NPO

[Lucas Vogel]

Arizona Open Source Exchange (AZOSX)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nick Estes [mailto:nick@nickstoys.com]
> Sent: Friday, April 20, 2001 12:33 PM
> To: plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
> Cc: npo@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
> Subject: Re: NPO
> 
> 
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> On Fri, 20 Apr 2001, Jim wrote:
> 
> > I just talked with David Colby, the accountant Bob Ambrose 
> put us in touch
> > with.  He said that we need very little to get the NPO 
> started.  We need:
> >
> > 	a name for the umbrella organization
> > 	a list of officers for the new organization
> > 	a mission statement
> >
> > Some suggestions for a name:
> >
> > Arizona Open Software Information Exchange (AOSIX)
> > Open Source Software of Arizona (OSAZ)
> >
> > Any others to throw into the name pool?
> 
> This will no doubt be the hardest part of the entire process... (-=
> 
> 
> > Anyone want to be officers?
> 
> I would like to do this.  Also, if you go to 
> www.nonprofits.org, they have
> a large collection of information that could be useful for 
> us, including
> one section on the rights and responsibilities of the board/officers.
> 
> 
> > Another suggestion:
> >
> > Mission Statement
> 
> As you stated below, this should have 3 parts, our purpose, 
> how we achieve
> that purpose, and our values (who we are, and why we are interested in
> pursuing this purpose.)  I think we have all of the pieces in what you
> proposed, but it would be nice to trim it down to just one or two
> sentances that are easy to remember.
> 
> 
> > ____________ is a non-profit group of volunteers from the 
> Arizona software
> > community dedicated to promoting the awareness, acceptance, 
> and use of
> > Open Source software in the state of Arizona.
> 
> Instead of promoting, how about increasing.  Our purpose is 
> to increase
> the awareness, acceptance, and use of Open Source software in Arizona.
> 
> The values portion of the mission is also here, we are a group of
> volunteers from the Arizona Open Source software community 
> dedicated to
> our purpose.
> 
> 
> >  ____________ sponsors and participates in events to expand 
> the use of
> > Open Source software.
> 
> This would be the third part, how do we serve our purpose; we 
> sponsor and
> participate in events related to our purpose.  I think saying 
> we do it to
> expand the use of Open Source software is too limiting, 
> because we also do
> it to increase awareness and acceptance of it as well.
> 
> 
> > We believe that software users, both individuals and organizations,
> > have the right to own, use, and modify, if necessary, any software
> > that they find necessary to meet their own individual needs.
> 
> While this is certainly true, I'm not sure that it should be in the
> mission statement.  This would be better placed in a seperate 
> statment of
> values and beliefs if we decide to make one.
> 
> 
> > __________ receives its direction from a voluntary Board of 
> Directors,
> > which includes a President, Vice-president, and Treasurer.  
> None of the
> > members receive monitary compensation for their efforts.
> 
> If we state that we are a 501(c)(3) (is this the right one?), 
> it implies
> that we have at least a minimal non-compensated board of directors.
> 
> 
> If we put it all back together, we get something like:
> 
> ________ is a 501(c)(3) organization of Arizona Open Source community
> volunteers dedicated to increasing the awareness, acceptance, 
> and use of
> Open Source software in Arizona by sponsoring and participating in
> technology related events.
> 
> This includes all three parts we need in the mission statement, and
> "technology related events" would include everything we want 
> to do from ug
> meetings, all the way up to a full blown conference.
> 
> 	--Nick
> 
> 
> > The first sentence identifies the purpose of the organization.
> >
> > The second sentence states the identifies the types of 
> activities that the
> > organization uses to accomplish the purposes.  It covers 
> any event that the
> > organization hosts, like the proposed conference and exposition, and
> > participation in existing events like ITEC.
> >
> > The third sentence states the open source values that 
> inherently guide the
> > organiszation.
> >
> > The second paragraph, while optional, does clarify the 
> minimal structure of
> > the organization and emphasizes the voluntary nature of it. 
>  It states a
> > minimum number of Board members, but does not restrict the 
> size of the
> > Board.
> >
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