Association for Foswiki

Why an association?

An association is vital for Foswiki's independence, offering the following benefits:

• A legal entity with a democratic structure to make decisions
• No one single individual or group can take excessive profit from the community's success, at the cost of others
• A legal entity can transparently distribute funding to cover necessary expenditures (such as infrastructure and meetings)
• A legal entity can hold trademarks and domains
• The association can act as tie-breaker when the community is in deadlock

Membership

Membership of the Foswiki association is open to any individual. By joining the association you are showing your support for the project and the goal of maintaining Foswiki as an democratically governed project, open to all, for the benefit of all. By maintaining a large membership, we help keep Foswiki independent of any minority interest, and ensure the project is always listening to its community.

Members are asked to make a small annual payment of 10 euros (approx. $15 US) as a demonstration of their commitment and to help support the administration of the association. Anyone who has benefited by using Foswiki should become a member—it's a great way to say "thanks" for the thousands of hours of work by the team. If you don't want to (or can't) become a member, then you can still donate to the project.

If you want to become a member, please edit your user topic and set the MemberStatus to "requested". Please make sure that we can contact you when the date of the next general assembly comes. A valid email address with your Wiki username should be enough. A real name would be nice, too. You do not need to be physically present at an assembly to become a member.

List of founding members

1. JensHansen
2. AndreUlrich
3. SvenReher
4. OliverKrueger
5. IngoKappler
6. OliverLaudenbach
7. MarkusUeberall

List of current members

Please see CurrentFoswikiMembers.

Board

The Association elects a board from its membership. This board is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the association, including running the TaskTeamGovernance system. The current board comprises:

• CrawfordCurrie (chair)
• MichaelDaum
• KennethLavrsen (deputy chair/secretary)
• OliverKrueger (treasurer)
• SvenDowideit

General Assemblies

The minutes of the first (founding) assembly are at FoswikiSummit09MeetingMinutes.

The date and venue of the next general assembly has yet to be decided.

Roadmap

1. Finish the AssociationArticles, which you should all review and comment as required until 15th of April
2. Finalize and agree on the articles with the lawyers
3. Translate the articles into German
4. Found the association by a German FoundingTaskForce to quick jump and secure the process
5. Find a date: November 21st / 22nd, 2009
6. Discussion about the initial assemby Hannover (HAJ), Germany
7. Wait till the Association is fully registered at the court
8. Set an agenda for the first General Assembly AgendaInitialCommunityAssembly
9. Invite people to become member
10. Look for funding and create an account
11. Hold the first General Assembly and elect the official board members
12. Transfer domains and infrastructure to the association