[Osmf-talk] Eligibility to vote for Wikipedia Foundation

[Tom Hughes]

On 10/08/09 11:22, Peter Miller wrote:

> Fyi, I have just be emailed to say that I can vote to the Wikipedia
> Foundation Board of Trustees. I have never given them any money and
> have never consciously signed up to any foundation. I would strongly
> support a move to this sort of membership before the 2010 OSMF AGM.

I'm not sure that is possible - the foundation is a Company Limited by 
Guarantee as defined by the UK Companies Act. As such only those people 
who are members of the company may vote for the directors of the 
foundation (which is what the board is in law).

The question would therefore be whether it is possible to make 
membership free so that all contributors meeting certain criteria can be 
deemed to be members.

I suspect the problem with that will be question of the financial 
guarantee that backs the limited liability status - currently that 
guarantee is provided by the membership fees I believe. In other cases 
of Companies Limited by Guarantee that I have seen it was done by 
members agreeing to pay a small amount (one pound) if the company went 
bust but there does need to be some sort of guarantee as I understand 
things.

Tom

-- 
Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
http://www.compton.nu/