Re: Proposed constitution for society (needed for bank account)

[Paul Cooper <pgc openadvantage org>]

----- Thomas Wood <thos gnome org> wrote:
> (not sure if you meant for this to go off-list, but I'm putting it
> back 
> on-list)

Yes, damn reply-to button!

> Paul Cooper wrote:
> > ----- Thomas Wood <thos gnome org> wrote:
> > [snip]
> >   
> >> On the constitution side, I'm still slightly weary about
> restricting 
> >> membership to only those that have already made a contribution. I
> >> don't 
> >> see why being part of GNOME-UK couldn't be the first contribution 
> >> someone makes to the project. Maybe 'significant contribution' can
> 
> >> include using GNOME on a recent and regular basis ;-)
> >>     
> >
> > I think you have to distinguish between membership and participation
> - we would encourage anyone to participate in GNOME-UK, mailing list,
> events, etc. However when it comes to voting for positions in the
> 'society' we need to have some definition of membership, otherwise
> it's open to everyone and anyone in the UK. We could charge membership
> fees - which would probably deter any prankster wishing to crash any
> elections, however it wouldn't stop someone 'buying' a position, and
> besides do we really want to charge for GNOME-UK membership? For
> volunteer based orgs like GNOME(-UK) it makes sense to put the bar to
> membership as a 'significant contribution' where that significant
> contribution is agreed and approved by your peers.
> >
> > So it seems right to me that contribution (more than just joing the
> list) comes before membership, and that the membership is only really
> about protecting the bank account and bureaucracy of GNOME-UK from
> abuse. 
> >
> > Paul
> >   
> As long as we make it clear that:
> 
> * The gnome-uk society membership is not required to participate in 
> gnome-uk.
> * The gnome-uk society only exists to represent the gnome-uk user
> group 
> in an official capacity.
> 
> I suspect then that any contribution (such as helping out with a 
> gnome-uk event) would constitute as a basis for possible membership.
> Off 
> the top of my head I can think of at least half a dozen people that I
> 
> would consider have made contributions to gnome(-uk) but that probably
> 
> aren't foundation members.

Yes, but as I understand it, that contribution is enough to gain foundation membership - GNOME as a whole needs encourage more regular contributors to get foundation membership!

> However, I don't want to get bogged down in details about this
> society, 
> because it just shouldn't be a big deal within the group. Let's have
> the 
> "initial" meeting at LinuxWorld and get the business stuff sorted and
> 
> out of the way. We'll arrange some details of where and when nearer
> the 
> time, but I suspect it will be in a local pub on the evening of the
> 25th 
> October!

Sounds like a plan! Usually there's a .org outing to pizza express that shouldn't be too noisy (at least until after we've sorted out the details).

Paul

> -Thomas


-- 
Paul Cooper                    |  Tel: 0121 634 1620
Assistant Director             |  Fax: 0121 634 1630
OpenAdvantage                  |  http://www.openadvantage.org