Re: GNOME Foundation budget (Oct 2010-June 2011)

[Frederic Muller <fredm gnome org>]

On 08/03/2011 08:41 PM, Karen Sandler wrote:
> On Wed, August 3, 2011 2:50 am, Frederic Muller wrote:
> 
>> Why is it difficult to just give a rough number at end of our financial
>> period ('09 or '10) and be done with it for now?
>>
>> The GNOME Foundation obviously hasn't complied to state laws for years
>> (by not making the required form available to the public) and you seem
>> to enjoy not answering foundation members as well. What about the
>> statement on our financial page:
>> "For comments or questions on the data, please contact the GNOME
>> Foundation Board of Directors. "
>>
> 
> I'm sorry that you weren't responded to more quickly and were frustrated,
> and I hope you understand that, as Germán says, he is only a volunteer
> treasurer.

Dear Karen,

I didn't want to answer on this point but since you're emphasizing it
here are my thought on it: I am a volunteer myself and has run
GNOME.Asia Summit for the GNOME Foundation a couple of time and serve as
president on the board of Software Freedom International, another
non-profit registered in the USA. I do that as a volunteer and if I
didn't have the time or the professional skills to do it, then I should
leave my seat to someone who has.

Serving as treasurer for the GNOME Foundation (and board of director) is
a big responsibility and refusing to answer a simple question (how much
cash do we have), emphasizing it will be done "later" seems to me to be
a totally different issue. Serving as treasurer also means a certain
commitment to the task and stating you are just a volunteer as an excuse
maybe means that German should consider letting someone with more time
on his hands to do the job. But again this is a different issue and not
something I wanted to talk about (you did).

> 
> I'm obviously not on the board (and also new here) but I wanted to respond
> because you mentioned being out of compliance with state laws. I believe
> the form need only be made available on request in order to meet the state
> requirements. While you definitely requested an important piece of
> information, you didn't specifically ask to see the last 990 or the form
> 1023, both of which would overall have less relevant financial information
> than what was circulated by Germán (even if the 990 had an ending
> balance).Many nonprofits choose not to put their 990s up on their websites
> and are not in violation of state laws to my knowledge. California does
> make form 990s available directly on their website without registration,
> but those forms are often not the best way to see the financial position
> of a nonprofit anyway because of the reporting format. So long as a
> nonprofit provides the forms when asked (they don't have to do it
> instantly and can also charge a reasonable fee for doing so), they are in
> compliance with the rules.  I think GNOME seeks to do better than that,
> which is why the more detailed information was circulated to members.

I wasn't requesting this form, please do not 'misquote' me. I was
highlighting government regulations (IRS website should be a good
reference no?) which says " An exempt organization must make available
for public inspection its exemption application". It does not stipulate
how to do it, it just says we have to do it. And so I showed how others
are doing it and said maybe we should do the same.

Now failing to get a crucial information about the budget and our
financial status (how much do we have, so we know how much we can spend)
and feeling the reluctance to supply such information which I am sure
German have on his mind even if approximate (and some other people who
also didn't respond) I thought it was important to remind the board that
we are not complying to government regulations by not supplying those
forms (through whatever mean) as well.

Anything else in your email is twisting my request or justifications
about not doing the right thing for the GNOME Foundation.

I am sure all GNOME foundation members expect us to be a transparent
organization (it was pretty clear from the questions during the board
elections this year) and this is something we need to work on.

Sincerely,

Fred

> 
> I'm glad that you found the information you wanted ultimately and thanks
> for the suggestion to publish the 990s and to improve the budget report.
> 
> karen
> 
>