[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Evergreen foundation (again)

[Lori Ayre]

That's great Elizabeth.  I think the community would like to hear more and,
more importantly, learn how they can get involved.  I think it would be
prudent to have representatives from several Evergreen projects involved in
the formation of any foundation.

Lori

On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 6:44 AM, McKinney, Elizabeth <
emckinney at georgialibraries.org> wrote:

>
>
> The Georgia Public Library Service is currently working towards forming a
> foundation to which the licenses and trademarks for Evergreen can be
> transferred. After the Evergreen conference we identified a viable avenue
> for forming a foundation, and we have jumped at the opportunity. There is
> nothing further to report at this moment.  We will keep everyone in the loop
> as this develops.  We are very happy to see interest from the community.
>
> Elizabeth McKinney
> PINES Program Director
> Georgia Public Library Service
> A Unit of the University System of Georgia
> 1800 Century Place, Suite 150
> Atlanta GA 30345
> 404.235.7141
> emckinney at georgialibraries.org
> http://www.georgialibraries.org/
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Catherine Lemmer" <clemmer at library.IN.gov>
> To: "Evergreen Discussion Group" <
> open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org>
> Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 9:35:44 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Evergreen foundation (again)
>
>
>
> I am in favor of a foundation and would be willing to work on a
> committee to review the existing options and/or set up a new foundation.
> In one of my past lives, I did a good deal of legal work for non-profits
> doing exactly this--establishing 501(c)(3) corporations.  I would tend
> to be counted among those that would find a stand alone Evergreen
> foundation, rather than a joint Koha/Evergreen/all other open source
> software, best way to proceed.   I simply believe that the market forces
> that are involved do not make one universal foundation a possibility.
>
> Catherine
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org
> [mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of
> Hyman, Ben EDUC:EX
> Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 11:10 PM
> To: open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org
> Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Evergreen foundation (again)
>
> I concur entirely with Dan (thanks for reviving this discussion Dan),
> and would love to see the community celebrating the creation of just
> such a Foundation at the conference in Grand Rapids. Perhaps that's
> being unrealistic, but sooner is better, IMHO. I suppose Foundation
> establishment should precede celebration...perhaps an exploratory work
> group could be nominated by the community?
>
> Ben Hyman
> Manager, Library Policy & Technology
> Public Library Services Branch, Ministry of Education, BC
> Phone 250.387.4043 or Toll Free 800.663.7051
> ben.hyman at gov.bc.ca <mailto:ben.hyman at gov.bc.ca>
> www.bced.gov.bc.ca/pls/ <http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/pls/>
>
> From: Dan Scott <dan at coffeecode.net>
>
> Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 4:22 PM
>
> Subject: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Evergreen foundation (again)
>
> To: Evergreen Discussion Group
> <open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org>
>
> There was a brief discussion shortly after the Evergreen Conference
> about the possibility of setting up an Evergreen Software Foundation [1]
> and most recently a proposal to set up a joint Koha + Evergreen
> foundation (which is probably a function better served by something like
> http://www.code4lib.org/ <http://www.code4lib.org/>  in any case).
>
> I posted a response to George's blog post [2] about the difficulties
> that the Koha community has undergone recently and their renewed effort
> to establish a foundation, but in that context I would like to revive
> the discussion about an Evergreen Software Foundation by suggesting that
> if such an entity is formed, it should roughly have the following
> responsibilities:
>
> * Hold the trademarks, logos, and evergreen-ils.org/open-ils.org related
> collateral in trust for the use of the community
>
> * Extend the community's development capacity (for example, by funding
> the creation of developer training tutorials and workshops, where
> development should be defined broadly to include documentation,
> usability, design, testing, etc)
>
> * Coordinate joint funding for the development of new features
>
> * Organize the Evergreen International Conferences
>
> Further, I suggest that we would be foolish to turn down the Software
> Freedom Conservancy's [3] offer to serve, for free, as the 501(c)(3) [4]
> shell organization that would be able to hold the collateral and
> financial assets in trust for the foundation, and would accept donations
> to the foundation and maintain corporate records and file the tax return
> (again, for free). It has been stated several times that "it's not that
> hard to file the paperwork for a 501(c)(3)", but I would argue that an
> advantage of the Software Freedom Conservancy is that it is a neutral
> entity.
>
> [1].
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.education.libraries.open-ils.general/1258
> <http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.education.libraries.open-ils.general/1258
> >
>
> [2]. http://www.parser.ca/z678/2009/09/16/koha-manoeuvres/
> <http://www.parser.ca/z678/2009/09/16/koha-manoeuvres/>
>
> [3]. http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org/
> <http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org/>  - "As a fiscal sponsor for
> FOSS projects, the Conservancy provides member projects with free
> financial and administrative services, but does not involve itself with
> technological and artistic decisions."
>
> [4]. As a Canadian, I don't care about 501(c)(3) status because I get no
> tax advantages from it.
>
>
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