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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Andrew,<br>
I hope that you can monitor this email thread we are having, and
potentially suggest options with regards to LocationTech.<br>
<br>
On 14/11/2012 3:03 AM, Peter Batty wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAPJXf1U1J6za3fa-huDp7dDyRpLphaZoRjz+rJNPyX_2ww3fAA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">I have the same question as Jachym - could someone
provide a summary with more information on what we have been doing
with our sponsorship program? During my year on the board I don't
recall much if any discussion, or activity on this that I've been
aware of. If someone could explain a bit more background and
history on the program that would be helpful to me, and I suspect
to some others.
<div>
<br>
</div>
<div>I'd also agree with Cameron's observation that *perhaps* some
of this discussion may tie in with the discussions on how we
relate to Eclipse LocationTech. It could be that if we decide
not to set up a for profit subsidiary at this time, maybe there
is some way to collaborate with Eclipse on sponsorship programs.
I'm sure there will be some strong views on that and I'm not
advocating for or against it, just saying that I think it may be
worth thinking about as we consider various options here. Would
there be a way we could designate an "OSGeo sponsorship program"
but have Eclipse run the finances of that for us? Or is that
giving up too much that we want to "own"? Or on the other hand
is it too much overhead to set up and manage a for profit
subsidiary, when we have very little focus on fund-raising or
appetite for it during the time I've been on the board.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>These are very fundamental questions about what we want OSGeo
to be in the future, and I think it's quite hard to make
progress on these (and especially hard to reach conclusions) via
email or IRC. Where do we stand on having a face to face board
meeting, which is something we said a while ago we would
organize once the new board was in place? It seems to me as
though a face to face meeting of most of us at least might be
the best way to try to reach some conclusions, if we can get
together reasonably soon.</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 1:14 AM, Jachym
Cepicky <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:jachym.cepicky@gmail.com" target="_blank">jachym.cepicky@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Daniel,<br>
<br>
thank you very much for taking care of this. The explanation
you<br>
provided seems to be quite clear even to me (European, with
as much as<br>
no-tax law knowledge).<br>
<br>
One question from my side: how active as or is at the moment
our project<br>
sponsorship program?<br>
<br>
Thanks<br>
<br>
Jachym<br>
<br>
Dne 9.11.2012 05:51, Daniel Morissette napsal(a):<br>
<div class="HOEnZb">
<div class="h5">> Hi Board,<br>
><br>
> I spoke to our attorney last week and got some
answers to Frank's<br>
> questions below which I also had:<br>
><br>
><br>
> On 12-10-30 1:23 PM, Frank Warmerdam wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> It would be helpful to have some sense of:<br>
>> - the cost/complexity of setting up a "for
profit" subsiduary.<br>
><br>
> The cost of setting up a corporation is low. It is
the accounting and<br>
> whatever professional support we use in managing it
that is the main<br>
> cost (expect 5k$ to 10k$ per year?). My advice for
the future will be to<br>
> use a book keeper and accountant to manage OSGeo
stuff instead of trying<br>
> to do things ourselves as we have in the past.<br>
><br>
> I know we've discussed and agreed to this before,
but the problem is<br>
> that being canadian I do not know any book keeper
and CPA that knows the<br>
> US law (I can point you at several canadian ones
though), and the quote<br>
> we got earlier this year from an organization
specialising in this kind<br>
> of admin services was way too high. More research
will be required on<br>
> that front.<br>
><br>
><br>
>> - the practicality and implications of us
opting instead of 501(c)6<br>
>> status.<br>
><br>
> Sounds like c6 is not an option for us either. And
anyway it seems that<br>
> our type of org would not be a good fit for a c6
which is for "Business<br>
> Leagues, Chambers of Commerce, Real Estate Boards,
etc." i.e. a group of<br>
> corporations working on a common goal which is NOT
providing a direct<br>
> business advantage to any of the members. Our
members are not businesses<br>
> so that solves the question.<br>
><br>
> The issue is not one of c3 vs c6, it's about being
a non profit of any<br>
> category. Non profits (c3 or c6) are simply not
allowed to engage in<br>
> activities that would compete with taxable
corporations. Those taxable<br>
> corporations (e.g. proprietary software vendors)
are complaining to the<br>
> government that open source foundations with a c3
status compete with<br>
> them with an unfair advantage... that's the root of
the problem.<br>
><br>
> It seems that our only option if we want to
maintain the project<br>
> sponsorship program is to move it to a taxable
subsidiary (for profit<br>
> corporation) which would be 100% owned by the 501c3
foundation. It could<br>
> even return all of its profits (if it makes any) as
a donation to the c3<br>
> foundation.<br>
><br>
> With respect to the FOSS4G, my interpretation is
that we could possibly<br>
> keep FOSS4G inside the c3 foundation if we treat
the booth and<br>
> advertizing revenues (a small subset of the FOSS4G
sponsorship amounts)<br>
> as "unrelated business income" (UBI). There is a
cap of max 15% of your<br>
> total revenues/donations as a c3 that can come from
UBI. I also believe<br>
> that you need to pay taxes on UBI.<br>
><br>
> e.g. on a 5k$ sponsorship which includes a booth
and a 1/4 page ad, we<br>
> would treat e.g. 500$ for the booth and 500$ for
the ad as UBI, and the<br>
> remaining 4000$ as a donation. It would actually be
even better to avoid<br>
> the ads and just include "thank you" notes in our
program and<br>
> banners/slides. That would leave only the booth
revenues to deal with as<br>
> UBI.<br>
><br>
><br>
>> - the tax implications for us of failing to
achieve any sort of<br>
>> 501(c)x status. (ie. will we have a big back
tax bill)<br>
>><br>
><br>
> I got some hints but no clear answer on this.<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> So the question we need to ask ourselves now is:<br>
><br>
> "Do we want to maintain the project sponsorship
program and setup a<br>
> taxable subsidiary for it, or do we drop the
project sponsorship program<br>
> completely?"<br>
><br>
><br>
> I think the taxable subsidiary is manageable, but
to justify it, we'd<br>
> need to put more efforts in the project sponsorship
program since at<br>
> this time it is mostly dormant. (OpenLayers and
GRASS are interested but<br>
> I've kept them on hold, and GDAL is... well, quiet)<br>
><br>
><br>
<br>
--<br>
</div>
</div>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">Jachym Cepicky<br>
Help Service - Remote Sensing s.r.o.<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:jachym.cepicky@gmail.com">jachym.cepicky@gmail.com</a><br>
HS-RS: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:jachym@hsrs.cz">jachym@hsrs.cz</a> <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://bnhelp.cz"
target="_blank">http://bnhelp.cz</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://les-ejk.cz"
target="_blank">http://les-ejk.cz</a><br>
<br>
</font></span><br>
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</blockquote>
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<br>
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<br>
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<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.lisasoft.com">http://www.lisasoft.com</a>
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