<html> <head> <style></style></head> <body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'> Hi...<div><br></div><div>At the olpcSF meeting last October some of us met informally and discussed the need for exactly what you are suggesting: an organization that would act as an "umbrella" for groups that wanted to fund small deployments and make other contributions to the OLPC, Sugar, and open source software in education (OSSIE). As far as I know, nothing has been done to implement this idea yet. Some of the suggestions we had were:</div><div><br></div><div>* It should be a completely separate entity from OLPC and Sugar Labs to insure independence.</div><div>* It should file as a registered 501c3 NGO that could act as an umbrella organization for the local groups that are meeting and raising funds for their deployments and other OLPC/Sugar Related activities. In addition to the NGO status, they could carry liability insurance so local groups under the "umbrella" would be able to qualify for free meeting space as a non-profit.</div><div>* The name that we used for the group was "Bumblebees." One reason for choosing that was it in no way indicates relation to OLPC or Sugar Labs.</div><div><br></div><div>We didn't keep a list of who was there, but I do remember SJ, Craig Perue, and I think Mark Battley being there. They can probably fill you in with other info. </div><div><br></div><div>It would be really helpful to local groups if this could happen. For olpc-SoCal, here in Southern California, it would allow us and other groups like ours to get free meeting space (insurance and NGO status required), to hold events like a Scratch Day and similar, and to raise funds for small deployments.</div><div><br></div><div>Caryl</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><br><div><div id="SkyDrivePlaceholder"></div>> Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 15:38:58 +0000<br>> From: alsroot@sugarlabs.org<br>> To: bkuhn@sfconservancy.org<br>> CC: tony@sfconservancy.org; iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org; olpc-sur@lists.laptop.org; slobs@lists.sugarlabs.org<br>> Subject: Re: [Sur] [SLOBS] "New Co" / Nueva Empresa<br>> <br>> On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 10:55:50AM -0400, Bradley M. Kuhn wrote:<br>> > Aleksey Lim wrote at 09:52 (EDT):<br>> > <br>> > > 4.4 New organization should provide a way to forward funding (mostly<br>> > > crowdfunding) flows to particular program and provide everything to<br>> > > make this funding open/clear for donators and easy handled by local<br>> > > deployment people.<br>> > <br>> > Funding for new software development can always be done through<br>> > Conservancy. I think it's important to make a distinction between<br>> > funding for deployments vs. funding for development of Sugar Labs<br>> > software itself. The former can't easily flow through Conservancy, but<br>> > the latter can.<br>> <br>> Thanks for explanation. Yes, my idea was exactly about funding local<br>> deployments (not software development within the Sugar Labs itself).<br>> <br>> -- <br>> Aleksey<br>> _______________________________________________<br>> Lista olpc-Sur<br>> olpc-Sur@lists.laptop.org<br>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sur<br></div></div> </div></body> </html>