DebConf13/Meetings/minutes-20120518

Why do we need an association in Switzerland?

1. no personal liability with an association
2. sign contracts
3. receive money
4. tax exempt status (if reachable)
5. separate Debian money from personal money

Summary: The swiss local team agrees that we need some sort of legal umbrella which is the legal organizer of DC13. No one is willing to personally vouch for DC13 without this. This would mean that they would have to take the full legal liability themself.

Matrix DebConf13 and debian.ch

During past discussions mainly two options were considered:

DebConf13: we will create a new association under the Swiss law.

debian.ch: we will organize the event under the umbrella of debian.ch.

	+	-
DebConf13	no need to do a general meeting [D1] degree of freedom for the nationality of members [D2] do only one thing [D3] Financial / Legal security for debian.ch [D4] easier if we have to pay VAT because debian.ch does not have to pay VAT in the following years. the /ch/open (swiss open users group) lawyer recommends to create a separate association.	does not exist right now [D4]
debian.ch	established and recognized since November 2006 [d1] may lead to involvement of other debian.ch member [d2] "debian" and "ch" in the name [d3] most of the current localteam is already member of debian.ch (7/10) [d4] Kevin and Raphael could easily apply, Arne's status is unknown looks easier to get a tax exempt status [d5] tax exempt status could be use in the future [d6]	bylaws need an update [d7] 7 is not the majority of the 19 members of debian.ch [d8] We will have to pay VAT for the non debconf related activites of debian.ch

Sponsor Matrix

Country of sponsor	Association involved
USA	SPI
Europe ex CH	FFIS or debian.ch/DebConf13 if it has an account in EUR (to be decided later what's better)
CH	debian.ch/DebConf13