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In the interest of full disclosure I make the following points. |
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|
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1. I am a business owner. |
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2. I work regularly with a CPA firm |
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3. I work regularly with attorneys specializing in contract law, tax |
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law, and IP law, but I am not an attorney. |
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4. I joined the Gentoo Foundation as an officer at the time of the |
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crisis (09/2008) to assist in the recovery of the Foundation. |
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5. The Gentoo Foundation has been and is in good standing with NM, |
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having filed all necessary documents on time since I joined. |
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6. I live in the US. |
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7. The Gentoo Foundation has been completely transparent regarding |
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finances since the recovery. |
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|
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|
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William, |
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|
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I appreciate your perspective regarding the Gentoo Foundation. |
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Unfortunately, the main reason the Foundation has not achieved proper |
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status with the IRS is directly due to the irresponsibility and/or |
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negligence of the former (pre-2008) board of trustees. I do not say |
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this to be mean-spirited, please note. This irresponsibility is |
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manifest in the fact that correct status with the IRS was not filed |
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within 27 months of the start of the organization, which would be |
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sometime in 2004. It is that simple. This has in fact been a huge |
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obstacle to the development of the Foundation as a non-profit entity. |
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I was not involved with Gentoo, except as a user, during that time. |
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Now, you have made and continue to make many claims in your various |
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statements regarding the Foundation, some are quite novel while others |
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are rather unhelpful. Its completely true that the Foundation is not |
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what it could be. I perhaps recognize this more than others given that |
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I work closely with non-profits on a daily basis and know what the |
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world holds in store for a fully operational 501(c)(3) Gentoo |
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Foundation. I understand your frustrations regarding action and/or |
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inaction within the board, but you must realize that the Foundation is |
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not a dictatorship. We, the board I mean, are working together towards |
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the common goals of Gentoo, while taking on a rather large legal |
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responsibility. You make many valid points regarding the need for |
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financial professionals, etc, and I can assure you that I have used my |
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CPA for many things Gentoo, paid for out of my own pocket. I am happy |
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to do that for now, since paying an actual CPA to handle an |
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organization like the Gentoo Foundation can cost in excess of $1200 |
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per month. I think you may agree that the Foundation cannot afford |
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this. The values you quote for income are skewed since Google paid us |
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for previous years GSoC. The actual income of the Foundation on a |
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yearly basis averages less than $12,000. Further, I have used my |
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attorneys for various bits and the Foundation has been assisted by the |
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SFLC on various issues. |
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|
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As I see a few more emails from you coming down the line, I will |
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address those now. You are stirring the pot, sir. Please refrain from |
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this as it does no good. You are attempting to scare people by your |
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statements and I will not stand for it. Its quite clear that you are |
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misinformed regarding the status of the Gentoo Foundation with the |
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IRS. We, due to what I mention above, never received non-profit or |
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tax-exempt status. In fact, that has been very difficult, and it's |
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something we have been working on for many months now. |
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|
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The Foundation is in no real danger. Yes, we will likely have some tax |
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penalties to deal with, however the Foundation's income has been well |
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below federal minimums, so those penalties will be low. This is |
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especially true if we are able to make a convincing case regarding why |
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the Foundation did not observe the 27 month guideline in our 1023 |
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application. |
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|
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All of this is actually being dealt with by competent individuals, |
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despite what you may believe. What was left by the old trustees was a |
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mess that will take awhile longer to sort out, but have no fear we |
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will sort it out. |
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|
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Lastly, I am preparing a proposal for review by the other board |
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members that will address much of what you are taking issue with, as I |
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believe at this point its time to bring in some funded professional |
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assistance. I would highly encourage you to review the logs of our |
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past meetings as I think you will see that we are addressing most if |
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not all of your concerns. |
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|
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Thank you very much for your interest in the Gentoo Foundation and its |
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continued health. |
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|
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Kind Regards, |
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Matthew Summers |
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-- |
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Matthew W. Summers |