Changeset - 52b6c80c244f
[Not reviewed]
0 2 2
Bradley Kuhn (bkuhn) - 13 years ago 2010-10-04 01:32:00
bkuhn@ebb.org
Various wordsmith, rewrite and new content for membership area of the
site.
4 files changed with 221 insertions and 9 deletions:
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www/conservancy/static/members/apply/index.html
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new file 100644
 
{% extends "base_members.html" %}
 
{% block subtitle %}Member Project Services - {% endblock %}
 
{% block category %}members{% endblock %}
 
{% block submenuselection %}Services{% endblock %}
 
{% block content %}
 

	
 
<h1>How To Apply to Become a Member Project</h1>
 

	
 
<p>New applications for project membership with Conservancy are considered
 
  twice a year.  The deadlines for submission of application materials are
 
  1 February and 1 September each year.</p>
 

	
 
<p>The application process is somewhat informal.  New applicants should
 
  write
 
  to <a href="mailto:apply@sfconservancy.org">&lt;apply@sfconservancy.org&gt;</a>
 
  with a very brief description of their project and a URL to their
 
  project's website.  We'll send back initial questions if we have any,
 
  and after that, we'll send the full application materials.  Applications
 
  should be submitted in plain ASCII text via email.</p>
 

	
 
<p>Projects are reviewed by Conservancy's Evaluation Subcommittee (which
 
  is a subcommittee of Conservacy's Directors), and the subcommittee's
 
  recommendations are submitted to
 
  Conservancy's <a href="/about/board/">Board of Directors</a>, who make
 
  the final decision to offer membership.</p>
 

	
 
<h1>Project Membership Application FAQs</h1>
 

	
 
<p><b>What are the key criteria our project must meet to join?</b></p>
 

	
 
<p>In order to join, projects need to meet certain criteria, including the
 
requirement that the project be exclusively devoted to the development of
 
FLOSS and that it be consistent with the Conservancy's tax-exempt purposes
 
and the financial requirements imposed by the IRS.  Most FLOSS projects
 
will meet these requirements.</p>
 

	
 
<p>Additionally, the project must be licensed in a way fitting with
 
  software freedom principles.  Specifically, all software of the project
 
  should be licensed under a license that is listed both as
 
  a <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html">Free Software
 
  license by the Free Software Foundation</a> and as
 
  an <a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical">Open Source
 
  license by the Open Source Initiative</a>.  All software documentation
 
  for the project should be licensed under a license on the preceding
 
  lists, or under Creative
 
  Commons' <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC-By-SA</a>
 
  or <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC-By</a> or
 
  <a href="http://creativecommons.org/choose/zero/">CC-0</a>.</p>
 

	
 
<p>While any project licensed under FLOSS licenses can apply, the
 
  Conservancy seeks in particular projects that are well-established and
 
  have some track record of substantial contributions from a community of
 
  volunteer developers.  The Conservancy does gives higher priority to
 
  projects that have an established userbase and interest, but also tries
 
  to accept some smaller projects with strong potential.</p>
 

	
 
<h2>Is our project required to accept membership if offered?</h2>
 

	
 
<p>Not at all.  Many projects apply and subsequently decide not to join a
 
  non-profit, or decide to join a different non-profit entity.  Don't
 
  worry about &ldquo;wasting our time&rdquo; if your project's developers
 
  aren't completely sure yet if they want to join conservancy.  If
 
  membership in Conservancy is currently a legitimate consideration for
 
  your project, we encourage you to apply.  We'd rather that you apply and
 
  turn down an offer for membership than fail to apply and have to wait
 
  until the next application round when you're sure.</p>
 

	
 
<h2>What will the project leaders have to agree to if our project joins?</h2>
 

	
 
<p>Once you're offered membership, we'll send you a draft fiscal
 
  sponsorship agreement.  These aren't secret documents and many of our
 
  memer projects have even chosen to put theirs online.  However, we wait
 
  to send a draft of this document, until the application process is
 
  complete, as we often tailor and modify the agreements based on
 
  individual project needs.  This is painstaking work, and it's better to
 
  complete that work after both Conservancy and the project are quite sure
 
  that they both want the project will join Conservancy.</p>
 

	
 
<h2>What benefits does our project get from joining?</h2>
 

	
 
<p>We maintain a <a href="/members/services">detailed list of services
 
    that Conservancy provides to member projects</a>.  If you have
 
    detailed questions about any of the benefits, please
 
    ask <a href="mailto:apply@sfconservancy.org">&lt;apply@sfconservancy.org&gt;</a>.</p>
 

	
 
<h2>If my project joins the Conservancy, how will it change?</h2>
 

	
 
<p>Substantively, member projects continue to operate in the same way as
 
they did before joining the Conservancy.  So long as the project remains
 
devoted to software freedom and operates consistently with the
 
Conservancy's tax-exempt status, the Conservancy does not intervene in the
 
project's development other than to provide administrative assistance.
 
For example, the Conservancy keeps and maintains books and records for the
 
project and assists with the logistics of receiving donations, but does
 
not involve itself with technical or artistic decision making.  Projects
 
are asked, however, to keep the Conservancy up to date on their
 
activities.</p>
 

	
 
<h2>Once our project joins, who holds its assets (money, copyrights, trademarks, etc.)?</h2>
 

	
 
<p>The Conservancy holds assets on behalf of its member projects and
 
manages and disburses those assets in accordance with the wishes of the
 
project's leadership.  Funds received by the Conservancy on behalf of a
 
project are kept track of separately for each specific project and the
 
management of those funds is directed by the project.  For example, if a
 
donor wanted to contribute $100 to Project Foo, they would formally make
 
the donation to the Conservancy and identify Project Foo as the desired
 
project to support.  The Conservancy would then deposit the check and
 
earmark the funds for use by Project Foo.  Project Foo would then tell the
 
Conservancy how that money should be spent.</p>
 

	
 
<p>Similarly, any copyrights, trademarks, domain name or other assets
 
transferred to a project can also be held by the Conservancy on behalf of
 
the project.  A significant service that the Conservancy provides its
 
members is a vehicle through which copyright ownership in the project can
 
be unified.  There are several advantages to having a consolidated
 
copyright structure, including that it makes enforcement activity easier
 
and more effective.  However, copyright, trademark, and domain name
 
assignment is not a requirement in order to join the Conservancy, rather,
 
it is an option for those projects that ask for it.</p>
 

	
 
<h2>If our project joins, must it be a member project of Conservancy forever?</h2>
 

	
 
<p>All agreements between member projects and the Conservancy stipulate
 
clearly that the member project can leave the Conservancy at any time.
 
Federal tax exemption law, though, states that projects must transfer
 
their assets from the Conservancy in a way that is consistent with the
 
Conservancy's not-for-profit tax status &mdash; meaning the assets cannot
 
be transferred to an individual or a for-profit entity.  Generally, a
 
project would either find another fiscal sponsor or form their own
 
independent tax-exempt non-profit.</p>
 

	
 
<p>We fully expect that some Conservancy projects will ultimately wish to
 
  form their own non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations; that's why we design
 
  our agreements with projects to allow them to leave to another 501(c)(3)
 
  organization.  Typically, projects join Conservancy because the project
 
  leaders don't want the burdens of running a non-profit themselves.
 
  Often, as projects grow, leaders get interested in the non-profit
 
  management and organizational side of the activities and are then
 
  prepared to take on the additional work themselves.</p>
 

	
 
<h2>How are &ldquo;product leaders&rdquo; defined with respect to Conservancy?</h2>
 

	
 
<p>How leaders are chosen for projects varies greatly from project to
 
  project.  Our goal is to do our best to embody the &ldquo;natural&rdquo;
 
  leadership structure that evolved in your project into the formal
 
  agreement with Conservancy.  As part of the agreement drafting, we work
 
  carefully with you to understand your project's governance and write up
 
  formally with you the decision-making process you use. Most project
 
  contributors find this process of formalizing the leadership structure
 
  helps them clarify in their own minds the governance of their project,
 
  even though the process can be difficult.  Since it can be a complicated
 
  process, we suggest that you prepare your project community for this
 
  discussion once your project is accepted.</p>
 

	
 
<h2>How much does will it cost us financially to join Conservancy?</h2>
 

	
 
<p>After your application is approved, as part of the negotiation of the
 
  formal agreement, we'll discuss this issue.  Typically, we ask that
 
  member projects voluntarily choose to donate some percentage of their
 
  donations received to support Conservancy's general operations servicing
 
  all its member projects (including yours).  We do understand that,
 
  particularly for small projects that only receive a few small donations,
 
  that donating a percentage of your income back to Conservancy can be a
 
  high burden.  Therefore, this is not a mandatory requirement.  We thus
 
  suggest that you be prepared to discuss this issue with us in detail
 
  after your application is approved.</p>
 

	
www/conservancy/static/members/current/index.html
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{% extends "base_members.html" %}
 
{% block subtitle %}Current Member Projects - {% endblock %}
 
{% block category %}members{% endblock %}
 
{% block submenuselection %}Current{% endblock %}
 
{% block content %}
 

	
 
<h1>Current Member Projects</h1>
www/conservancy/static/members/index.html
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new file 100644
 
{% extends "base_members.html" %}
 
{% block subtitle %}Project Membership in {% endblock %}
 
{% block category %}members{% endblock %}
 
{% block content %}
 

	
 
<h1>Conservancy Project Membership</h1>
 

	
 
<p>A major component of Conservancy's work to advance software freedom is
 
  through its work to provide
 
  non-profit <a href="/members/services/">infrastructure and services</a>
 
  to
 
  <a href="/members/current/">its member projects</a>.  Conservancy's goal
 
  is to handle all the parts of advocacy, leadership, organization and
 
  coordination other than actual development of the software and
 
  documentation.  By handling all these details, Conservancy allows its
 
  member project developers to focus on what they do best: writing,
 
  improving and documenting FLOSS.</p>
 

	
 
<p>Project leaders who believe that their project might benefit from
 
  Conservancy's <a href="/members/services/">member project services</a>
 
  are encouraged to <a href="/members/apply/">apply for
 
  membership</a>.</p>
www/conservancy/static/members/services/index.html
Show inline comments
 
{% extends "base_members.html" %}
 
{% block subtitle %}Member Project Services - {% endblock %}
 
{% block category %}members{% endblock %}
 
{% block submenuselection %}Services{% endblock %}
 
{% block content %}
 

	
 
<h1>Member Project Services</h1>
...
 
@@ -11,17 +12,27 @@
 
  following are the services and options that are available to FLOSS
 
  projects that have joined Conservancy as a member project.</p>
 

	
 
<h2>Earmarked Donations</h2>
 
<h2>Tax-Deductible, Earmarked Donations</h2>
 

	
 
<p>Member projects can receive earmarked donations through Conservancy.
 
  Donors can indicate that their donation should be used to advance a
 
  specific member project, and those funds are kept in a separate account
 
  by Conservancy.  The project leadership can then indicate to
 
  Conservancy's leadership how the funds should be spent to advance the
 
  project.  Generally, Conservancy permits these funds to be spent in any
 
  way that is appropriate activity under Conservancy's 501(c)(3)
 
  not-for-profit mission.  Some typical uses of earmarked donations by
 
  Conservancy's member projects are:
 
   Since Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) charity incorporated in New York,
 
   donors can often deduct the donation on their USA taxes.  Additionally,
 
   the donors can indicate that their donation should be used to advance a
 
   specific member project, and those funds are kept in a separate account
 
   for the member project by Conservancy.  This structure prevents
 
   developers from having to commingle project funds with their own
 
   personal accounts or having to set up their own project specific
 
   account.</p>
 

	
 
   <p>Since the Conservancy is a tax-exempt organization, there are some
 
   limits that the law places on what member projects can do with their
 
   assets, but those limits are the same as if the project was an
 
   independent non-profit entity.  Usually, the project leadership can
 
   then indicate to Conservancy's leadership how the funds should be spent
 
   to advance the project and Conservancy permits these funds to be spent
 
   in any way that is appropriate activity under Conservancy's 501(c)(3)
 
   not-for-profit mission.  Some typical uses of earmarked donations by
 
   Conservancy's member projects are:
 
<ul>
 
<li>funding travel expenses for project developers to attend relevant
 
  conferences.</li> 
...
 
@@ -78,6 +89,16 @@
 
<p>Conservancy provides various tools and advice to member projects on
 
  methods of raising funds for their projects' earmarked accounts.</p>
 

	
 
<h2>Avoid Non-Profit Administrivia</h2>
 

	
 
<p>Member projects can continue to operate in the same way they did before
 
joining the Conservancy without having to select a board of directors or
 
any other layer of corporate management, without having to maintain
 
corporate records and without having to do any of the other things
 
required of incorporated entities.  The Conservancy handles all of that
 
burden on behalf of its projects.</p>
 

	
 

	
 
<h2>Leadership Mentoring, Advice and Guidance</h2>
 

	
 
<p>Many of Conservancy's <a href="/about/directors">directors</a> are
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