of 2001-April-17 The meeting proceeded without agenda.

We began by discussing the logistics of sponsoring a PLUG Presents Event to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Linux. There was consensus that a date in September or October of 2001 would be difficult to satisfy. Furthermore, the proposed event was sufficiently ambitious that we would need to form a legal corporation to take responsibility for the event. We agreed that the first exposition should be locally motivated. Also, a planning for separate vendor and technical tracks was though too ambitious for the first event. However, the possibility of allowing free admission, but asking for a donation was somewhat interesting. We also thought Because of the long time deemed necessary to organize the event itself, and the dependency on forming an organization, the participants thought it best to abandon the idea of a major event to commemorate the tenth anniversary. There was consensus that it would be best to postpone the proposed exposition until sometime during the weekdays of the last full week in April.

Because a major event would require an organization or individual to sponsor it, we decided to address the problem of forming an NPO. Furthermore, Hans convinced the participants that planning for the PLUG Presents Exposition should wait until after PLUG participated in the Fall Phoenix ITech. Except for securing the rights to PLUGPresents domain names, planning for the exposition was tabled. Having dismissed the Exposition for the time being, the meeting turned to three topics, Forming an NPO ITech and Birthday for Linux.

It was decided that if PLUG was to conduct events or undertake certain kinds of major projects then it needed to have access to a legally chartered organization. The emerging mission concept for the proposed NPO would be promoting free and open source software in Arizona. To that end, the NPO would organize the first PLUG Presents Exposition. Hans was concerned about the possible liability and trust obligations that would attach to board members, and officers in particular. He believed that it was critical to get competent legal advice at all stages of forming the NPO. Many individuals expressed concerns about the difficulties of chartering the NPO and writing its bylaws. There were also concerns about how the first set of officers would be chosen. Jim observed that hiring legal counsel would be expensive, but not prohibitively expensive. Jay was concerned about the effect that forming a non-profit organization to sponsor PLUG would have on the informal user group. It was agreed that making the un-PLUG NPO distinct from the Phoenix Linux User Group was promising and deserved further consideration. We were interested in an NPO to generally promote free software in Arizona. This would mean that un-PLUG would have a wider population of constituents than just PLUG and its members. Because of un-PLUG's mission that would include acting as an umbrella organization supporting free-ware U.G.s in Arizona, members of PLUG are encouraged to redistribute this section to other U.G.s where they participate. Scheduling the next meeting of the un-PLUG exploratory group will occur on the main PLUG list. The next meeting of the NPO group should occur within two weeks. Hans will contact the Non-Profit institute at ASU Hans will look for appropriate legal counsel Walter will look for financial advisors Trent volunteered for any position on the board except for treasurer Various individuals promised to work on the committee Also, everyone is encouraged to look for _pro-bono_ legal, financial, and business advisors for un-PLUG.

Non-Profit institute Legal advisors Business advisors

Mission Membership Charter Bylaws

Hans will get in touch with his contacts at ITech. We will want to draw visitors to the ITech event, but not so many that we annoy ITech. After all, ITech needs to turn a profit. We will try to keep one theatre or seminar room busy. We will also try to bring in a speaker who can headline the PLUG marquee. However, the speaker will give his or her presentation after the main ITech event (unless the ITech promoters request otherwise. We fear that a major speaker could swamp the commercial effectiveness of the promoter's event.) Note that this makes the problem of getting a room for PLUG's main presenter a major logistical hurdle. Also, in keeping with ITech's for-profit focus, there was some interest in getting presenters from companies involved in producing 'blended' systems. The most notable company working on blended products is IBM. Another possibility is myLinux. Contact Hans if you are interested in planning PLUG's presence at the Phoenix ITech.