Re: [Debconf-team] Creating a debconf13 association

[Holger Levsen <holger@layer-acht.org>]

Hi,

just some remarks... just arrived tired at home from a 20h flight from Managua 
:-) (Which in a word was great! more about that soon..!)

On Montag, 7. Mai 2012, Gaudenz Steinlin wrote:

> As far as I know the legal situation in Switzerland is quite unique as
> the most common form of non profit association (german "Verein") is very
> easy to set up. There is basically no bureaucracy involved (at least not
> dealing with authorities). No registration is necessary and we don't
> need any kind of acceptance by the authorities. 

Wow. And there is also no extra paperwork ever after?

(And, btw, this seems to be what a german "GbR" (Gesellschaft bürgerlichen 
Rechts) is, and not a german "Verein". Nice confusion :)

> This kind of association
> is ubiquitous in Switzerland. Most larger events I know of (mostly from
> Scouting) created their own association to separate the legal
> responsibility from their "mother" organization and to minimize the legal
> risks for the organizers and for the mother organization.

So, how is the legal responsibility if this "Verein" f*cks up? Ie, how does it 
minimize the risks for the organizers if they are members?
 
> * No majority for the Debconf orgateam inside debian.ch (to have
> a do-ocracy where those that do the work have the power to decide) 

I dont think you need a majority in the legal association at all: the board 
just needs to decide once "we (legally) do debconf13 and the details of doing 
it are up to $debconf13-team". I don't think boards have to micromanage 
everything.

> * Not
> really possible to have Debconf global team members as members of
> debian.ch. At least we would have to stretch the membership rules for
> this.

why do you want global team members to be members?

> For companies donations most probably can
> just be seen as normal expenses

so for (also) Germany based companies it will still be better to donate via 
ffis e.V., where company donations are tax-deductable.

> It
> may even be benefical to pay VAT because we probably will have to pay
> more VAT on things we buy (which would be deductible by us) than we have
> to add VAT to things we sell.

makes sense :-)


(To be clear: I'm not at all against a debconf13.ch legal association, I'm 
just not convinced by some of your arguments ;-)


cheers,
	Holger