[wellylug] RE: [wlug_org] $$$ to spend etc (was Individual liability from notbeing incorporated)

[jumbophut]

On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 14:51:52 -0700 (PDT), Wood Brent wrote:
> The real, underlying issue is over some sort of ratification for ANY action
> taken by ANY member(s) _ON BEHALF OF THE LUG_. Much of the recent discussion on
> incorporation & liability also concerned this issue, so here is (hopefully) a
> generic proposal to cover the poll & liability issue in the wider sense, so we
> don't have separate guidelines for polls, followed by new ones for every other
> aspect when something goes a bit wrong.
> 

You realise of course that you could incorporate a special society for
very specific purposes (say Brent Wood's Wellylug Event Management
Inc) and use the legal protection it provides to absolve yourself of
any perceived liability.  As long as you don't force the group that
currently uses the mailing lists and attends meetings to join the
society to keep using mailing lists and attending meetings, I don't
see a big problem there.  Nobody could stop you incorporating anyway,
from a legal point of view.  Annual maintenance costs for such an
incorporated society can either be paid by you, or by others who feel
it is a good idea or have benefited from the incorparated status.  You
could even require that people who attend the events specifically
organised through any such society be members.

This way, those of us who just like being an informal bunch of meeting
occasionally meeting to talk about Linux can do that, and those who
feel they need to further the status of Linux, build empires etc., can
do that, without encumbering the unwilling.  If that sounds like
free-loading, you should realise that we currently pay _nothing_ for
the meeting/mailing lists because of corporate generosity, so
non-members of an incorporated society would not be being
cross-subsidised by members for the core Wellylug activities.

If it had been clear from the start that this is how we do things,
then there would have been no argument about how to spend installfest
proceeds.  Those who organised it would have been entirely entitled to
decide what to do with the money.  If organised on behalf of an
incorporated society which does special Wellylug events, the IRD would
probably want to see any money be retained or given to charity.  If
organised purely by a few individuals, they could split it and take it
home.  But as it is, everyone -- including a great many who had
nothing to do with the installfest -- have been drawn into the
discussion.

Okay, I'll say no more on the main list.  This should really be on
wlug_org, where I wouldn't have seen it (and therefore wouldn't have
got a bee in my bonnet).

-- 
Tony (echo 'spend!,pocket awide' | sed 'y/acdeikospntw!, /l at omcgtjuba.phi/')