[maemo-community] Draft Bylaws for Maemo Non-Profit Entity

[From: twilight312 at gmail.com]

On wto 10 lip 2012 18:06:32 CEST, robert bauer <nybauer at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> In order to continue the community at www.maemo.org in the future, it
> will be necessary to migrate much of the infrastructure and associated
> elements to a new site and to establish a separate entity for that
> purpose.   See generally http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=84933. 
> The attached bylaws are proposed for discussion.   Please note that this
> is primarily a legal document and this is not the appropriate place to
> discuss many of the issues associated with the actual migration of the
> community.
> 
> The first thing you may notice is the name.   Because Maemo is trademarked
> by Nokia and we don't want to experience problems, or even delay, while
> the issue is worked out, we have decided to suggest Hildon Foundation as
> the name.   There is also a recognition that Maemo may be regarded as
> having commercially tarnished by Nokia's negligence of the software, and
> so it might be good to use a different name in any event.   Either one of
> the domain names www.maemocommunity.org and www.hildonfoundation.org
> have been registered and will be available for the community if we
> choose to use them.
> 
> Because this is a legal document, the discussion of the mission is
> broadly stated in historical context so that the entity has much
> flexibility. Although Maemo and Hildon are mentioned, this should not be
> regarded as any implication at all that Qt, Harmattan, CSSU, Cordia, kp,
> or any other specific software related to Maemo will not be supported by
> the entity.
> 
> The operations of the NPE allow it to cooperate with Nokia, Jolla, or
> other commercial entity.   However, the entity is obligated to itself
> permanently be an open source organization.
> 
> Perhaps the section of most interest and discussion will be Membership
> and Governance.   It is suggested that we keep the present "open" nature
> of the maemo community to the extent practical.   But this is not meant
> to be predetermined and alternative structures may be proposed and
> adopted. It is also unknown whether a voting mechanism opf the current
> maemo infrastructure will continue to be available.   The composition of
> the initial Board also needs to be carefully determined and this is
> surrounded by brackets.
> 
> The finances and budgets will be worked out once the entity is in place
> and can establish a bank account.
> 
> The jurisdiction does not dictate the location of the servers or
> repositories, or the nationality of the Board members.   Pennsylvania is
> suggested because it has more lax requirements than Delaware and better
> suited for smaller organizations.   Europe is also available and so the
> jurisdiction is surrounded by brackets.   The main considerations are
> speed and start-up costs.
> 
> Council discussed a prior draft of the bylaws at its July 6 meeting and
> you may refer to the logs for that discussion.   Please don't take
> offense if an issue important to you has not been mentioned in this mail
> - please raise it and discuss it as you wish.
> 
> Rob (SD69)
---

One of the main issues is method and date of electing Board. While in document, a cadence of one year is suggestem, I'm pretty sure that - for transparent continuity - first election for board of directors, should be held at expected date for Council election (i.e. Council transparently migrates to Board).

Personaly, I think that - for historical and practical reasons - we should keep Community Council name. Hoever, most foundations - like KDE - have Board of Directors. Such details are to be decided by Community.

/Estel
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