Subject: I met with my lawyer
Newsgroups: gmane.linux.gentoo.nfp
Date: 2004-04-16 21:16:30 GMT (5 years, 11 weeks, 1 day, 7 hours and 43 minutes ago)
Hi Guys, I met with my lawyer and this is the tenative plan for the not for profit. In this plan, I am attempting to balance the commitments I have made to individuals with my desire to see Gentoo proceed on the best possible footing. I am sharing this with you all so I can get feedback and suggestions. I also need to get this NFP set up in the next few days so it's important that suggestions are shared soon and are focused on some implementable change to this plan. (Ie. This isn't a good time to start a long discussion about some tangential topic that could eat up a lot of our time and not assist in refining the plan below.) Gentoo Foundation, Inc. proposal The purpose of this foundation is to hold the intellectual property of the Gentoo free software project. It will have a board of trustees. This not-for-profit will be an open membership trade association. Trade associations (unlike charities) can be more restrictive in their requirements for membership. Membership will be limited to Gentoo developers. The criteria for being a Gentoo developer will be determined by the board of trustees. There will be no membership dues. There will be an initial board of trustees appointed, which will be selected to meet my commitments to existing managers and developers. This initial board of trustees will serve for one year from the establishment of the Gentoo Foundation, after which point a the board will be elected by the members (Gentoo developers.) After that, regular elections will be held (election cycle TBD) to determine board members. The Gentoo Store will pay for the establishment of this not-for-profit. The Gentoo Store will also pay for the Gentoo Foundation's application for 501(c)(6) federal trade association status (~$5000 or so?) Gentoo Technologies, Inc. will transfer the copyrights and trademarks to the Gentoo Foundation. In exchange, the Gentoo Foundation will grant Daniel Robbins & Gentoo Technologies, Inc. perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free use of the "Gentoo" trademark and "G" logo. This will allow me to continue to run the Gentoo Store if I want. I will be a member of the initial board of trustess, to give legitimacy to the Gentoo Foundation and also show my commitment to the future success of this entity. If you have any suggestions for improvement or for coordinator/project lead structure, try to see if you can suggest it so that it can work in the context of what I've just outlined above. Sincerely, Daniel