Re: advisory board & announcement update

[Frank Hecker <frank collab net>]

kelly@poverty.bloomington.in.us wrote:
> On Tue, 08 Aug 2000 15:21:20 -0700, Bart Decrem <bart@eazel.com> said:
> >To avoid disputes. You're in a club and you're getting kicked out -
> >so we give you a refund for the time you're not going to be part of
> >the club.
> 
> >From a legal standpoint, this is a bad idea.  It suggests that
> membership has some tangible value.  My understanding is that
> membership is intended to be a way to show support financially, and
> not intended to provide any substantial tangible benefit to the
> member.  By giving refunds, you create a reliance interest and make it
> sound like you're selling a service instead of running a voluntary
> organization.
> 
> Down this road lies lawsuits.  My advice is, don't travel it.

This sounds like reasonable advice, however I think it's worth
discussing this just a little more. On the one hand, since the advisory
group has no decision-making power (and prospective members should have
been made aware of that), any money contributed by a company joining the
advisory board is presumably to be interpreted as an unconditional
donation to the foundation, one which cannot and will not be refunded
under any circumstances. (Similar to when you or I give money as a
charitable gift without receiving any consideration in return; as far as
I know we don't have the right to go and demand our money back, at least
in the U.S.)

On the other hand, there are some identifiable benefits associated with
advisory board membership. First, the company presumably gets things
like a listing on a foundation-related web site, perhaps with corporate
logo included, and similar listings in printed material. Second, the
company presumably gets some sort of special access to the foundation's
board of directors, etc., e.g., through being invited to limited-access
meetings not open to just any company. So it does seem to me that the
company is indeed receiving some sort of consideration in exchange for
its donation, and this at least to me is moving closer to the "selling a
service" idea that Kelly mentions as being problematic.

I still see Kelly's point about not refunding advisory board donations
(I almost wrote "advisory board membership fees", but that again brings
up the "quid pro quo" aspects of this); however in order to limit
potential misunderstandings, if existing advisory board members may be
ejected by the board without refunds being made then I think the policy
needs to be made clear up front to prospective members.

Frank
-- 
Frank Hecker            work: http://www.collab.net/
frank@collab.net        home: http://www.hecker.org/