dual FSF and FSFE membership

Mat Witts admin at mail.yuj.it
Wed Jul 19 12:38:59 UTC 2017


There will be pros and cons. because the legislative, historical and
cultural context of the institutions and the FS movement in Europe is
not the same as the US making joint policy agreements perhaps marginally
sub-optimal for FSF and FSFE.

>From the perspective of members of both organizations though, it seems
pedantic to have to administer two sets of subscriptions for
organizations with identical aims.

A lot would depend on the demand from members for some sort of joint
venture on public affairs and also for some arrangement with members
subscription payments, which would have to be beneficial in some way for
both orgs of course.

Given funding is always an issue for non-profits, there could also be
trivial squabbles over resourcing for particular campaigns. DRM might be
more of a priority in the US for example, whereas FS in public
administrations may be worth targeting more resources on in Europe (or
the reverse!). 

It could also be that overall each org would experience a downturn in
revenue which would not be helpful to either one.

Given each org already has a charitable approach to subs leaving the
choice to the individual may be the best strategy.

Data from each org. about duplicate memberships might shed some light on
what is really at stake financially and administratively here I think,
but making that kind of personal data available would I think also
require some form of special dispensation from the members of both orgs?  

Mat



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