Re: [Fsfe-uk] Rules/Constitution

[Alex Hudson]

On Sat, 2005-01-15 at 08:10 +0000, John Seago wrote:
> Incorporation.        I can not support incorporation as a Company Limited by 
> Guarantee, as once that happens the Association becomes a Company and 
> Democracy disappears

I think I agree with this reasoning. You're also right that a new
constitution would be required. There is also the added financial
overhead of retaining legal/accountancy advisors and filing company
papers.

If we were going to go the incorporation route, the sensible choice
would be to register as a CIC, but that's not a route open to us until
July 2005 AFAIK, and it would probably take us some time to organise a
sensible proposal anyway. But, that doesn't get past the democracy
problem - and AFFS was always designed to be member-controlled, which is
distinctly different from other such organisations (like the FSF). 

> Dissolution.  Again this provides an opportunity to reform and revise the 
> constitutional basis of the successor body. However the solution provided 
> is not a rapid one, and the AFFS will have to continue to run until such 
> time as the successor body is ready to take on a Transfer of Engagements 
> from the AFFS, and then only should the AFFS members be prepared to 
> transfer them.

It would be interesting to see if there is any possibility of transfer -
I'm not sure, maybe the data protection act would preclude it, and
members would have to re-register (if you see what I mean). This could
do with some investigation.

> Revision.     Revision of the Rules/Constitution is a way forward, however as 
> last years AGM proved it is a difficult matter to persuade a large enough 
> number of members to carry a resolution.

Well, this is why I think we need one good amendment that we can agree
on. If there are a range of different choices, it's not really clear
that any could muster 2/3rds support, even with transferable votes.

That of course assumes that there is one amendment that people
interested in the issue would feel is "good enough", and maybe that's an
incorrect assumption. But, we should try, IMO.

Cheers,

Alex.