On 5 January 2012 15:30, Tanguy Ortolo tanguy+fsfe@ortolo.eu wrote:
Hugo Roy, 2012-01-05 16:22+0100:
April works typically like a French 1901 association and many other associations. This is not exactly the same kind of association as FSFE (e.V.) also they are legally similar, I would like to point out the cultural difference here. For historical reasons, although FSFE was quite European at the beginning (including France), it has a lot of Germany's cultural aspects in the way the organisation works, that's more like other German associations I am aware of.
I can understand that, but I really doubt that the German law provides no way to have a viable assotiation with more than a handful of “members”, that term being understood as: people that pay a subscription and are able to vote for decisions or name a board of representatives to take decisions.
Being French myself, of course I mostly know French law associations, but I also subscribed to Debian France, which is an Alsace-Moselle law association. I think this is quite close to the German law, and as far as I know, I am a member of it, although I have never been sollicitated for an assembly yet.
As Estonian law is generally based on German law, I would expect that the GA has to meet at least once a year. With the current constitution, it certainly has to. And at least a third of the members have to be present or have to have authorized someone else to vote for them in order for the GA to be resolutionable. Again, I do not think that the law allows to reduce the minimum ratio of represented members further. Thus, having all Fellows as members is not sustainable. One of the positive aspects of being a Fellow is that you control whether you pay only your Fellowship dues or contribute your time too. Members ought to commit their time too in order for the association to work.