Re: GNOME Foundation paperwork

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

Robert Humphreys <rob collab net> writes: 
> I also wanted to solicit feedback on the idea of using Nat's "manifesto"
> as a "mission statement" or addendum, etc.
> 

IIRC from looking at the legal steps to incorporation, the only two
legal documents that describe this sort of thing are the 
mission statement - which is basically a paragraph or so justifying to
the IRS why you are a nonprofit charity, you have to explain how you
benefit society, etc. - and the bylaws - which should be a minimal 
statement of how the organization is organized.

What legal document would the manifesto be part of? It's an awful lot
of stuff to make legally binding, I would think only the bylaws should
be legally binding. The book Elliot bought said that mission
statements justifying nonprofit status are traditionally short and
vague, to keep from restricting the organization's activities.

Havoc