Re: [boost] BoostCon Trip Report online at The C++ Source

From: Jeff Garland (jeff_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-06-29 18:34:05

Alexander Terekhov wrote:
> Douglas Gregor wrote:
>> On Fri, 2007-06-29 at 23:12 +0200, Alexander Terekhov wrote:
>>> [...]
>>>> To do it legitimately is a paperwork nightmare;
>>> But to do it illegitimately is not an option, oder?
>>>
>>> Suppose I can pay-pal donate something to somewhat free you from
>>> that paperwork nightmare. There's a link? Just try it.
>> Donate to whom? Me? David Abrahams? Beman Dawes? John Maddock?
> 
> I don't care. I can split it if you like. Play-pal addresses, please.
> 
>> There is no entity called "Boost"; we're a community of individuals.
>> That works really well until someone tries to donate money to Boost or
>> tries to sue Boost. Then, some individual has to take responsibility.
>> Donating to me means I need to pay taxes on that donation.
>>
>> To donate to "Boost", we need a legal entity called "Boost", and that
>> means a non-profit. 
> 
> Fine. See above (regarding boost non-profit infrastructure or some such).

Seriously -- we can't use a single person.  For example, with Google SoC the 
organization gets a stipend, but we don't have a way to accept it unless we 
have a 'Boost' account somewhere.

>> Non-profits require paperwork, accounting, board
>> members---all of the things we just don't have time for. 
> 
> Think of hiring someone. And tell us the price (the same goes for the 
> infrastructure). So that one can arrange the scale of donations, so to 
> speak.

At least one of the moderators have direct experience with this and indicated 
it's a huge job.  Moreover, I've personally talked with the leaders of a 
number of open source projects that have their own non-profit and the clear 
advice was to avoid the 'do it yourself' approach if possible.

BTW, the most common expenses projects associated with the Conservancy have 
are associated with conferences.  To run one money is involved to reserve 
rooms and such.  Indiana Univ. covered us this year, but we shouldn't count on 
that forever.

>> The Conservancy
> 
> http://dartreview.com/archives/2005/04/08/intellectual_property_is_so_last_year.php
> 
>> gives us non-profit status without the tedious parts of creating and
>> maintaining a non-profit organization.
> 
> How much? The cost, I mean.

Zero, nada, nil, zip, none, 0.  All donations made directly to Boost go into 
an account for Boost at absolutely no cost.  There a NO fees taken out of the 
account, ever. I don't know how they afford Eben's salary, but I suspect it is 
thru donations to the Conservancy as a whole since there is no cost to member 
projects.

Jeff