The way I see it, which AFAIK is the way it's always been, is that the Council represents (i.e. is democratically elected by) the community. The latter being the users of maemo.org.

This representation involves acting on behalf of the community as a whole when something needs to be requested from the Maemo e.V., being the legal entity capable of actually entering into any contractual agreements on behalf of the community.

So Council does the politics/lobbying while Maemo e.V. does the (necessary) "bureaucracy".

Just for completeness I'd note that, in terms of "power", the council is below the users (because the users "own" the council), while the council is above the board (because the council tells the board what users want).

I think that does it. If I've gotten all seriously mixed up please somebody stand up and say it loud & clear!

Add. (2014-12-20): When I refer to "Maemo e.V." I refer to the active part of it (Board of directors). The "Council" refers to the one elected by the community (passive members of Maemo e.V., i.e. all of us). Whether the Council is part of the e.V. or external to it is, IMHO, irrelevant (except that the bylaws refer to a Council, so it needs to exist in some form recognized by the e.V.).

Also I still don't quite see the role of the General Assembly (active members of Maemo e.V.), which are a necessary legal aspect but have no clear role in how things are done here. The Board of directors execute both GA's [active members] and Council's [passive members] rulings, which may result in messy situations. But I cannot answer to this or solve this dilemma. If there was a way of having a fake/virtual GA I'd go for it.