[Bf-committers] Blender developer irc meeting minutes 6 feb 2011

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi,

Follow up on this:

> - A long discussion went on about fundraiser models, based on doubts
> expressed that money is given out personally to developers, without
> any guarantee it will end up with something. Ton will consult other OS
> foundations if there's experience and policies for this.

I've consulted some people in other foundations, here's a quote that  
summarizes the topic well: (note: a 501(c)3s is the US legal name for  
a "foundation")

------------
*in the USA*, specifically, this is a legal minefield for 501(c)3s.   In
order to fundraise for development you'd need to ensure that:

a) Nobody deciding what features to fund was in a position to benefit
from them financially

b) Either you'd need to do "general funds" and not fundraise for
specific features, *or* you'd need to ensure that donors to specific
features didn't derive business benefit from them (good luck on that)
----------

Similar practices are valid here in Europe too. BF can accept  
donations tax-free only if there's no service or compensation related  
to it.
A "pay for feature" system would be regarded as a commercial activity,  
with strict legal & tax regulations for all parties: for the donator,  
collector and the receiver's side. A potential minefield.

This is why the common practice for Foundations is to stick to general  
funding targets, aimed at topics that provide public benefit according  
to their goals.

-Ton-

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org    www.blender.org
Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The Netherlands

On 6 Feb, 2011, at 19:00, Ton Roosendaal wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Here's a summary of today's meeting:
>
> 0) General notes
>
> - Terry Wallwork added Blender Gamekit2 now entirely in wiki:
>   http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Books/GameKit_2
>
> - the server with svn and FusionForge (trackers) is having hardware
> troubles. It's being monitored full time, and if problems persist it
> will be moved to new system.
>
> - Luca Bonavita is working on the wiki migration to a dedicated
> server, new install and css and skin updates together with Francesco
> Siddi. Expectation is that it goes live in a week.
>
> 1) Blender 2.5x proceedings
>
> - Sergey Sharybin notices that usage of symmetric brush and "crazy
> space" sculpting (on deformed meshes) still has issues. He'll work on
> it.
>
> - The Python script registry discussion is still unresolved.
>
> - We have a couple of GPL conflicts in our code base (GPL 2, 2 or
> later, and 3). Ton will contact the C code authors, Luca checks the
> the addon scripts and fixes template:
>  https://svn.blender.org/svnroot/bf-extensions/contrib/dev-tools/ 
> gpl.py
>
> 2) Other projects, branches
>
> - No branches news!
>
> - A long discussion went on about fundraiser models, based on doubts
> expressed that money is given out personally to developers, without
> any guarantee it will end up with something. Ton will consult other OS
> foundations if there's experience and policies for this.
> For as now, BF prefers to have community driven bounty systems
> organized independently, and involve volunteering or paid developers
> on equal basis.
>
> -Ton-
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org     
> www.blender.org
> Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The  
> Netherlands
>
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