Gentoo Archives: gentoo-nfp

From: Corey Shields <cshields@×××××××.edu>
To: gentoo-nfp@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-nfp] CDs and t-shirts
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 13:58:36
Message-Id: 200404260857.35372.cshields@indiana.edu
In Reply to: [gentoo-nfp] CDs and t-shirts by Daniel Robbins
1 Wow. Okay, I get the feeling that I am treading in places where I am not
2 welcome, but my question remains unanswered. Instead of paraphrasing
3 anything, I will use direct quotes from now on. When I said "Daniel's debt",
4 that was representative of debt, living expenses, you name it. I'm sorry, I
5 won't make that mistake again.
6
7 "the Store would be used to support me and my family in our ability to
8 cover _basic living expenses_, and *potentially* help pay off *some* (notice
9 I did use the word *some* in my original email) accumulated debt. That is
10 probably more wishful thinking than anything. That's why I used the word
11 "potentially." People seem to have focused on the fact that I mentioned the
12 word "debt" and ignored the main thing I said."
13
14 This is fine, I am glad to see you doing this. Aside from the fact that
15 running the store is tedious and gets old, you should continue to run it for
16 the very reasons you mentioned. I would go so far as to suggest some kind of
17 pay-pal-athon to help diminish the $20,000 quickly, else with the store
18 proceeds you'll be paying mostly interest.. I thought I was on your side
19 with this issue, but appearantly I hit a button or something.
20
21 The question remains: Will you be taking the paypal donations with you as was
22 agreed upon with the store, "to support me and my family in our ability to
23 cover _basic living expenses_, and *potentially* help pay off *some* (notice
24 I did use the word *some* in my original email) accumulated debt." or will
25 the paypal donations feed the Gentoo project through the new NFP?
26
27 If I am digging too deep with these questions, then I'll stop and unsubscribe
28 from the list. I like to think that my concerns for Gentoo and the NFP are
29 more than the average user, but I'm quickly getting the feeling that I need
30 to butt out and go back to playing the end user. On the other hand, I hate
31 to think that I am the only person with these questions on my mind.
32
33 -Corey
34
35 On Monday 26 April 2004 01:49 am, Daniel Robbins wrote:
36 > Corey wrote:
37 > > What about paypal donations in regards to the NFP transition?
38 > > The proceeds from the store will go towards Daniel's debt, and that
39 > > has been agreed upon.
40 >
41 > This is not an accurate summary of what I said. What I said is, and I
42 > quote:
43 >
44 > "OK. The purpose of this is to allow me to continue to support my family by
45 > doing things like pay for a house, pay for food, and potentially pay off
46 > some of the $20,000 in debt I accumulated during my tenure as Chief
47 > Architect of Gentoo, etc."
48 >
49 > So, to make try to make this impossible to misunderstand -- what I said is
50 > that the Store would be used to support me and my family in our ability to
51 > cover _basic living expenses_, and *potentially* help pay off *some*
52 > (notice I did use the word *some* in my original email) accumulated debt.
53 > That is probably more wishful thinking than anything. That's why I used the
54 > word "potentially." People seem to have focused on the fact that I
55 > mentioned the word "debt" and ignored the main thing I said.
56 >
57 > The main reason for continuing to run the store is to ensure that my family
58 > has its basic living expenses covered. This NFP transition involves some
59 > financial risk on my part. I need to make sure my family doesn't get hurt
60 > in the transition. This could happen if the funding I am currently
61 > receiving to work on Gentoo full-time disappears. This would be very hard
62 > for my family, since as I've pointed out, I have $20K in debt. We have no
63 > savings, investments or retirement at all. I have no money to pull from if
64 > I lose funding. If I were just a single guy then I could justify making
65 > some risky decisions, but I have a wife and two small children and they
66 > shouldn't have to suffer due to any risky decisions I make. Making a smooth
67 > transition that works for the NFP and my family involves some careful
68 > planning on my part.
69 >
70 > > Will the donations go into an account that gets controlled by the NFP?
71 >
72 > Another thing I explained in prior emails is that the Store would continue
73 > to cover the costs associated with setting up the 501(c)(6), and the legal
74 > fees by the time this is completed would probably be around $7-$10K (also
75 > including misc. legal stuff and continuing costs associated with federal
76 > trademark apps, logo usage agreements etc..) I'd hope that donations could
77 > go towards paying these tabs before we look at re-routing this money to set
78 > up an operating budget for the NFP. It really isn't enough for any kind of
79 > real budget anyway.
80 >
81 > I think I'm going to avoid answering financial questions because the stuff
82 > I have already said gets misinterpreted and distorted. I don't want to
83 > continue to participate in what seems to be an unavoidable downward spiral
84 > of confusion. It doesn't seem to be helping anyone. I really do try to be
85 > clear in my emails, but that doesn't seem to be enough.
86 >
87 > To be honest, after having to put my financial situation in writing, it
88 > seems rather stupid for me to be making any kind of personal commitment to
89 > keep the store running and get the money to cover $7-$10K of Gentoo legal
90 > fees. It would probably be best if I get a job as soon as possible and bail
91 > out of Gentoo after the NFP is set up next week, and leave the NFP to
92 > continue running the store and arrange its own funding for the 501(c)(6)
93 > application process. But that would be really high-stress for everyone and
94 > is what I am trying to avoid.
95 >
96 > Daniel
97 >
98 >
99 > --
100 > gentoo-nfp@g.o mailing list
101
102 --
103 Corey Shields - IU Unix Systems Support Group
104 http://ussg.iu.edu/~cshields
105
106 My PGP/GPG public encryption key is at:
107 http://www.ussg.iu.edu/~cshields/cshields_pub_key.asc
108 GPG fingerprint: 78A8 E5EB E455 0A90 F392 59BC A6AF F8A3 A304 1453
109
110 --
111 gentoo-nfp@g.o mailing list

Replies

Subject Author
RE: [gentoo-nfp] CDs and t-shirts Daniel Robbins <drobbins@g.o>
Re: [gentoo-nfp] CDs and t-shirts Sven Vermeulen <swift@g.o>