Re: GUADEC Sponsorship price increases

[Anne Østergaard <anne oestergaard nu>]

ons, 10 01 2007 kl. 18:11 +0100, skrev Dave Neary:
> Hi Paul,
> 
> Paul Cooper wrote:
> <snip>
> 
> > These all seems reasonalbe to me, although there were some concerns
> > expressed about the figures that Bastien set, in that they might move
> > above 'normal' people budget threshold and require very senior
> > management and therefore be harder get and take longer to approve.
> > However Bastien seemed confident from his experience in and with big
> > corps.
> > 
> > This also brings another question / issue. We've been debating how to
> > setup Gnome-UK to deal financially with GUADEC. Should we create
> > what's called here a clubs and societies account or should Bastien,
> > Thos, and I create a limited company, hire an accountant (as
> > recommended in Quim's HOWTO), and get a 'company' bank account (and
> > then wind it up and send any surplus to the foundation). Or just let
> > the Foundation hold all the money, with the downside that since it's
> > US based, we have to do some convaluted currency transfer for each
> > transaction and thereby lose a chunk of the sponsorship to the banks
> > charges.
> > 
> > Guidance from the Board on which (or another) road to take would be
> > welcome. Also how would the Board like us to report GUADEC progress -
> > I'm happy to join the conference call at a specific time or submit a
> > monthly progress report?
> 
> If guidance from the board is what you want, then guidance from the
> board is what you shall get :) /me opens the floor.
> 
> For progress reports, once a month is more than enough. A short email
> splitting things up into separate streams (say, conference schedule,
> marketing, volunteer organisation, accommodation, receptions,
> sponsorship/finances?) would be brilliant. A projected budget for the
> conference will help, if you can keep one and keep it up to date.
> 
> It's especially important that we're in the loop during delicate periods
> where the financial risk is the highest - securing the site, deciding a
> provisional travel budget for participants (which sponsorship catches
> up), putting you in contact with keynote candidates if we can. There are
> 3 board members on the GUADEC lists so as long as your process is open
> (all meetings are minuted pretty quickly, all discussions and decisions
> documented) we should be pretty well in the loop.
> 
> If you have questions (especially of a financial or confidential
> nature), then going straight to the board or guadec-planning will do
> grand. And if you feel there's a need, don't hesitate to ask for a few
> minutes of a board meeting to present particular concerns (we'll return
> the favour).
> 
> For the company, here's my two cents: you will need a bank account to
> receive money locally. I'd recommend against it being a private bank
> account. You will need to be very very careful about the tax
> implications (both for the structure you create, if any, in the UK, and
> for the foundation). If possible, I would recommend that all money go
> through an account owned by GNOME-uk (if one exists). If you don't have
> one, then partnering with an association might be the easiest thing to
> do - say linux.org.uk?
> 
> I don't know if the overhead of creating a limited company and opening a
> company bank account is worth it - and that path certainly creates the
> greatest number of questions for me in terms of tax implication (an area
> I don't know squat about, and which scares me a little.
> 
> For those tax questions, we would probably have to ask our accountant
> and/or lawyer about it - in the meantime, I've added the Legal list as a
> CC so that they can comment.

This kind of bank and tax regulations differs very much from country to
country even within the EU. So you have to find out about the UK.

I was able to create an account for an organisation in my personal name
in DK with guidance from my bank. But one has to be very careful and be
quite sure one does not have to pay any personal income tax for the
income from the event- or cover a possible loss. (The terms in DK said
for the bank to not pay anything if there was no money in the account.
We might also need temporary credit till the money comes into the GUADEC
2007 account.


DKUUG in Copenhagen 2001 also covered the financial risk for the GUADEC
event. As well as the handeling of the sponsor money etc. As I wrote in
an other mail today.

Best

Anne