[Board] Legal Entities for OSGeo

[Cameron Shorter]

Board,
I'm in favour of the sentiment of Arnulf's suggestion, namely that we 
should try to avoid having the legal constraints of one country 
constrict the scope of OSGeo-International.

In practice, I'm in favour of selecting Daniel's option B for taxation 
purposes:
/B- A non-profit 501c3 foundation with the educational focus, and drop 
completely the project sponsorship program and any other taxable 
activities (restricting ourselves to non-profit educational 
activities)... note that a conference like FOSS4G, other than for the 
(minor) sponsor advertizing aspect that comes with it, is a guenuine 
educational activity, so that should not be a problem /

For purposes such as fund raising, I think we should be working with 
sister organisations, be they an OSGeo local chapter, LocationTech, OGC, 
or something else.

On 14/11/2012 4:19 AM, Daniel Morissette wrote:
> I agree that OSGeo global needs to have a legal status somewhere in 
> order to deal with money. And in this world dealing with money is 
> unavoidable, so I am not in favor of getting rid of the current setup. 
> We "just"(?) need to find a way to clear up our legal status and set 
> things straight for the future.
>
> Daniel
>
>
> On 12-11-13 12:14 PM, Paul Ramsey wrote:
>> That's all well and good, but
>> (a) we've been earning money for many years in a USA organization, so
>> the tax status will affect if that organization owes back-taxes,
>> presumably
>> (b) we'll continue to earn money via FOSS4G in whatever jurisdiction
>> we earn it and that will have tax implications in whatever
>> jurisdiction that is
>> So, the legal status of the international organization has to be 
>> settled.
>> P.
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 8:30 AM, Landon Blake
>> <sunburned.surveyor at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I just read Arnulf's post about OSGeo as a global organization, and
>>> the appropriateness of persistently pursuing tax-exempt status for the
>>> OSGeo in the US. Arnulf invited us to send our comments here, and I'm
>>> taking him up on that invitation.
>>>
>>> I really appreciate his comments, which made me think about the issue
>>> in a new way. I agree wholeheartedly with the concept in his posting.
>>> It would make sense to have OSGeo members here in the US pursue legal
>>> status for some branch of the OSGeo if that is needed, and not
>>> restrict our global organization to the legal requirements for that
>>> status. Perhaps the ball could be carried by the California Chapter,
>>> or by the North American Chapter (do we have a North American
>>> Chapter?).
>>>
>>> At any rate, I wanted to voice my support for Arnulf's line of
>>> thinking and offer to support any effort to have US members of OSGeo
>>> handle the issue of organizing some legal body for US tax issues.
>>>
>>> Landon
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Board mailing list
>>> Board at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>> _______________________________________________
>> Board mailing list
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>>
>
>


-- 
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
http://www.lisasoft.com

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