[Board] Second letter/report from our attorney on 501(c)3/6/4 status questions

[Jachym Cepicky]

I agree as well. Forming association like this, makes sense actually
only from business point of view (why to have foundation, for going for
beer together?) - we are creating and maintaining certain industry -
even community driven - and so, we need OSGeo (among others) as
platform, which somehow speaks for the industry.

The fun and community aspect is very important to us, but from
legal-government-official point of view,  "common business interest" is
the one, what defines us to (some) outside world people.

But take this as note from non-native English speaker, who does not
understand the finesses of the language deeply enough.

Jachym

Dne 15.8.2013 04:42, Peter Batty napsal(a):
> I lean to Daniel's interpretation too, that a c6 might be the best fit. But
> either one sounds promising.
> 
> 
> On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 8:38 PM, Daniel Morissette <dmorissette at mapgears.com
>> wrote:
> 
>> Personally I read it the reverse way as you:
>>
>> First the c4 is in theory for public benefit and outr problem is that our
>> activities provide too much private benefit (David raised that
>> contradiction in his letter)... so c4 wouyld work for us only because it
>> also tends to be used as a catch-all by the IRS.
>>
>> I'd lean towards c6 because I read somewhere that c6 "are characterized by
>> a common business interest, which the organization typically promotes", I'd
>> tend to take business in a wide sense here (I don't think the IRS is
>> worried about hobbyists) and consider that all OSGeo members are "open
>> source GIS professionals" at one level or another, that's their "business",
>> whether they are doing it as a hobby, in academia, for business, for a
>> non-profit, or as part of their day to day non-GIS job, I'd treat them all
>> as FOSS GIS professionals, and OSGeo is there to look after their common
>> "open source GIS professional" interest.
>>
>> But in the end at this point I don't care about the semantics as long as
>> we get approved for one or the other and for good reasons so that we don't
>> lose our status in an audit in a few years, so I'll go with whatever the
>> majority thinks makes the most sense within the limits of the advice of our
>> attorney.
>>
>> Daniel
>>
>>
>>
>> On 13-08-14 10:21 PM, Jeff McKenna wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks Daniel.  I agree it is more clear now.
>>>
>>> My opinion: Just from reading around today it would seem that c6 would
>>> not apply to OSGeo because I don't believe we fit the Industry
>>> Association definition, as in that case (his words) "people and
>>> companies involved are primarily there for shared commercial and
>>> business purposes" is not always true in our case.  For that reason I
>>> believe we should be applying for c4, as a foundation that 'promotes
>>> social welfare' (as opposed to solely focusing on business interests).
>>>
>>> -jeff
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 2013-08-14 10:46 PM, Daniel Morissette wrote:
>>>
>>>> Board,
>>>>
>>>> Here is (attached PDF) a copy of the written responses of our attorney
>>>> to the follow-up questions and discussions that I had sent him after
>>>> receiving his first letter/report earlier this week. You'll notice that
>>>> we had also forwarded to him the info about OpenNTF getting 501(c)4
>>>> status that Jeff shared on this list earlier today, so this info is
>>>> discussed in his responses as well.
>>>>
>>>> I invite you to read through it before the board meeting (in 1.5hrs) if
>>>> you can. What I read there is very reassuring and tends to confirm that
>>>> switching our current application to 501(c)6 or 501(c)4 might be the way
>>>> to go for OSGeo.
>>>>
>>>> See you all on IRC
>>>>
>>>> Daniel
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  ______________________________**_________________
>>> Board mailing list
>>> Board at lists.osgeo.org
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>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Daniel Morissette
>> http://www.mapgears.com/
>> Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000
>>
>>
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>>
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Jachym Cepicky
Help Service - Remote Sensing s.r.o.
jachym.cepicky at gmail.com
HS-RS: jachym at hsrs.cz http://bnhelp.cz
http://les-ejk.cz

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