LoCo governance and incorporation policy?

[Melissa Draper]

Christer Edwards wrote:
> On Mon Sep 10, 2007 at 06:19:30PM +1000, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
>>> When this suggestion has arisen in the past, as far as I know our
>>> policy on local teams setting up unincorporated associations or even
>>> incorporated associations has been that it be strongly discouraged.
>>> Although the issue hasn't been discussed in detail recently as far as
>>> I know, personally I would remain of that view.
>> We had this debate over a year ago in Ubuntu-Au. We came to realise that 
>> maintaining any kind of official association would introduce an 
>> administrative burden that could threaten to turn a fun community project 
>> into a chore.
>>
>> The moral: keep things loose, keep things fun :)
> 
> This is the stance of the US Teams Project but we keep getting people popping up crying about
> needing it.  All of the established and approved teams within the US have functioned without funding
> or liability coverage.  If something from higher-up can communicate these additional "chores" as
> very highly discouraged it would be appreciated.  Apparently some of the new teams are not listening
> to the US Teams leadership.
> 

Since I became involved in the LoCo Project numerous teams have asked
this question, and each time I have advised against it.

For a volunteer team, it brings into play many extra responsibilities
(maintaining records), costs (accounting, legal fees, registration fees)
and risks (audits).

If the aims of becoming a registered/incorporated organisation are for
monetary and liability purposes, I'd sooner recommend seeking the
establishment of a national partnership and/or committee at a national,
_project-agnostic_ level. By doing this, it establishes a singular
national point for the funds acquisition, and accounting/legal paperwork
obligations.

An example of the above is the (poorly named) Linux Australia
(linux.org.au) committee which is a takes the role of umbrella
organisation for LUGs and F/LOSS project Special Interest Groups within
Australia by providing liability and grants. It raises funds by holding
the famed annual linux.conf.au conference, and sponsorships.

As far as the US Teams project is concerned, if a similar organisation
does not exist, I'd strongly recommend entering into a discussion with
somewhere like the Software Freedom Law Center about the possibilities
of establishing one. I'd also chance that Google, Mozilla, Sun, etc
would be willing to participate in something that would benefit the
entire F/LOSS landscape, as well as their own individual projects.

-- 
Sincerely
Melissa Draper

http://www.meldraweb.com

Phone: 0404 595 395
(intl): +61 404 595 395

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Lavington, NSW 2641