Re: [Fsfe-uk] RFC: Sponsorship

[Andrew Savory]

Hi,

On Thu, 16 Oct 2003, MJ Ray wrote:

> If you have an opinion about whether we should only accept money, or
> assign monetary values to donations in kind for the purpose of donor
> listing, then please state it.

I've already said in my reply to Marc that I think donations are the best
solution.

> Similarly, how long should donor messages last for?
> Yes, it's obviously simple to remove them, but when?

I'd suggest 1 year.

> OK.  Is it possible to define a consistent time to removal based on value?

No, pick one time for all donations. Keep it simple.

> OK.  Do you think this would work as an offer?  For example, would your
> company or those you know be interested in it?  Looking at the FSFE
> page, I see 13 companies from the whole of Europe for 2003, as well as a
> number of personal donations (minimum donation 120 EUR pa, but FSFE has
> no subscription membership, so personal donors are all here, I think).
> FSF's comparable page has 33 (minimum donation $500).  How will this
> scale to the UK?

I don't know how others would react to it, but I'd be happy to donate on
these terms.

> I'm not sure that I agree with this.  We cannot see through the donor's
> eyes and, to us, clearly £1000 enables more activities than £100.
> Why not use FSFE-style banding?

I'm in favour of keeping it simple.

If donating £100 would leave my name at the bottom of the page, and I felt
I couldn't compete with the big donors, I wouldn't bother.

I think alphabetical donor lists make more sense.

> My opinion: donation yes, sponsorship no.  How about you?

+1

> So you are against AFFS accepting any further sponsorship?  What should
> we do about our continuing sponsors, such as positive-internet and
> Cyberware?  Ask them permission to convert to a repeating donation
> listing?

I think "any" is a difficult word. Sponsorship is something we need to
thrash out on a case-by-case basis, perhaps. On the whole, I'd prefer AFFS
avoids it, but there are some obvious cases (such as infrastructure) where
it just makes sense.


Andrew.

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Andrew Savory                                Email: address@hidden
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