Re: [gentoo-nfp] Nominations open for the 2007/08 Trustees

[Ned Ludd]

On Tue, 2007-07-17 at 10:08 -0500, Grant Goodyear wrote:
> Ned Ludd wrote: [Mon Jul 16 2007, 04:00:44PM CDT]
> > Long term I worry about the foundation. No offense to anybody. I'm sure
> > I don't know or understand the problems you/we have encountered along
> > the way. But I think we need to face it 99.9% of our devs are not
> > suited to run a foundation such as this. That's not a bad thing in any
> > such way. Most of us came to this project cuz we are geeks doing geeky
> > things is what we do best..
> > I'm sure some of you get roped into doing the foundation because
> > you truly love Gentoo and want to see things be taken care of. However
> > to be frank. I don't think I've seen a single substantial thing
> > accomplished sense cshields left Gentoo. Please don't take that the
> > wrong way. I know we are all busy people. Perhaps you guys have done
> > shitloads and I/we just don't know about it. Perhaps it's still the same
> > old story.. We are waiting on ABC banks. We can't re-incorp without
> > XYZ first.
>
> Actually, we have a bank, paypal successfully talks to it,

Thats good to hear about paypal/banking. And it's good to know 
that you guys are still there looking out for Gentoo. 

> and
> I believe that we're completely caught up w/ all of the various funding
> requests that we've received.  You're point is still a good one,
> however.
>
> > Anyway point I'm trying to make here is that I think we might be
> > better off using a 3rd party as our foundation. IE people who have
> > the experience/motivation and time to focus on such things
> > that a foundation should be.
> >
> > Anyway. I'd like to nominate nobody in-house.
>
> Yeah, I tend to agree.  Not-so-coincidentally, Gentoo's been invited to
> join the Software Freedom Conservancy, which would provide just the sort
> of 3rd-party management that you're suggesting.  I put a write-up on my
> blog detailing what we know so far:
>
>     http://www.grantgoodyear.org/g2blog/gentoo/20070717-sflc.html
>
> I'm cross-posting to -dev, and suggesting that comments be sent
> there as well, since most people don't read -nfp.
>
> If you think this is a good idea, a bad idea, or you just want to know
> more, now's the time to express your opinion.
>
> -g2boojum-

We're happy to discuss methods that have worked for other projects with
you to help you select the solution that is right for you.

I defiantly think this makes the most sense for Gentoo at this time.
One area that seems a tad fuzzy in details is how Gentoo would handle 
dealing with Paragraph 6 - Representation of the Project in the
Conservancy. If we went to FSC route. Should we bother in even having a
foundation? If so what role shall it play other than to be the liaison
between internal funding requests? I think clearly it would not be the
best of ideas to allow all our devs unilateral spending abilities.
Would you mind inquiring about the "methods that have worked for other
projects" ? 

We are a 501(c)6 right now if I remember correctly and that has been a
limiting factor in us receiving donations in this past. By teaming up
with them we gain the 501(c)3 status. That seems like a good thing in
and of itself as it allows our sponsors to write off donations to 
the project. Which in turn could lead to a lot more donations, which 
then turns into Gentoo being able to offer bigger and better things 
at the end of the day.

Thanks for taking the time to work with them, and informing us that 
the foundation is still active (it's somewhat hard to tell sometimes).

-- 
Ned Ludd <solar@g.o>
Gentoo Linux

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