[Qgis-psc] Improving the effectiveness of my role

[Andreas Neumann]

Hi,

>> How about splitting the marketing from the financing. Effectively there
>> is a split already these days - as Horst does a lot of the finances.
>>
>>
> How do you mean 'split'? The intention is that PSC members self organise
> their teams to achieve their tasks, which Paolo has done by co-opting
> Horst. But I think it is still important that Paolo have direct visibility
> into the bank accounts and keeping of books otherwise we are basically
> asking him to do his job in the dark.

As far as I know - with the current not so optimal configuration we have
the shared bank account between QGIS international and QGIS-CH. To my
knowledge only Horst and I have direct access to the bank account. But I
assume that Horst forwards information to Paolo or Paolo asks Horst to
do payments.

I think the person financially in charge for QGIS international should
have direct access to the bank account. Something we will achieve with
the new organization.

>> As to the country to have a legal entity I think Switzerland would be a
>> good place. It is relatively easy to found an association. There is
>> however a threshold value regarding taxes. If the association has a
>> total revenue >100'000 CHF it has to pay taxes. Also you have to pay
>> taxes on profits (excl. membership fees) if those are not re-invested.
>>
>> There are also other forms of legal entities, e.g. a "Genossenschaft"
>> (like a cooperative), which is a bit more formal than an association but
>> still on the non-profit side.
>>
>> Switzerland also honors the European banking norms - they are even more
>> European than the EU countries, as some EU banks still ask for
>> transaction fees for cross-border SEPA transactions while most of the
>> Swiss banks don't.
>>
>> In any case, we will have to do accounting and taxes at some stage.
>>
>>
> Andreas would you be willing to go through the process of creating such an
> organisation for us? I think it is important that whatever we establish can
> support the idea of salaried members at some point in the future - I would
> like to see that at some point we have people working full time to pursue
> the interests of QGIS and paid for by the non-profit. I guess that is
> supported by these types of non-profit entity?

I can look into the different options and can come up with a proposal. I
guess when we want to employ people the simple association (Verein)
perhaps is not good enough. I would have to investigate. Perhaps the
"Genossenschaft" (cooperative) would be a better form of legal entitity.
This is quite popular in Switzerland - the goal of the Genossenschaft is
to offer cost-effective solutions to its members and

Both associations and cooperatives usually have memberships or shares,
although the membership fees may be quite small - something to discuss.

Genossenschaften (cooperatives) can be of any size. e.g. the number 1
and 2 supermarkets (Migros and Coop) or some banks (e.g. Raiffeisen) are
organized as a Genossenschaft. Also the major car-sharing pool in
Switzerland is a Genossenschaft where you have to be a member for being
able to rent a car. It offers more transparency and does not generate
huge profits or reinvests the revenues.

If we start employing people in all sorts of countries I have no
knowledge about the tax and insurance situation. It could get rather
complicated. It would be easier to start with freelancers where the
people are themselves responsible about paying taxes, welfare, health
insurance, etc.

Andreas