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

[Alex Hudson <home alexhudson com>]

On Thu, 2006-07-27 at 12:22 +0200, Rob Bradford wrote:
> This is derived from the Debian UK one which was happily accepted by the
> bank. In terms of banking, Debian UK opted for the Co-Op since they have
> quite a good deal for societies. There was a lot of hassle because not
> all the signatories could get to the same branch to open the account at
> the same time. Once this obstacle is overcome it should be plain
> sailing.

This is basically how AFFS was setup. It's ok, _except_:

      * Co-op need a lot of paperwork to change signatories, which is
        annoying;
      * No internet banking on free software

I would suggest at least investigating other less-sucky alternatives.
NatWest used to do a clubs account.

> 12. Should society membership drop below six members or should it not
> prove possible to elect a committee then an EGM will be called to
> attempt to elect a committee. If this second meeting fails to result in
> enough members or a society committee as required, funds will be
> defaulted to Software in the Public Interest earmarked for Debian.

I rather think this needs editing; "defaulted to the GNOME
Foundation"... ?

> The way I imagine this tying in with hosting GUADEC is that two members
> of the GUADEC organising committee (e.g the chair and the treasurer) are
> both nominated as delegates by the committee and can then have access to
> the bank account. Once the main account has been opened i'm sure it will
> be easy enough to persuade the same bank to open an associated account
> for GUADEC.

I wouldn't count on the latter statement. Opening accounts is rather
difficult these days. 

Cheers,

Alex.