[meego-fi] Re: Forming an association

Good to see it started, Timo!

Here are a couple of bits from me.

> 
> Before calling the founding meeting we need some input for at least the 
> following things:
> - What is the purpose of the association?
A real goal for most of the meetup participants seems to go along the lines "it 
would be cool to make something cool using some cool technology" with some 
variations towards/against money and open/closed source.

I guess formally it would sound as something like "we strive to support 
innovation on the cutting edge technologies in the Tampere region". Maybe with 
being clear a little more on that it is mostly about software.

Not sure if many people would want to support exactly new businesses/startups 
being built, however, I know that we've got plenty of people who want open 
source to succeed. Could one of the goals be then about helping to 
create/invent sustainable businesses that are based on open source 
software/hardware in this way or another.



> 
> - How the association raises it's funds?
> 
> At least donations, support membership fees, selling goods and services, etc. 
> Basically we need to list everything we come up with into the association's 
> rules.
We can organize paid conferences. Selling services directly may be a little 
wrong for a non-commercial association, but being an agent for its members may 
sound OK. Then members-on-hire can pay back by higher membership fees or some 
kind of agent fee. Or just by convincing their dayjob managers and clients to 
sponsor the association.


> 
> - Something else.

As well as having a "real" long-term goal and vision, it would be cool to have 
something like close, starting goal from scratch. Smaller short-term goal could 
help to validate the vision. As just an example such a goal could be to set up 
a permanent weekly club on helping people to get over N9 issues or to set up a 
workshop where potential members will come up with the activities to pursue.

Cheers,
Artem.

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