[Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Discussion started last year about moving the US-based Hildon Foundation non-profit operations to Europe. After a positive reception to the initial proposal, some further planning by the community, and a lot of foot work, work is progressing on setting up a German e.V. (which was selected due to limited options available in Europe).
The move serves several purposes:

• It gets us out from under the cost and regulatory burdens of operating in the US. The US is expensive and difficult to operate in for small non-profits. Taxes and regulations from two major entities: the US Federal Government and the State of Pennsylvania (where the Hildon Foundation is registered), which both require annual paperwork be submitted on the fiscal operations of the entity, are expensive and time-consuming for an all-volunteer operation funded by donations.
  
• It brings the major operations of maemo.org all within a single regulatory environment. The operations of maemo.org are almost exclusively hosted at IPHH in Germany, bringing the organizational stewardship into the Euro-zone reduces the number of regulator issues which must be understood and dealt with by the foundation.
  
• Finally, it eliminates the large overhead involved with international money transfers. The hardware for maemo.org is hosted at IPHH (many thanks to them) in Germany, and with the billing currency in Euros, each transfer of the annual hosting-fee costs about $40 instead of the few cents it would cost wiring it from within the SEPA-Zone. Payments for hardware purchases, and other invoices are almost all going to entities in Europe, so eliminating the currency exchange overhead will significantly reduce costs for the continued operation of maemo.org.

The Hildon Foundation assets will need to be transferred to the new e.V. once its legal registration is completed. The Hildon Foundation will then be dissolved. This is slightly complicated by the aforementioned regulatory burdens in the US, but will hopefully be finalized by the end of the third quarter of this year. In terms of obligations, responsibilities and relationship to the community, this move has no effect: it is purely a technical measure to allow the Foundation to better manage the community’s assets.

Link: Original article.


****************


As already stated here, one of the last tasks for us to do is to adopt our terms of use, privacy policy, Contribution Guidelines, licenses, trademarks, trademark usage guidelines and trademark FAQ

This is long pending and not only nescessary to adapt to the situation that we're in, where we - the community - are running our own infra, but also to fulfill HiFo's obligations to set the Nokia-agreement in effect:
I've created webpads for each of above mentioned documents.
These 4 are already edited by me:
Contribution Guidelines - https://etherpad.mozilla.org/VkZSfdJhCI
Terms + Conditions - https://etherpad.mozilla.org/tIXtr7R0nI
Privacy Policy - https://etherpad.mozilla.org/oKCqgAcoTP
Licenses - https://etherpad.mozilla.org/h2UoRHiBae

These 3 are awaiting adoption:
TM Terms Of Use - https://etherpad.mozilla.org/UHGCJQIeQA
TM Usage Guidelines - https://etherpad.mozilla.org/mHZKczF0y1
TM FAQ - https://etherpad.mozilla.org/AIc3c8Bnhe

We may delete or condense a few documents (e.g. Terms Of Use) as appropriated.
Please keep in mind that these docoments are at least half a decade old, are made by and for a commercial company and that these versions may no longer be appropriate for a community-driven organization.
Once HiFo dissolved into the MC e.V., those documents have to be updated again and HiFo has to be replaced by MC e.V.

Since the rest of board, council and techstaff didn't offer much support in this matter so far, I summon community to review and help adopt the documents. Any support is welcome, especially from those with a judicial background, knowledge or experience. We need to resolve this and if community can't handle it, HiFo/MC e.V. will be forced to pay another lawyer for this, which we of course are trying to avoid.

Thank you.

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

The latter 3 (red) wont change as the TM owner is Nokia (or they need to tell us what they want to be changed)

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Hi everyone,

if no one objects, I'll update the website later this evening.

Best,

Falk

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

cool, will that update also include website ssl certificate ?
(http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...25&postcount=1)

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

thanks for your hardwork fstern. please also update SSL certificates.

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

update ssl or it is making me to download a new browser:(

thanks for your work:)

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Will do tomorrow - sorry for the inconvenience.

Best,

Falk

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Edits done, new SSL certificates tomorrow.

Best,

Falk

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Some good news: Chemist just informed me that the registration of the Maemo Community e.V. got approved at the municipal court in Kaiserslautern, register No. VR 30564:
https://www.handelsregister.de/rp_we...0.tc02n03?id=0

Next steps:
- opening of a bank account for the MC eV
- handover of all assets from HiFo to MC eV

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

So we are now a Germen organization? next up...only allowed to speak German?

aber naturlisch!

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

dann musd ich aber mein Deutched verberssern :)

Good news! Now we can get moving !

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Die neue Amtssprache wird dann Deutsch ! ;)
Oder?

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Or gaelic ...
naw...my gaelic makes me sound like Groundskeeper Willie....

Best to use what poor german I know..
I have no exception to German...bilingual is better...multi- is best...
More inclusive.

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

HiFo board elections are overdue but since it will dissolve (which is overdue too) and transfer all assets to MC eV this month, (I hope; personally, I can't do much though) this is negligible.

Next MC eV board elections were sheduled for march 2015 (1 year after kickoff-meeting), but need to be held now, since Nieldk stepped down as director and MC eV bylaws require a board of at least 3.
Only thing that cures this situation would be that Nieldk withdraws his resignation. Let's hope...

As stated earlier, MC eV board elections will be held by regular members only and only they qualify as directors. Although board (chemist, juiceme) won't be prepared to provide membership-forms right away, everybody who cares about community may consider to formally become regular member now.

Next council elections are sheduled for january 2015 (following the everlasting 6-month cycle).

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

???


10ch

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

What is a regular member? Is it like a citizen in starship troopers?

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

sorry, immediate board re-elections are not nescessary
according to MC eV bylaws § 7 Board of Directors:

In order to participate in next MC eV board elections, actively (by candidacy) or passively (by voting), you have to become regular member/part of General Meeting.

And yes, membership gets granted by board upon request. Just like when you wanna join your favourite soccer club, same procedure. An application form will be provided soon, I believe.

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

CTRL-F only gives this:

August 25, 2013
3:11 Win7Mac: ...probably not. Any suggestions to give "regular members" and "promoters" more rights over "irregular members" (if that's desired at all)?
August 27, 2013
5:00 unnamed: More rights in the sense???
Win7Mac: voting rights. for now, "active members" have same rights as "irregular members" (community)

The body speaks of active (where participation in meetings is the only thing that is clearly stated) members vs passive. Wrong link?
When did normal TMOers become irregular?

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

What is eV ?

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Eingetragener Verein (registered association)

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

That was, at an early stage, an unfortunate wording I personally never liked. I used it basically to differentiate between active (regular) members and associated (you name it) members.

Some more info to be found in this thread.
Actual diagramm:
http://i.imgur.com/Bv8RbSi.jpg

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

The agreement has been signed but will be in effect only if the stipulation to amend the legal documents has been met. This is partially done, remaining items:
> TM Terms Of Use - (https://etherpad.mozilla.org/UHGCJQIeQA)
> TM Usage Guidelines - (https://etherpad.mozilla.org/mHZKczF0y1)
> TM FAQ - (https://etherpad.mozilla.org/AIc3c8Bnhe)
This is in the works and will hopefully be completed this weekend.

> maemo.org also needs some of the pages (like maemo.org/intro/) incl. its' sublevels to be altered since some content and links are obsolete. Community-support to fix this is highly appreciated.

MCeV has been established and is awaiting handover of HiFo assets.

Not yet, only after handover is completed.

yes

There are no real negotiations between the two, HiFo is willing to handover assets and MCeV is willing to accept.

Most and foremost joerg and his indiscriminate, destructive behaviour. This will be a matter of the past though if Council finally decides to discard him for good, which is expected to happen in next meeting next tuesday.

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Thanks to warfare, all legal documents have been amended and are awaiting review by Nokia.

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Legal documents have been acknowledged by Nokia.
Expect an official announcement on maemo.org soon. :)

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Please visit maemo.org and note thatThis announcement will show on the welcome page for at least 3 months and may then be replaced (ideas for improvement (within midgard bonds) much appreciated).
We now are 100% on our own and HiFo is holding Maemo trademarks, the Maemo community website, domain names and trademark applications incl. the server HW. :)

EDIT:
Announcement of the agreement placed on the Hildon Foundation webpage as well:
http://hildonfoundation.org/agreemen...ion-announced/

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Thankfully, things are evolving and there is some progress to report:

The annual MC e.V. General Assembly has had a meeting and is proud to welcome a new director: warfare aka fstern!
Thanks for taking resposibility, Falk.

The other good news is that MC e.V. has managed to accuire a bank accout that suits our needs and accepts EU-wide access. This was a troublesome issue from the start and it's even the more enlightening to see this problem solved. A paypal-account hopefully will be ready soon too, so donations can easily be made again.

Also, the MC e.V. wiki page has seen a major update. Particularly, a guide on how to hold a General Assembly has been added: http://wiki.maemo.org/MaemoCommunity_eV

The most demanding task now is to properly take down HiFo. This is an endeavour hardly manageable from outside the US, and since US members of HiFo are hardly around anymore, this may won't be an easy task... which might easily end up very costly, in worst case. So if you are residing in the US and have some knowledge on how to deal with associations and/or tax declarations, pease contact board(at)hildonfoundation(dot)org, me or council.

For any questions regarding MC e.V. internals, please put them over here.

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Short update:
HiFo Board just had a mixed meeting with 2 MC e.V. Board members present.
A Corporate Resolution to transfer monies to MCeV and to close the Hildon Foundation bank account has been approved as well as to proceed with a transfer of all rights, responsibilities and remaining assets to MCeV.

link: meeting minutes

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

MC e.V. Board just confirmed they received a wire transfer from HiFo.
MC e.V. bank account now holds a balance of 2.895,52 EURO.

Re: [Board] Updates on HiFo & MC e.V.
 

Here's an overview of supposedly all money transactions that been made to/by HiFo:
http://talk.maemo.org/attachment.php...1&d=1431900710

Summary:
There never been an official HiFo Paypal-account, Former Treasurer (zehjotkah) held a private Paypal account (in EURO, not US$) which was used instead. After the donation period, for practical reasons, the Paypal account was closed (paid to his private bank account), from there the IPHH bill was paid. The rest was then sent to HiFos' First Niagara Bank via wire transfer which again was subject to fees. The records for that are inaccurate but of minor importance since the amounts are negligible.

Nevertheless, within a few weeks an awesome amount of ~4.925,- US$ has been donated in order to keep our infra stay alive. After Paypal took its' revenue (242,- US$), 4.683,- US$ were raised. The expenses boil down to 1 server switch (Hardware), 2 IPHH bills (Hosting) and hiring a lawyer for legal advise to instate MC e.V. and its' Bylaws. Fees and conversion rates all together (incl. Paypal) sadly ate up ~625,- US$. The rest, 3.303,- US$ has been transferred to MC e.V., who finally received 2.905,52 EURO (at an exchange rate of 1,1368$:1€).
On the sunny side, recent slide in US$/€ exchange rate gave us quite some profit. :)

MC e.V. expenses continue with costs for notary and postal services and renewal for server hosting at IPHH (already advanced privately by fstern), which will likely be less than 200,- EURO in total.

So at least, we finally shall pay no silly fees and conversion rates anymore... :)