[haiku-inc] Re: Fresh funding sources
- From: Richie Nyhus-Smith <richienyhus@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: haiku-inc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2015 20:20:25 +1300
> The HSA has some more members and a better status where there is a
> yearly (I think?) vote to renew the board. This at least avoids the
> "everyone left the ship" state Haiku, inc. is currently in. But they
> also have an even more terse website, and not a lot of information on
> the budget and the actions taken. So, similar problems there (I think
> members have access to more private info, but you have to pay for
> membership).
>
> The paying membership is an interesting idea, as it allows people
> donating money to have a part in the decisions taken when running the
> org. This would solve the issue of people being unhappy with the org.
> decisions, because they voted there, and maybe lost the vote). But then
> again, it means we give the power to people with enough money to donate
> to the org, and it is hard to set an appropriate membership fee. It
> would be nice to have a way for all interested Haiku
> users/lurkers/community members to be able to express their decisions.
> And still, it must be clear that Haiku, inc. is designed to not
> interfere with decisions about the development work (they are here only
> to manage the bank account).
I would be intrested in seeing whoever takes the PHP devoper mantle to
update their website to a Drupal CRM for them. On the other hand there is
an intresting open source Django based Association Management System called
Tendenci (https://tendenci.com/) that might be easier for them to maintain
than a Drupal install.
But I guess this something I should discuss with Marcus.
> There can be various other problems, for example mmlr cancelled a
> contract because of health issues, 2 month after it started (the plan
> was for 1 year of work IIRC). In that case Haiku, inc was able to
> reallocate the money. But if it is raised on a specific goal, what
> happens? Does Haiku, inc refunds everyone? Do they reallocate the money
> to something else? (it happened for Haikuware in the past, the donors
> could vote on what to do with the money, and in the end it was just
> given to Haiku, inc).
Yes that is a problem if the contract is cancelled. Plus the greater the
role crowdfunding plays in funding a contract, the greater the chance that
donors will get upset after a cancellation (because they feel more directly
involved in the contract).
This could be mitigated by disclaiming upfront on the fundraising
page/pages what would happen to the funds if the contract was cancelled, so
the donors be informed that the funds would be held to fund the next
contract (or whatever is chosen at the time).
-
Richard
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