Hi Stefano,
Most != all. Some *some* overhead does exist.
For me, as the treasurer of
debian.ch, the main reason to have a separate organisation is a tax and accounting issue.
The budget of dc13 is above the limit where you have to start paying VAT, whereas
debian.ch's budget isn't and won't be in the near future.
VAT is a really complicated tax and generates a lot of work (like printing the VAT amount on every receipt for everything we sell with different rates, depending on what you sell...) and I really want to make sure that
debian.ch itself will not be subject to VAT as it keeps things a lot simpler.
The accounting is simpler if you have 2 organisations because you have a clear boundary between the two and don't need to do "virtual" bookkeeping for dc13 within
debian.ch.
debian.ch gives us greater incentive not to fail ... even better!
I agree it shouldn't fail! But I think it's still good practice to minimize risks.
As an example: Just think of liability issues that might arise because an accident happened at DebConf.
> not be much more bureaucratic burden than "provide conclusive accounting for
> DebConf13" and "agree where the remaining money (or depts) shall go" that we
> will have to do anyway.
The accounting has to be separate anyway and the good thing with 2 organisations is, that we're forced to keep them separate :)
Where the money goes when the organisation is closed is written in the bylaws.
I see those options:
* money goes to a Debian affiliated organisation. Disadvantage: taxes might need to be paid on this amount.
* money is given to a non-profit organisation related to Debian
* money is used for next debconf.
I'd just keep all those options open in the bylaws.
And no, if you organise dc13 within
debian.ch you cannot just move the money to the
debian.ch account.
You'd also have to pay taxes!
As a corollary of the above: I think it's pointless to try to convince
*me* about the usefulness of a DebConf13 association. At this point,
I've given a lot of thought to it, and made up my mind. Similarly, I
won't try to convince *you* of the merits of going debian.ch; don't
worry this mail of mine is the last on this topic :-)
Don't worry, I understand your points, but I think after the discussions we had with other organisations organizing events and with a fiduciary it's best to create a separate organisation from an Accounting/Legal POV.
Philipp