[Linux-aus] Linux Australia Donations Scheme!

[Anthony Towns]

Anand Kumria wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 13, 2005 at 02:05:23PM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:
>>We're trying to be pretty careful about how we do this, so we don't make 
>>too much work for ourselves, don't break the law, and don't tread on 
>>people's toes; so any comments would be appreciated!
> Why wasn't this also sent to announce at linux.org.au, surely something like
> this deserves wider exposure?

Well, so that questions like these can be addressed first is one reason :)

>>Samba and Debian have talked with Linux Australia a few times in the 
>>past about using our facilities for accepting donations, so they were 
> No, 'Debian' hasn't spoken with LA.

Martin Michlmayr, the Debian Project Leader has.

> Do we really want to do this on their behalf and inadvertedly become
> their treasurer (note: I'm assuming that by 'Debian' you mean Software
> in the Pecuniary^WPublic Interest (SPI) since no such 'Debian' legal
> entity exists) -- the LA treasurer has a much better handle on things.

Funds for the use of the Debian project are held by SPI 
(www.spi-inc.org), by ffis e.V (www.ffis.de), and by ASL in Brazil 
(http://psl-rs.softwarelivre.org/ perhaps). In any case, the funds will 
remain managed by Linux Australia, and spent as authorised by the Debian 
Project Leader; SPI isn't involved.

>>the obvious first step. If there are other projects who've got an 
>>immediate use for or interest in this please feel free to contact the 
> What of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), Linux Professional Institute (LPI),
> Apache Software Foundation (ASF), Gnome/KDE Foundations? Are they being
> considered at all or should they be suggested?

They should certainly be suggested if they're interested.

I wouldn't have thought accepting funds on behalf of the FSF would be 
terribly useful -- happy to be proven wrong of course. Linux Australia 
already has strong ties with LPI, but afaik they'd rather people spend 
money on getting themselves or others certified, than in collecting 
donations.

>>We'd really like to get some experience with collecting money, and 
>>getting it spent on useful things for projects -- so if you've recently 
> This sounds like you are going to collect and spend the money on behalf
> of this organisations? Wouldn't it be simpler to collect the money on
> behalf of these organisations and then forward it to them to spend how
> they wish.

Depends on the project; for Samba it looks like we'll be forwarding it 
in lump sums to the Samba Team, which is an Australian based non-profit 
with their own bank account etc. For Debian, we'll be managing the money 
directly, since they don't otherwise have a presence in Australia, and 
the funds are intended/expected to be mostly spent in Australia. What 
we're doing with Debian should be a good learning experience for how we 
might be able to manage funds for smaller, informal groups of developers 
in future.

Cheers,
aj