Re: SPI's wounded state of affairs

Lists: spi-general
From: csmall(at)eye-net(dot)com(dot)au (Craig Small)
To: Branden Robinson / SPI Treasurer <branden+spi-treasurer(at)deadbeast(dot)net>
Cc: spi-general(at)lists(dot)spi-inc(dot)org
Subject: Re: SPI's wounded state of affairs
Date: 2002-01-11 02:19:18
Message-ID: 20020111021918.GA12758@eye-net.com.au
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Lists: spi-general

On Tue, Jan 08, 2002 at 09:20:43PM -0500, Branden Robinson / SPI Treasurer wrote:
[lots of very sad story deleted]
> I also wrote a mission statement for myself, and posted it to the SPI
> board mailing list. You folks should see it as well.

Glad to see after far to long that someone has decided to take this
position seriously, thanks Branden!

> Debian specifically will need to re-establish contact with businesses
> that have, in the past, made cash donations to SPI on a regular basis.
> To my knowledge, there have been no deposits made to SPI's account in
> months and I don't know that any CD vendors, etc. are still actually
> attempting to send SPI donation checks. However, my information is
> still pretty incomplete and I expect to learn more over the next month
> or so.
I have a database that holds all Debian CD vendors on our list. There
are 78 of them that have said they can contribute funds to Debian. 9 of
those are hidden, which means they're probably not even selling Debian
CDs anymore.

I can give you or someone this list, or if you like I can email them.
What worries me is that we (Debian webmasters) often get emails from
vendors saying how do we contribute and I point them to spi or tell
them to email the treasurer :/ I wonder how many replies everyone got
:(

In you spare few seconds, you might like to think about wether or not
you might take Euros. Any other currency you probably wouldn't bother,
but there wil be a fair few people with Euros. Even if that means
keeping them in a box and converting them once a year or so.

BTW, this is what a vendor gets if they ask about donations on the
webmaster(at)debian(dot)org alias:

How do I contribute funds to Debian?
------------------------------------

Software in the Public Interest (SPI) is our non-profit legal umbrella for
the Debian Project. You can find out information about donations at
http://www.spi-inc.org/donations Please make sure your mark your donations
as for Debian (if that's where they're supposed to go) as SPI looks after
more than just Debian.

That looks ok to me, if you have suggestions for something different let
me know.

- Craig

--
Craig Small VK2XLZ GnuPG:1C1B D893 1418 2AF4 45EE 95CB C76C E5AC 12CA DFA5
Eye-Net Consulting http://www.eye-net.com.au/ <csmall(at)eye-net(dot)com(dot)au>
MIEEE <csmall(at)ieee(dot)org> Debian developer <csmall(at)debian(dot)org>


From: Branden Robinson / SPI Treasurer <branden+spi-treasurer(at)deadbeast(dot)net>
To: Craig Small <csmall(at)eye-net(dot)com(dot)au>
Cc: spi-general(at)lists(dot)spi-inc(dot)org, spi-board(at)lists(dot)spi-inc(dot)org
Subject: Re: SPI's wounded state of affairs
Date: 2002-01-11 04:53:28
Message-ID: 20020111045327.GL31311@deadbeast.net
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On Fri, Jan 11, 2002 at 01:19:18PM +1100, Craig Small wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 08, 2002 at 09:20:43PM -0500, Branden Robinson / SPI Treasurer wrote:
> [lots of very sad story deleted]
> > I also wrote a mission statement for myself, and posted it to the SPI
> > board mailing list. You folks should see it as well.
>
> Glad to see after far to long that someone has decided to take this
> position seriously, thanks Branden!

Thank you, and thanks for eliding most of that message to private forums
when quoting it in a public one. :)

> > Debian specifically will need to re-establish contact with businesses
> > that have, in the past, made cash donations to SPI on a regular basis.
[...]
> I have a database that holds all Debian CD vendors on our list. There
> are 78 of them that have said they can contribute funds to Debian. 9 of
> those are hidden, which means they're probably not even selling Debian
> CDs anymore.
>
> I can give you or someone this list, or if you like I can email them.

Please send them along to me, or to board(at)spi-inc(dot)org(dot)

> What worries me is that we (Debian webmasters) often get emails from
> vendors saying how do we contribute and I point them to spi or tell
> them to email the treasurer :/ I wonder how many replies everyone got
> :(

Probably not many! :(

> In you spare few seconds, you might like to think about wether or not
> you might take Euros. Any other currency you probably wouldn't bother,
> but there wil be a fair few people with Euros. Even if that means
> keeping them in a box and converting them once a year or so.

Actually, Martin Schulze, SPI Vice-President, has an arrangement with a
German organization that handles SPI's European money. This is
documented on the SPI Donations page.

> BTW, this is what a vendor gets if they ask about donations on the
> webmaster(at)debian(dot)org alias:
>
> How do I contribute funds to Debian?
> ------------------------------------
>
> Software in the Public Interest (SPI) is our non-profit legal umbrella for
> the Debian Project. You can find out information about donations at
> http://www.spi-inc.org/donations Please make sure your mark your donations
> as for Debian (if that's where they're supposed to go) as SPI looks after
> more than just Debian.
>
> That looks ok to me, if you have suggestions for something different let
> me know.

Looks fine. Since last month that information has been completely
accurate to the best of my knowledge.

--
G. Branden Robinson | Software engineering: that part of
Debian GNU/Linux | computer science which is too
branden(at)deadbeast(dot)net | difficult for the computer
http://www.deadbeast.net/~branden/ | scientist.