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merchandise. If I understand correctly, Daniel has a lifetime |
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commitment from the foundation to sell Gentoo merchandise but only has |
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use of the store.g.o domain for one year. I have no problem with |
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Daniel or another third party selling Gentoo merchandise and donating |
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a portion to Gentoo. That is common practice for charities. However, |
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I think this statement on the store website needs to be corrected if |
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its wrong: |
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|
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"All profits from our store will be used to support Gentoo development |
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efforts, server infrastructure, and further our efforts to establish |
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a not-for-profit entity for Gentoo." |
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|
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After reading the -nfp and -trustee archives, I don't see any mention |
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of a switch from running the store for profit to donating all profit to |
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the foundation. |
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|
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Donors and people who buy from the store should have a clear |
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understanding of where their money is going. |
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|
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* Tax exemption status |
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|
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As I said in the thread on -core, I have serious doubts about the |
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foundation being able to become a 501(c)6. I understand the foundation's |
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lawyers are now looking into that. I think that in order for the |
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foundation to go forward with so many things on its agenda it needs |
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to get that legal advice and either continue as planned or bite the |
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bullet and re-form or do whatever it takes to get tax exemption |
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status with the IRS. Some of the legal posts were removed from the |
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archive which contained correspondence with the lawyers, so they may |
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be close to resolving this. I think this should be top priority and the |
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foundation should do what it can to expedite clarification on filing |
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for 501(c)6 so there are no tax problems, fines or worse. |
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|
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* In conclusion: |
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|
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I think this will be a crucial year for the foundation because |
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of all the issues that need to be decided. If elected I'd like to work |
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on fundraising. Specifically research on fundraising ideas and making |
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sure the foundation complies with advice the lawyers give the foundation |
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on IRS law in regards to fundraising. I have no desire to operate a |
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store or become involved with merchandise. |
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|
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Of all the large OSS projects I've looked at, only KDE is not a 501(c)3 |
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(KDE is a German non-profit). KDE and Gentoo are unique among them |
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in that they both have their official entities exist soley for legal |
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purposes and not to direct the development process. KDE by far has the |
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lowest amount in annual donations. Regardless of the tax exempt status |
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Gentoo eventually gains, I'd like to help put Gentoo in a position so |
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we can increase donations to the levels the biggest projects are |
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obtaining. |
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|
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The foundation has achieved as much as it has with almost zero |
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spending thanks to the time and effort of the current trustees |
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and the pro-bono lawyers, so why does Gentoo need money? In |
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addtion to general operating costs, the process of transferring |
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copyright, trademarks, etc. from Gentoo Technologies to the foundation |
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will require more legal wrangling than the average OSS project |
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normally goes through when setting up. If additional legal help |
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is needed we should have the money on-hand. |
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-- |
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Rob Cakebread |
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Gentoo Linux Developer |
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Public Key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x96BA679B |
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Key fingerprint = 5E1A 57A0 0FA6 939D 3258 8369 81C5 A17B 96BA 679B |
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-- |
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