[Linux-aus] [LACTTE] Changes to the Constitution to be voted on at the AGM

[Russell Stuart]

LA members,

Early this year a conference organiser suggested Linux Australia
become a registered Charity as that would have made it easier for some
of the organisations he approached to sponsor his conference.  Later on
Stripe told me the same thing: it would be much easier to grant LA the
not for profit discount (automatic in fact) if LA was a registered
charity.

The council sort advice on this from our Auditor and Account.  Both
advised becoming a charity would have no material effect on how LA is
run.

Consequently the executive has put in application to
https://www.acnc.gov.au/ to make LA a charity.  The ACNC then told us
our application can not proceed until include some clauses they require
in our constitution.

You can find the discussion on the proposed pull request here. Put
in your own 2c worth if you wish:

    https://github.com/linuxaustralia/constitution_and_policies/pull/38

No changes can be accepted after Dec 30th, as our constitution requires
21 days notice of any proposed change.  My apologies for the short
discussion period.

The current text adds the following section to the constitution, but
beware the pull request is the authoritative version of the changes:

 43. Objects of the association
 
 (1) The objects for which the association is established are:
 
   (a) to facilitate the communication of information relating to
       inventions, results, techniques, and governance of open source;
 
   (b) to support open source projects and the creators of open 
       source;
 
   (c) to support and promote the adoption of open source;
 
   (d) to support and promote awareness and understanding of 
       open source;
 
   (e) to conduct open source advocacy with the government, business
       and civil society;
 
   (f) to create a network for related local and online open source
       communities.
 
 (2) The association must pursue charitable purposes only and must
     apply its income in promoting those purposes.
 
 (3) The association must manage payments and gifts to the association
     and ensure that they are used to further the stated objects of
     the association.
 
 (4) In the event of the Organisation being wound up, its assets must
     go to a charitable entity whose objectives aren’t inconsistent
     with the stated objects of the Organisation.




-- 
Regards,
Russell Stuart
Treasurer, Linux Australia
+61 438 805 133
http://www.humbug.org.au/RussellStuart