Re: [gentoo-project] Questions for Council candidates: Future of the Foundation

["Andreas K. Huettel" <dilfridge@gentoo.org>]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2617 bytes --]

> Q1: What are your feels on the recent history of the Foundation? (last
> 2-3 years)
> Q2: What should the Foundation do more of?
> Q3: What should the Foundation do less of?

A good effort was made to clean up the mess left behind by previous trustees. 
Once the IRS question is definitely resolved, if we indeed have now more cash 
inflow than outflow, we need to figure out how to use the funds effectively.

Funding hardware and services is one thing, but it's not the thing that Gentoo 
is lacking most. In addition, we need to keep the social contract in mind when 
spending the money.

One of my pet projects was already to get Gentoo to sponsor (up to a cap) 
expenses for *one* conference attendance for each new developer. I.e. up to 
XXXX EUR cost reimbursement (travel, accommodation, daily living expenses at 
capped/set rate, similar to what is done for public servants like me) for 
FOSDEM attendance. This might be quite helpful in getting new devs integrated 
into the community.

> Q4: What should become of the Foundation?
> * something not the following list at all?
> * long-term continue to exist as-is non-501c6 state
> * finish 501c6 state
> * convert to 501c3 in some way

If it continues to exist, convert to a tax-exempt state. Preferably 501c3. See 
below.

> * join an umbrella?
> ** what should the selection criterion be?
> * disband entirely
> ** where should the financial holdings go?
> ** where should the copyright & trademark holdings go?
> ** what actions will be impacted by this?

Preferably join an umbrella, transfer assets and disband. For the very simple 
reason that we then avoid the situation of the "double-headed beast" that has 
plagued us in the past. 

I was recruited in 2010, and there was never any doubt for many years that the 
foundation was a mostly passive observer of the distribution, without 
interfering in the daily business. 
In the wake of the idella4 story and the subsequent "takeover attempt", I 
would like to make sure 100% that this never happens again and that developers 
know which elected group steers the distribution (the council).

As Ulrich already states, we do not have much choice in terms of umbrella 
selection. As for the example of SPI (where I know more details), all 
(tangible and intangible) assets could be transferred to SPI, and similarly 
all assets could be transferred *out* of SPI into an 501c3 again if that ever 
becomes necessary.

-- 
Andreas K. Hüttel
dilfridge@gentoo.org
Gentoo Linux developer 
(council, qa, toolchain, base-system, perl, libreoffice)

[-- Attachment #2: This is a digitally signed message part. --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 833 bytes --]