Re: [gentoo-nfp] [Discussion] Refiling as a tax-exempt nonprofit.

[Matthew Thode]

On 20-07-21 13:22:10, Michał Górny wrote:
> On Mon, 2020-07-20 at 15:50 -0700, Alec Warner wrote:
> > The board had previously discussed this opportunity (including talking to
> > the CPA about it) but I think we didn't really gather a consensus about it
> > in 2019. I have not heard much about it in 2020 and I want it to raise it
> > again as we begin fiscal 2021.
> >
> > I'm more open to this idea than I was in the past but I continue to have
> > concerns about recruiting board members who will execute the duties
> > required. While we could keep the current board when we create a new
> > Foundation I'm curious how we could recruit additional members in the new
> > Foundation.
>
> I don't know if it's worth the effort.  The effort is better put into
> disbanding GF and making Gentoo more sustainable, than making it harder
> to keep GF afloat when we have a very bad track record of dealing with
> the 'easier' variant.
>

What entity would hold the copyright/trademark for Gentoo, not even
getting into how infra would pay bills if they can't accept donations
(donations which have to be accounted for wheter or not we are a
non-profit).

> As I've said in the other thread, it looks that we're spending 7% of our
> cash donations on the CPA.  Our bookkeeping is suffering from a bus
> factor of 1.  We aren't really effectively spending our donations
> because we aren't really sure what we can spend it on.
>

Reporoting does not go away (or get too much worse) if we refile as a
non-profit.  We are seeking quotes and hoping to engage someone this
year for bookkeeping (increase that bus factor).

> The way I see it, this will only become worse after the change.  Surely,
> we might get more money.  But will we actually spend it on Gentoo,
> or hoard it and spend it mostly on operational costs?
>

At the moment we were not making big spends primarily (on my part)
because we want the tax situation cleared up (we wanted cash on hand in
case something surprised us).  Now that has mostly been complete (we
caught up but need to start a pattern) I'd say we can be a bit more
comfortable making some spends.

> >
> > Some thoughts:
> >  - We could recruit outside members of the board who are not Gentoo
> > Developers, but had advocacy from other OSS projects.
> >  - We could try to recruit or modify the way individuals are recruiter as
> > Gentoo Developers, to make it easier to attract board members.
> >
>
> I don't really see how this changes anything.  If someone from 'outside'
> would like to help out with Foundation (were any voices about it heard
> so far?), I don't see why he wouldn't be able to join as an officer,
> then get membership in return for the services rendered.
>
> Unless your purpose is to lure people into becoming board members, so
> that the implied responsibility would make them have to do some work.
>  We all know how that worked in the last years.  I don't see how
> changing the pool from developers/existing foundation members to random
> people from outside would suddenly change the trend.
>
> The problem is finding people who *want to* and *can* help, not finding
> people who want to become board members and then maybe they will be
> forced to help 'or else'.  Because these people won't help out, they
> will only make things worse by blocking changes just so they could keep
> their position.
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Michał Górny
>

-- 
Matthew Thode (prometheanfire)