[steering-discuss] proposed bylaws changes

When I was reading German law on non-profits, my impression was the
By-Laws had to specify how members of the board of directors, and any
advisory board were selected, and mid-term replacements done.

I don't see anything in the by-laws that specifies how mid-term
replacements are done. Is that not legally required?

(Whilst German, especially philosophical German tends to be convulated,
German legalese is both convulated, and incomprehensible. At one point
in time, German lawyers must have been paid by the character.)

- From experience in non-profits in the united states, the less
non-legally required stuff in the by-laws, the easier it is to run the
organization. Likewise, the fewer changes made to the by-laws after
incorporation, the easier it is to run the organization.

jonathon
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If Bing copied Google, there wouldn't be anything new worth requesting.

If Bing did not copy Google, there wouldn't be anything relevant worth
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                              DaveJakeman 20110207 Groklaw.

HI,

Otherwise, I was only going to add a clause about transferring TDF's
funds into my personal bank account every 6 months...

For those of you that didn't realise, that was a joke... Someone just
mailed me off-list who didn't seem quite sure about that... (rofl)

Hi :slight_smile:
Someone mailed me off-list thinking it was my comment and quoted a real-world
legal case where someone had really done what you describe. It is an old joke
and an obvious thing to avoid but i'm not hugely surprised one bunch of people
got fooled into letting it happen! It's impossible to over-estimate human
stupidity.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

From: David Nelson <commerce@traduction.biz>
To: steering-discuss@documentfoundation.org
Cc: steering-discuss@global.documentfoundation.org
Sent: Sat, 11 June, 2011 6:14:45
Subject: Re: [steering-discuss] proposed bylaws changes

HI,

> Otherwise, I was only going to add a clause about transferring TDF's
> funds into my personal bank account every 6 months...

For those of you that didn't realise, that was a joke... Someone just
mailed me off-list who didn't seem quite sure about that... (rofl)

--
David Nelson

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Hi guys,

  Counting votes we had: Florian, Charles, Andre, Olivier, Italo and
Sophie voting in favour; so I've made all of the edits in the wiki.

  HTH,

    Michael.

Hi David,

  Thanks for these, really makes it cleaner, I applied them all - they
seem un-controversial etc.

"best-effort"
"and skills, whether on a paid or voluntary basis."
(Just adds a comma.)
"organizations"
(US spelling, like everywhere else in the bylaws.)
"minimum level of financial or other support, as determined by
the BoD, to meet with the BoD and provide advice."
(Minor punctuation changes.)

..

That's it... pretty painless, no? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

  Indeed :slight_smile:

Otherwise, I was only going to add a clause about transferring TDF's
funds into my personal bank account every 6 months...

  Lol :wink:

    Michael.

Hi Michael,

Hi David,

Thanks for these, really makes it cleaner, I applied them all - they
seem un-controversial etc.

Cool, thanks. :slight_smile:

Hi,

Counting votes we had: Florian, Charles, Andre, Olivier, Italo and
Sophie voting in favour; so I've made all of the edits in the wiki.

thanks a lot, Michael! I will ask the German community to translate the changes back. :slight_smile:

Thanks to everyone who contributed! (Oh, and David, I never thought you would do the bank account thing, don't worry :wink:

Florian

Hi Toki,

When I was reading German law on non-profits, my impression was the
By-Laws had to specify how members of the board of directors, and any
advisory board were selected, and mid-term replacements done.

I don't see anything in the by-laws that specifies how mid-term
replacements are done. Is that not legally required?

we have some rules on that, like "Each member of the BoD must appoint one Community Member as deputy who can replace her/him in case of need, and who has the same rights during her/his period of absence or unavailability." or "The Chairperson can be discharged and replaced by the BoD at any time."

However, it indeed might be needed that we incorporate some more details into the binding statutes we are currently preparing. I have details on this soon.

Thanks for pointing this out!
Florian

Hi :slight_smile:
I think it is better to do the minimum that is required to make it legal and for
the rest write in things like "Mid-term replacements are to be covered by
internal TDF policy which is to be reviewed regularly". In some cases it makes
sense to name the specific document that will cover that particular policy but
even that can make things unnecessarily restrictive in the future. Please avoid
"setting things in stone" where it's not required by law.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi :slight_smile:
I thought everyone quickly checked that sort of thing anyway? I do. I thought
David was making a joke out of the need for people to be a little more aware of
one need for checking such rules. A serious point put forwards as a joke.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi,

I think it is better to do the minimum that is required to make it legal and for
the rest write in things like "Mid-term replacements are to be covered by
internal TDF policy which is to be reviewed regularly". In some cases it makes
sense to name the specific document that will cover that particular policy but
even that can make things unnecessarily restrictive in the future. Please avoid
"setting things in stone" where it's not required by law.

indeed, that is the approach. The binding statutes will be rather lightweight, while we will have extended additional policies that can be changed easier.

Florian

Michael Meeks wrote:

  Counting votes we had: Florian, Charles, Andre, Olivier, Italo and
Sophie voting in favour; so I've made all of the edits in the wiki.

If there are no objections by tonight, I'll also change the text on
the membership application page
(http://www.documentfoundation.org/foundation/application-for-tdf-community-membership/)
to read:

Bylaws and commitment

Please read the Foundation's Charter (its Bylaws and The Next Decade
Manifesto), and confirm that you support the principle of an
independent foundation.
You should make a best-effort commitment to at least six
(6) months activity within our projects.

I've read the Foundation's Bylaws and The Next Decade Manifesto, and
confirm that I support the principle of an independent foundation.*

I'll make a best-effort commitment to contribute to the projects of
TDF for at least six (6) months.*

Cheers,

-- Thorsten

Hi :slight_smile:
Seems reasonable :slight_smile: There is something about the grammar of the last line that
mildly irritates me. Making it "I will ..." rather than using the contraction
helps a little but there is something odd about "best-effort". I'm sure there
is a better word but i'm never able to remember it. My memory is going, maybe
that's what is irritating. "Best-effort" is good enough. It's certainly
unambiguous enough and clear enough.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

+1, and thanks for thinking of it :wink:

If there are no objections by tonight, I'll also change the text on
the membership application page
(http://www.documentfoundation.org/foundation/application-for-tdf-community-membership/)

Done.

-- Thorsten

There's a small typo at the beginning of the page: "Please carfeully read"

Francois Tigeot wrote:

There's a small typo at the beginning of the page: "Please carfeully read"

Thx, fixed.

Cheers,

-- Thorsten

Hi :slight_smile:
It would look slightly more normal as:

"Please read carefully"
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi :
Please ignore my last email. I didn't realise the words were part of a sentence
rather than being the entire statement. Context is everything & i should have
checked.

It looks good already :slight_smile:
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

There's another problem with this form, possibly some sort of timeout.

I've just submitted my application, but I couldn't do it without reloading
the page first and pasting in all the answers I had previously entered
manually.

Trying to submit the first instance of the web form, I only got a blank page
with the message "Security token doesn't match, possible CSRF attack." .

It was not captcha-related.