Xfce Foundation status

[Johannes Lips]

On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 9:30 AM, Auke Kok <auke at foo-projects.org> wrote:

> On 10/13/2010 11:42 AM, Jannis Pohlmann wrote:
>
>> Hey everyone,
>>
>> I am currently working on some of the documents required to create a
>> non-profit organization for Xfce under German law (so it would be
>> called "Xfce e.V." or "Xfce Foundation e.V." to give it more of an
>> international touch). This mail reports the progress I made lately and
>> there are a few questions I'd like you all to think about and help me
>> answer at the bottom of the mail as well.
>>
>> The benefits are obvious: Xfce would become a legal entity with an
>> official board of directors and we could raise funds in the form of
>> donations and via supporting members in order to organize hackfests
>> etc.
>>
>> I've been in contact with the president of the KDE e.V., Cornelius
>> Schumacher, and have been granted permission to re-use their articles
>> of association (German: Satzung) for Xfce. You can read the KDE
>> version on
>>
>>   http://ev.kde.org/corporate/statutes.php
>>
>> Based on this I created a draft for Xfce. So far I only have a
>> German version ready, but I basically replaced "KDE" with "Xfce" (or
>> "Xfce Foundation" where appropriate) and fixed a few typos. I also
>> changed the time board members are elected for from 3 to 2 years as I
>> think 3 years is a bit too much. We could even say 1 year here.
>>
>
> can we read the draft you created?
>
http://gitorious.org/xfce-foundation/xfce-foundation-documents
I hope it is ok to paste this link!

>
>  The draft is not finished yet but I have a few questions for you anyway
>> (please read KDE's articles of association first):
>>
>>   * Do you think all this makes sense?
>>
>
> yes
>
>    * Does a German e.V. (which is a non-profit organization registered
>>     in Germany) sound like a reasonable type of organization for Xfce?
>>
>
> any country can fit, as long as Xfce has a reasonable presence (IOW,
> there's people to take care of stuff).
>
>    * Would you prefer "Xfce e.V." or "Xfce Foundation e.V." to be the
>>     name of the organization?
>>
>
> foundation
>
>    * For how many years do you think the board should be elected?
>>     3, 2 or 1?
>>
>
> 3, unless there's all of a sudden an unmanageable amount of money going
> through here. In the start of a foundation, consistency for the first period
> helps. After that, it's less important.
>
>    * There is one clause about where the raised money should go in case
>>     the e.V. is abandoned. The KDE people have decided to forward all
>>     their money to UNESCO. I have come up with a few alternatives.
>>     Which of the following organizations would you prefer the money to
>>     be handed over to in case the e.V. is closed?
>>
>>       UNESCO, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, WWF or OLPC?
>>
>>     You can of course make your own suggestions if you want to.
>>
>
> UNICEF, by far, the best choice imo. If you have kids you understand.
>
> I strongly suggest a UN-affiliated organization or an international
> focussed non-provocative organization (so no greenpeace). Please pick
> something noncontroversial that everyone agrees on is a good cause.
>
> I would rephrase this and allow people to select multiple choices, and we
> pick one that the most people would agree on. Or rather, turn it around: ask
> people to pick from a list which entries they think are inappropriate or
> they do not wish to donate to, then pick all the entries that nobody (or the
> least) amount of people pick.
>
>  Please help us by answering the questions. If this makes sense for most
>> of you and the questions are answered, I'll proceed in finishing the
>> paperwork.
>>
>> The founding process itself involves a formal meeting in real life
>> with at least 7 persons attending. As it seems unrealistic to organize
>> such a meeting with Xfce-only people from all around the world before
>> the end of the year, I propose that I organize this meeting in
>> Lübeck, gathering a few local Xfce users or friends. During this
>> meeting they would sign a resolution that says the board of directors
>> will be re-elected shortly after the e.V. has been registered. In this
>> re-election we can then establish people more deeply involved in Xfce
>> as board members. (And we would of course decide not to take money from
>> e.V. members, so anyone can become part of the whole thing.)
>>
>> How does all this sound to you people?
>>
>
> I suggest picking a conference and planning something on the side, perhaps
> in line with 1-2 talks on Xfce, such as FOSDEM. Isn't FOSDEM coming up early
> next year again?
>
> Auke
> _______________________________________________
> Xfce4-dev mailing list
> Xfce4-dev at xfce.org
> http://foo-projects.org/mailman/listinfo/xfce4-dev
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-dev/attachments/20101014/a2aa5887/attachment.html>