On Wed, 7 Sep 2005, wayne wrote:
In <200509071340(_dot_)45537(_dot_)jonagard(_at_)amazon(_dot_)com> Jonathan Gardner
<jonagard(_at_)amazon(_dot_)com> writes:
We must incorporate as a non-profit in the United States.
Jonathan:
If I recall correctly, back when the SPF Council was initially being
formed, you also thought that the SPF Council should create a set of
bylaws and constitution and such.
It still should especially as now the work on SPFv1 that was taking
much time is over. Of the people who ran for council last time I
was the only one that though that bylaws should be created first,
but others did not say they should not be created, they just had
different priorities of the work but said that bylaws would still
need to be worked out.
In my opinion now is perfect time to start working on it as I don't
believe we'd be able to sustain the necessary organizational structure
on ad-hoc basis for long as well have recognition and proper contacts
with other organizations without proper structure in place. Additionally
bylaws should define the goals, because right now its all in the air.
I'm not sure if you have changed
your mind on this, or if I'm miss-remembering, but in any case I think
the idea of forming a formal organization runs along the same lines.
Formal non-profit organization is final step when everything else is
finished. And I agree with Jonathan Gardner that it is the only
appropriate way to solicit money for the project (its another question
on if this is needed and to what degree) - not that getting involved
with monetary transactions is not the only reason to have formal
organization, for example decisions who holds project domains and
how hosting is organized would be a lot easier with formal organization.
I think that the informal organization we have right now has worked
reasonably well. It is certainly not flawless, but I think most of
the problems we have run into are not due to the lack of a more formal
foundation, but rather a lack of manpower to do stuff.
I disagree. The lock of manpower is a problem, but the work
would have been better organized and goals and steps in what
is to be done more clear with a better structure.
I think that creating bylaws and a formal non-profit organization
would be a very large amount of work. While I've never been directly
involved, I've seen others go through it and simply getting a rough
consensus on something like the bylaws will likely be as much work as
getting a rough consensus on the SPF I-D was.
It takes time, but its not that bad really. Plus bylaws are not
something set in stone or should be perfect first time around - for
most organizations it takes certain period of time after formation
when they are updated fairly often until stable version is ready.
Heck, I'm not sure how easily it will be to even decide which country
the organization should be formed in.
All active people here are either in US or Europe (I consider Europe
to be one country for many reasons), there is some debate and
comparison to be done, but I don't think it would be a big problem
to decide between A and B.
I am not opposed to having a more formal organization created, but I
think that it will take several people stepping forward and
volunteering to do the work.
For the record, I am not going to volunteer. If you, or others, are
interested, it would be best to step forward.
I'm pretty sure you know 2 people on the list who would be ready to step
forward, but I believe any work really needs to be done by the council
or with formal resolution and approval of SPF Council and involvement of
some of its members.
--
William Leibzon
Elan Networks
william(_at_)elan(_dot_)net
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