FSFE Finance

[Bernhard Reiter]

On Tue, Jul 24, 2001 at 02:43:52PM +0200, Anders Lindback wrote:
> Bernhard Reiter skrev:
> > The FSFE has to stay independent and focused on long term goals.
> 
> Independent from what ? The people of Europe ?
> Independence and focusing on long term goals are more a state of mind
> and has nothing to do with how many members the organisation has.

Some more explaination is at:

| On the structure of the FSF Europe 
| Georg C. F. Greve greve at gnu.org 
| 11 May 2001 22:05:15 +0200 

	http://mailman.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/announce/2001-May/000013.html

Additionally we do not want to compete for members with
the organisations which are already founded and deal with Free Software
in many countries.

> > But there is no way to buy your membership to a community in the end.

> Yes, but this is a community who only recognize a elite few as members.
> The others are just followers without any standing whatsoever, unless they
> pay -  a not insignificant amount -  to become a supporter. 

You can be a "supporter" or "patron" of the FSF, 
but that does not necessarily mean that you are participating 
in the Free Software community.
Usually I search for the name on the internet and see how the person
is involved into Free Software. 

We (as the FSFE core team) do not define the community.
We also do not represent the whole community.
If somebody asks we will explain Free Software and what we believe
the community things.


> I find it a bit hilarious that Microsoft might become a Ptron (I
> could not find any restriction other thay paying the aquired
> amount to bccome a Patron) but that a university student who just
> write a some free softwware in her spare time can't become a
> member of the cummunity.

We value the Free Software developer a lot more.
The developer might get accounts on various machines 
and even get associated with us and speak for us. 
We will publish his work (may it be software or other information).

Note that we still are working on the structure for sponsors of the FSFE.

> If the activities are brought to a halt it will probably either be because
> the current managemnet are doing the wrong things and should be replaced,
> a case which I find highly unlikely. The other option is becasue some people
> are sabotaging the organsiation in which case the public outcry from the loyal
> members should be enough to stop that. 

If loyal members are in the minority?
Think about various issues where the FSF was in the minority 
(for a short but significant time).

> Personally I see no reason for anyone
> to try and sabotage the organisation.

Did you think about the amount of money "software hoarders" are making?
There are many possible reasons somebody might not like the FSFE.

	Bernhard
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