Re: [Fsfe-uk] UKFSN makes a profit

[Jason Clifford]

On Tue, 2 Sep 2003, Marc Eberhard wrote:

> congratulations for breaking even with UKFSN!

Thanks. I've just signed a couple of contracts that should allow me to 
significantly improve on the services being offered and raise more money 
from them so things are definitely going the right way.

> This good news obviously raises another very interesting question, we have
> completely ignored so far... what are we going to do with the money? I
> think, it's the right time now to start this discussion to give everyone
> time to think about it and to collect ideas.
> 
> I can see at least two possible options:
> 
> - We could choose a project in need and invest directly into resources for
>   this project (be it hardware or programming time). This way we could make
> 
> - Or we collect the money and reward a few projects once a year with a
>   prize. 

Both are good ideas.

Before I continue on to suggest something else myself I want to be clear 
that this decision is one I want to steer fairly clear of. Other than 
having as much voice as any other AFFS member I don't want any say in the 
matter.

That said there are a couple of suggestions I have:

1. Lots of people continue to state that one area where Free Software is 
poor is business accounting (financial) and it's true but not for the 
reason a lot of people put forward. The software does exist for small 
companies. The reason, in my view, is that things such as tax and paye 
tables are not available and the code for them not written.

This is something that can be addressed without much expense at all. 
Writing the code to handle the data is fairly straight forward. Getting 
the data and publishing it in a timely manner is the thing and it need not 
cost a lot of money.

I suggest that affs takes responsibility for getting an accountant to 
produce the data each year and pays for it out of the money ukfsn raises. 
So long as the data is available in an easy to parse format it can then be 
processed into whatever structure each accounting package requires.

It could be done by anyone however having the data prepared by a qualified 
accountant gives it credibility.

2. Some of the money should be used for non production projects such as 
lobbying and promotion. Both are vitally important - real lobbying will 
help to prevent bad laws that threaten our ability to produce or use Free 
Software and promotion will bring in more users and developers, thus 
giving more muscle for the lobbying too.

Obviously both of my suggestions will only be relevant once the money 
starts flowing in and that's not happened yet - the cheque I write in 
October will probably only be for £100 or £200 however I am confident that 
this time next year we'll be looking at 100 times that amount (and hopeful 
that in a year beyond that another 10 fold increase will be on the books).

Jason Clifford
-- 
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