I thought the response below was very interesting. I'm going to send a
response tomorrow, but does anyone have any insights/concerns I should
address? Thanks -Eric
-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Daniel Robbins <drobbins@gentoo.org>
To: Eric Jahn <eric@ejahn.net>
Cc: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org
Subject: Re: Timeframes for Gentoo to Become a Non-profit Org?
Date: 10 Aug 2003 15:38:03 -0600
On Sun, Aug 10, 2003 at 10:34:23AM -0400, Eric Jahn wrote:
> Hello Daniel,
>
> I wish to know what has been done towards Gentoo achieving non-profit
> status. I think it is crucial for the gentoo system to become
> non-profit, considering the volunteer support it receives. This
> question is directed at Gentoo management.
OK. Right now we are in the research stage. At LinuxWorld, I had some good
conversations with Ian Murdock of Progeny (and, of course, previously of
Deb"ian") and Ean Schuessler, President of SPI (the not-for-profit of which
Debian is a project,) as well as others. The conversations were extremely
helpful and productive. I don't view the transition to a not-for-profit
entity to be a trivial process. We don't want to repeat mistakes that have
been made in the past, and want to preserve the integrity of the Gentoo
project. The mission for the not-for-profit is being formulated as we
speak. There are two parts to the not-for-profit -- vision and
implementation -- and we are being very careful with each part.
Implementation will happen when we're ready, but we've learned from
experience that rushing doesn't always produce the best results.
> Most non-profits start their work and declare themselves as non-profits
> before getting an IRS Employer Identification Number/Tax ID as a
> non-profit. Why hasn't Gentoo done the same?
Because Gentoo Technologies, Inc. was initially created to handle my article
writing contracts for MacMillan and IBM developerWorks and not for Gentoo
Linux, and creating a 501(c)(3) at the inception of Gentoo Linux (when it
had a handful of users) would have been premature. And between the "tiny"
stage and the "huge" stage that we currently find ourselves in, we have been
focusing almost exclusively on the technical aspects of Gentoo and making
Gentoo the best possible distro for our users. Our 501(c)(3) efforts have
been held up for almost a year due to some people pushing for 501(c)(3)
status for less than noble objectives (read: commercial interests.) These
issues have recently been resolved so we are now making rapid progress
in the not-for-profit area.
The overwhelming majority of free software projects accept volunteer help
and do not have official not-for-profit entities set up to oversee them.
This only becomes an issue when the projects get "huge." Gentoo got "huge"
awfully fast, and we're still catching up.
In a private email, maybe you could introduce yourself, who you are, and
what your interest and current involvement in Gentoo is? I can't find any
record of you on our bug tracker or mailing lists, except for an almost
verbatim copy of this email that you sent to our -dev mailing list, to which
I am cc'ing a copy of this email.
Best Regards,
-- Daniel Robbins Chief Architect, Gentoo Linux http://www.gentoo.org______________________________________________
Hello Daniel,
I wish to know what has been done towards Gentoo achieving non-profit status. I think it is crucial for the gentoo system to become non-profit, considering the volunteer support it receives. This question is directed at Gentoo management.
Most non-profits start their work and declare themselves as non-profits before getting an IRS Employer Identification Number/Tax ID as a non-profit. Why hasn't Gentoo done the same?
My questions are what are Gentoo's self-imposed deadlines for non-profit status?
Who in the government on what date has been contacted so far, and what forms have been filed, could a copy be posted on the web?
Every non-profit has a mission. What is Gentoo's 501(c)3 mission?
Gentoo has a management structure. 501(c)3s have boards. Who is on the Gentoo Board?
Who is drafting the non-profit bylaws?
I will gladly undertake the administrative task (except for signing of course) for Gentoo management if they need some help with this stuff.
As a frame of reference on the timelines, I have seen non-profit teen pregnancy centers with one half-time volunteer register themselves for non-profit status within about a month.
Thanks for spending time responding to this. Thanks!
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