Re: [Fsfe-uk] Where are we now?

[Philip Hands]

MJ Ray <address@hidden> writes:

> OK, it's past the weekend, so two questions:
> 
> 1. What form for the first organisation?
>       [ ] Unincorporated Association (simple but liable)
>       [ ] Trust (more assured but still fairly lightweight and liable)
>       [ ] Friendly Society (recently opened to us)
>       [ ] Limited Co (well known)
>       [ ] Industrial Provident Soc (more expensive but robust)
>       [ ] Royal Charter (hahahahahaha)

I was just talking to Don de Silva of the 1990 Trust, and he seemed to
think there was no question but that we should be a Company Limited by
Guarantee, and a Charity (which is the current structure of the 1990
Trust).

I seem to remember that the reason for rejecting Charity status was
something to do with not being able to get involved with politics.
When I mentioned that idea to Don, he just laughed, which I'm not
surprised by because the 1990 Trust is aimed at promoting education
amongst ethnic minorities in Britain, and hence gets involved in
things like the Black Vote campaign, and lobbying both local and
national government on Black issues.

The thinking behind the combined Limited by Guarantee/Charity approach
is that you get the benefits of the Charitable status, without the
problem of the Trustees being liable (beyond a quid) for any debts is
the charity goes bust.

The only thing I can see stopping us being a charity would be the bit
about all our objects needing to be charitable -- Are they?  I would
have thought so, but I'm not certain of the rules.

I'll be going over to The 1990 Trust tomorrow to do some work, so can
run this by their legal advisor, so if people still have objections to
the idea of doing it this way, or feel that one of the other forms
would suit us more closely, please tell me why, and I'll run the
arguments past him to see what he thinks.

Cheers, Phil.

P.S. What's the current situation as far as people wanting to get
involved with the AFFS?  Do I just point them at this list, or are we
going to try to keep the AFFS and the fsfe-uk sides of things separate
at all?  Don is enthusiastic about promoting Free Software use in
government, and would like to be involved with AFFS as a result.

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