[scribus-dev] Scribus e.V.: application form and letterhead

[Gregory Pittman]

Louis Desjardins wrote:
> 2008/9/15 "Christoph Schäfer" <christoph-schaefer at gmx.de 
> <mailto:christoph-schaefer at gmx.de>>
>
>     Hi guys,
>
>     Please find attached drafts for the application for membership in
>     English and German, as well as a draft for the letterhead. I
>     inserted my address, as it will probably be the first registered
>     (with the court) address. All members of the first managing
>     committee will, of course, insert their own address if and when
>     they use the template. I also added an email address, which might
>     be added to the info domain. I suggest that the future chairman
>     receive emails sent to the address and then forward them to
>     whoever he thinks should handle an issue. Please note that I used
>     Bitstream Vera Sans for the name of the organisation, not because
>     I'm a fan of this font, but because we use it for the splashscreen.
>
>     Once we have agreed on the text for the application, one of our
>     PDF form wizards could create a nice form in Scribus ;)
>
>     Any comments are appreciated, as usual.
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I wonder if it would be possible to have a short (non "legal" or 
> "formal") name for the association, something without "e.V" that I 
> understand is ok to deal with the bank and the court but is not much 
> of appeal to ordinary people, especially outside Germany. Here in 
> Québec/Canada the logos of the enterprises for instance don't have to 
> bear everything, inclunding the letters "inc." (for "incorporated"). 
> So, a company such as "Bell Canada Incorporated" (it may even be 
> longer than that!) can do business under the logo "Bell" only. Of 
> course, the fine print tells it all extensively but what people see is 
> "Bell" (this is not meant as a publicity!!!). ;-)
>
> Just a suggestion!
>
At this stage, I don't think this issue makes much difference, except 
that one must have the Scribus e.V. referred to somewhere so that people 
can recognize this is a legal nonprofit entity.
>
> As for the fees I think it's ok but I am including here the link to 
> AFUL (Francophone association of Linux users). Interestingly, they 
> have made it clear people can offer more! Their price list starts 
> lower, however, for people, and is higher for companies. I have no 
> issue with what Christoph suggests but some students may find it high? 
> I cannot tell. Only more food for thoughts.
I was thinking much the same. Even with full voting members, it would be 
nice to have the amount as a significant "token" amount, and for 
non-voting individuals maybe flexible according to their status as 
student, employed, etc.
Again, if we consider some potentially large corporation, this suggested 
amount is rather piddling. Google probably loses track of more than 200 
euros a minute!
But these are things to decide at our first or maybe subsequent meeting, 
and we might even defer a decision about corporations for a bit. We need 
to consider what it is we want from corporations (other than their 
money), what they might want or need from us (other than being involved 
with a group of highly intelligent  people).
>
> The info here is in French but it is not so hard to follow, I think (I 
> hope), even for non-French-readers.
> http://www.aful.org/association/cotisation
>
> Would it be possible to get some advice from, say, the FSF or the 
> GNOME Foundation for the Application form? I believe these larger 
> entities have trained people to advice on such questions and maybe 
> they could help? I really am asking this most candidly. I see there is 
> a will to avoid problems and in those matters I can only suggest to be 
> prudent.
>
> I think we should add a mention on that form as how to pay. Can we 
> make it clear that a member must renew his membership, say, 30 days 
> prior to the end or anything like that? It is not automatic that a 
> member will renew. Anyway, I don't have much time to dig into this at 
> present time but these are the ideas that pop-up instantaneously!
This too, can wait, I think.

Greg