[Fsfe-uk] Minutes of FSFE-UK List, 18th November 2001

[Loic Dachary]

Minutes of FSFE-UK List, 18th November 2001

Attending
        Marc Eberhard <address@hidden>, Birmingham
        Andy Fletcher <address@hidden>, Cambridge
        Brian Gough <address@hidden>, Bristol
        Georg C. F. Greve <address@hidden>, Hamburg
        Philip Hands <address@hidden>, Reading
        Alex Hudson <address@hidden>, London
        Alasdair G. Kergon <address@hidden>, Reading
        Matthew King <address@hidden>, London
        M. J. Ray <address@hidden>, Norfolk
        
The Agenda of the meeting was only one item: the formation of a
UK-centric Free Software organisation, with a view to associating with
the Free Software Foundation Europe. Thus, the items discussed are
those directly concerning the details of such an organisation.

Aims of the Organisation

The main aims of the organisation were roughly enumerated to be:

        Promoting Free Software in the UK 
        Developing links with the UK media organisations
        Protection of Free Software in the UK.

However, it is noted that similar organisations to this have already
set out their aims in more detail than we would be able to list
quickly; hence it was agreed to form the aims from those already set
out by other organisations, rather than re-invent the wheel.

[Action 1 (ALL): look at the aims on the FSFEurope web site]
[Action 2 (ALL): look at APRIL statute concerning these aims, and other similar 
organisations]

Organisation Form

The choice appears to be between an 'industrial provident society', or
a 'private limited company'. There was some discussion on the pros and
cons of the two forms; generally, people were interested in the idea
of an provident society (since this is more obviously an organisation
dedicated to some cause, and has more social connotations than
commercial), however, many people felt more comfortable with the idea
of a Limited Company, due to greater experience with such a
structure. AGK pointed out that the UKUUG (UK Unix User Group) was
setup using a Limited Company as the legal device. In AGK and MJR we
have two advocates for the differing structures, but a decision was
not reached due to the lack of sound legal advice available, and the
wish to look further into provident societies.

A charitable organisation was considered, but rejected due to the
strict limitations on the political activity placed on such an
organisation. It was pointed out that this would be better suited to
the FSFE UK Chapter, when that is formed, as it would complement the
Associate organisation and have the benefits of tax relief on
donations, etc.

[Action 3 (ALL): decide form of society based on further research]
[Action 4 (PH): talk to 'friendly solicitor'  for advice on organisation 
structure]

Name of the Organisation

While being a particularly hot topic (leaving aside issues of logo!),
this issue was undecided mainly due to a lack of imagination (!). The
two main options appear to be:

        AFiS            (Association for Freedom in Software)
        AFS             (Association for Free Software)

.. with variations being based either on a UK- or British-
prefix/postfix, and the change of Association to
Organisation/Group/etc.

[Action 5 (ALL): decide on a name, on or before the decision on structure 
(action 3)]
[Action 6 (ALL): once a name has been decided, get a logo!]

Announcement

There should be an initial announcement upon the formation of the new
organisation. GCFG confirmed that writing our own press release and
copying to the address@hidden list is the preferable way of
doing this.

[Action 7 (ALL): upon formation, write a press release and distribute
widely to attract initial interest]

Legal Work

There will be more or less legal work to do setting up the initial
structure of the organisation, depending on what form it takes. It was
most people's opinion that it would be roughly an equivalent amount of
work either way.

When a decision on the structure is reached, the organisation should
be formed as quickly as possible, although this will probably require
some initial funding. The formation would take roughly two to three
weeks, assuming people work efficiently.

It was decided that the structure and constitution of the UKUUG would
be worth examining, given their similar nature in many respects to
what we are doing. Personal research into constitutional matters would
be well worthwhile also, so that when the decision on the form of the
organisation is reached the necessary groundwork has been completed.

[Action 8 (ALL): research into the structures and constitutions of
other organisations, particularly the UKUUG, and reach consensus on
this]

[Action 9 (AGK): provide a link to UKUUG constitution, etc.]

Startup Money/Seed Funding

It was noted that the formation of SAGE-WISE was roughly £300-400; we
can expect it to be a similar amount. The majority of the money would
be needed in legal fees, to ensure the smooth and correct setting up
of the organisation. When the question was put generally, there seemed
to be enough offers (both personal and on behalf of organisations)
that the initial funding will not be excessively problematic.

Mailing List & Web

Once the name of the organisation has been confirmed, domain names,
etc., would need to be purchased. An initial offer of purchase and DNS
hosting was made (AF). A further offer of hosting of lists and web was
also made (PH), completing the initial services the organisation would
need to use.

In terms of lists, the initial thoughts were along the lines of:

        Discussion - a general list available to all, to discuss the
        organisation and Free Software issues in the UK, etc.

        Announce - a low-traffic announcement channel, which would
        also be copied to discussion.

        Members - another general list, made available to members of
        the organisation only ' - a list for use by those
        'administrating' the organisation

[Action 10 (AF): execute internet land-grab on confirmation of
organisation naming :)]

Membership Criteria

Do people need to sign some sort of declaration? It was proposed that
people might have to sign something to commit to Free Software on
joining the organisation, however, it was felt this might be a little
hard-line. However, declaring adherence to the constitution of the
organisation may very well be preferable.

A donation of around £10 would be requested, to provide some form of
revenue from which the group can operate. Paper copies of newsletters,
etc., would only be provided on a 'full' membership, although the full
terms of membership still need to be set out.

Discussion on the idea of 'Corporate Membership' was started, but no
particular conclusion reached.

Activities

What are the activities that the group would organise?

Public meetings;

        Expos: either helping other organisations be present at UK
        events, or being present ourselves.

        AGMs/EGMs: one AGM a year would be preferable, possibly more,
        perhaps initially being arranged to coincide with some other
        event (an Expo, UKUUG, or big Lug meeting?)

        GNU Day: AGK raised the idea of 'GNU Day', which would be an
        event promoting Free Software to those who would want to learn
        about it, similar to an Expo but not quite on that scale and
        aimed at those who are less aware of Free Software. It was
        agreed that this would be the sort of event that the group
        should support.  LUG presence, etc: given many attending are
        members of LUGs far and wide, being present at LUGs on some
        level (maybe even just handing out leaflets or talking to
        people) would be advantageous, to spread awareness of the
        organisation. This could also work in other group meetings.

Press;

        providing local contact points for the press in the UK, both
        trade and non-trade. Raising awareness of Free Software issues
        (perhaps in a similar way to UKCDR raising the 'Free Dmitry'
        campaign on BBC Newsnight) would be a core aim of what we are
        doing.

        pro-actively create copy for magazines, etc., so that we have
        materials ready to go when the opportunity to publish an
        article/advert/whatever comes around.

        Other key activities would include acting as a support and
        information source for Free Software authors in the UK,
        campaigning on political issues (lobbying, etc., as well as
        writing articles and informing), as well as the internal
        activities of the organisation (writing newsletters, for
        example)

UK Development (Localisation)?

What are key opportunities for the organisation to promote, educate
and support Free Software developers in the UK? AGK gave an example of
people designing a Free PKI infrastructure that is currently being
pitched at Government, which would be the sort of project that the
organisation might want to support on a number of levels.

Where there are key UK projects or initiatives, it was agreed that the
organisation should support these as far as possible. This may include
funding current or new Free Software projects, or kick-starting
particularly important projects (such as PKI) when necessary.

External Points of Contact

It was agreed that the organisation should have as many external
points of contact as possible. Initially, this includes the mailing
lists, website and key e-mail addresses. However, other contact
methods we need to look at are:

        telephone: many people appreciate being able to phone members
        of an organisation. Non-geographic numbers were suggested as
        an easy means of doing this

        PO Box: a single contact point for snail mail may also be very
        important, PO boxes being an obvious solution

        fax: look into the possibility of setting up a fax
        server. This would enable us to send and receive faxes
        remotely, which could be very useful.

Lists of contacts for use by the Press, etc., should be created, and
where possible people should be pointed to the announcements list as
an easy way of keeping up with our news. Furthermore, a follow up
system for press releases would be necessary - similar to a
bug-tracking system - to enable us to interact effectively with the
Press, as well as acting as a 'load-balancer' if there is an amount of
work to do.

Nomination of Officers

Dependent on the setup of the association; we would need a list of
officers. PH, AH, MK nominated themselves as being available for use
in legal shenanigans.

Again the topic of constitution was raised: non-payment of directors,
designation of treasurer, etc., are all issues that need to be
addressed, and should be decided before the final decision on the form
of the organisation, so that we can move quickly.

Other Roles

Similar to the UKUUG 'council', the idea of a 6 or 7 person team to
actually run the organisation (quite apart from the 'legal' view of
the organisation) was proposed. Nomination, voting, etc., are all
constitutional matters, again.

Misc

IRC meeting on openprojects.net around 1st December was proposed, on
the assumption that by that time we will have all read and digested
the various research, and will be able to make the final decisions in
a number of areas, and will be able to actually found the
organisation. Thus, we are aiming to have the organisation in place by
the middle of December.

[Action 11 (MK): allocate channel on opn.]

[Action 12 (ALL): those without opn nicks to register them, and learn
to use IRC if necessary!]

[Action 13 (ALL): finalise the date, time & location for this meeting ASAP]

[Action 14 (AH/other): post IRC logs, or (better) a summary, so that
people who can't attend are able to see the decisions, and the
reasoning.]