Xfce Foundation status

[Jérôme Guelfucci]

On 17/10/10 16:48, Jannis Pohlmann wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 15:06:19 +0200
> Jérôme Guelfucci<jeromeg at xfce.org>  wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 10:57 AM, Jannis Pohlmann<jannis at xfce.org
>> <mailto:jannis at xfce.org>>  wrote:
>>
>>      So, I'm summing up below:
>>
>>      On Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:42:22 +0200
>>      Jannis Pohlmann<jannis at xfce.org<mailto:jannis at xfce.org>>  wrote:
>>
>>       >  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?
>>
>>      Consensus seems to be: yes, this makes a lot of sense. Which in
>> turn makes me happy of course. :)
>>
>>       >    * Does a German e.V. (which is a non-profit organization
>>       >  registered in Germany) sound like a reasonable type of
>>       >  organization for
>>      Xfce?
>>
>>      Everyone seems fine with a German e.V. as long as there will
>> always be someone to take care of the paperwork. There are a lot of
>> German Xfce users who I know personally and there have always been a
>> few German people deeply involved in Xfce as long as I've been
>> around. So I guess a non-profit organization under German law should
>> be fine.
>>
>>       >    * Would you prefer "Xfce e.V." or "Xfce Foundation e.V." to
>>       >  be the name of the organization?
>>
>>      A few concerns have been raised about the "Foundation" vs.
>>      "Association" issue. The majority, however, has expressed "Xfce
>>      Foundation e.V." to be their favorite name. So be it then.
>>
>>       >    * For how many years do you think the board should be
>>       >  elected? 3, 2 or 1?
>>
>>      Some have said 3 for stability reasons, the consensus is that 1
>> year is too short (the main reason being our rather long release
>> cycles in the past). I think 2 years is a good compromise, so let's
>> say 2.
>>
>>       >    * 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.
>>
>>      The majority has made a different suggestion: the Free Software
>>      Foundation. Thematically, this makes a lot of sense. It's a signal
>>      that, even if Xfce should ever disappear, our efforts still will
>> be aimed at supporting the free software ecosystem.
>>
>>      I've updated the corresponding paragraphs in the document. I've
>> also removed the clause that the FSF would have to contact the German
>>      finance office before any use of our money. I think that's not
>>      necessary and we should rather trust the FSF in that they will put
>>      our money to good use.
>>
>>       >  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.)
>>
>>      This has been a bit controversal. I can totally understand the
>> desire of some to make turn kick-off meeting into a big celebration
>> and to be part of that of course. However, the most important part of
>> this whole process is to agree on initial articles of association,
>> which we have been doing here. The rest is formalities that I don't
>> consider a big deal.
>>
>>      I think there will be enough reasons and opportunities to
>> celebrate the creation of the e.V. even after it has been registered
>> because that's when we'll really notice the benefits.
>>
>>      Ok, that's it for now. I'll be making some phone calls to collect
>>      more information on the actual registration process in the
>> following one or two weeks.
>>
>>      Cheers,
>>      Jannis
>>
>>
>> As long as we organize an election right after the registration  (is
>> this legally possible, or dowe have to wait for 2 years?), I don't
>> care about who signs the paper. But as Christian said we need a board
>> of people who know Xfce and are willing to make things move forward,
>> not random people.
>>
>> If we can't change the board right after the creation, I think it
>> would be better to wait and/or gather the right people to sign the
>> paper.
>
> Yes, my thoughts exactly. My plan is to
>
>    1. register the e.V. with a temporary board of directors
>    2. approve membership for a number of people from Xfce
>    3. announce new board elections
>    4. have a few Xfce people run for the board of directors
>    5. dismiss the temporary board, replace it with people from Xfce
>
> And I think that will be easily possible without waiting for 2 years. ;)
>
>    - Jannis
>

Great, everything is fine for me then!

Cheers,

Jérôme