[IMP] Foundation: Way Forward

Dear all,

Finally as we move closer to the foundation establishment, just wanted to share some thoughts on some of the key issues.

1. Revenue:

  1. Foundation will give out Annual Memberships (Gold and Regular) and these memberships will come with an official listing of erpnext.org (in the service provider’s listing page)
  2. Gold memberships will get 30 hours of consulting from the foundation
  3. Ticket sales, sponsorships at the conference
  4. T-shirts and other merchandize
  5. Specific fund raising campaigns on IndieGogo

2. Execute Board (EB)

  1. The executive board (EB) that will be selected from all members (X seats for Gold members and Y seats for regular members)
  2. The board propose and vote on a roadmap for the foundation
  3. All expenses will be approved by the EB

(suggestions for X and Y welcome)

3. Budget and Expenses

  1. Based on the amount we are able to raise, the foundation will hire 2-3 developers
  2. They will work on the roadmap approved by the foundation and provide consulting to foundation Gold Members
  3. Foundation will announce projects for any 3rd party service provider to bid (Note: Frappé Technologies will not bid on these proposals)
  4. The Foundation team will be hired and monitored by the EB.

4. Operations

  1. EB meetings will be held online once a month via Google Hangout or alternatives
  2. Day-to-day operations at this point will be managed by Frappé Technologies
  3. All revenue and expenses including salaries will be posted online. We will work with 100% transparency from day 1

5. Feedback Wanted:

  1. Annual cost of Gold and Regular Memberships: My proposal is $5000/year for Gold Membership and $100/year for regular membership.
  2. No of seats on the EB: Since this is year #1, automatic membership for Gold members (I am expecting 3-4), 2 elected from regular members, 2 from Frappé Technologies.

Please share your thoughts!

If you are keen on being a :medal: gold member, please PM me separately :slight_smile:

21 Likes

great to see things are progressing. I think your points are up for disucssion up to some degree?

wouldn’t that (as per 2.2 “board propose and vote on a roadmap for the foundation”) be something to be decided by the Foundation’s EB once it’s functional?

I don’t want to question or discuss whether it makes sense or not to hire and pay developers or not, that might totally something the Foundation might want to do … just thinking the roadmap could have other priorities (say develop an infrastructure to develop the Community, invest into Training, or … [I guess you get my drift here]) then direct investment into code as well. And to define those priorities would be a task of the board once it exists.

how long would you say would this be? 3 months, half a year?

[quote=“rmehta, post:1, topic:15472”]
Annual cost of Gold and Regular Memberships: My proposal is $5000/year for Gold Membership and $100/year for regular membership.[/quote]
sums sound ok to me but would consider to throw something (monetary value ($1500-2500/year) in between

there was a tendency to lean such on role models (one being Openstack) As per lacking experience this makes sense to me so I suggest OpenStacks “The Board shall not exceed twenty-four members” in half (assuming we are half as large as the Openstack community,

so … EB > 12 members

  • automatic membership for Gold members (expecting 3-4),
  • 4 elected from regular members
  • 2 from Frappé Technologies.

“2 from Frappé Technologies” understandable but should be a temporary thing in my eyes (1-2 years?). Maybe would consider to grant Gold Membership for free to Frappé Technologies for 1-2 more year so they had 2 seats in 1-2 years, 1 seat in another 2 years

5 Likes

I think the seats should be devided in relation to the group capital… maybe not in the first year but the following ones

E.G.

the foundation has 3 gold member thats 15.000 $ for that group - let’s say those 3 are on the board

It also has 150 regular members that’s also 15.000$
So there should also be 3 regular board members appointed by election

What do others think

1 Like

@spa that is also a good suggestion!

Maybe we can have voluntary committees initially (I am thinking there will not be as many contenders!) and then as we grow we can tweak the structure.

Either ways we all need to figure out all this pretty soon.

@rmehta I want to volunteer :raised_hands:

Hi All,
In parallel of further foundation process, why not to have a joint meeting of committee members through skype(group call facility) to discuss and plan next actions. We can prepare a plan for 2017 which will include committee structure, activities, event, volunteer mechanism etc.

2 Likes

I purpose the first committee to be from volunteers of people that committed to the source
half of frappe half of the community
that way the “moms and dads” of erpnext can make sure the kid´s groth heads into the right direction.

The first committees task should be to decide on the possible terms of the excecutives board´s constitution (maybe it only purposes e.g. 2-3 possibilities per topic in the constitution

  • how many Member in total and of which group
  • how elections should be held
  • what happens if a board member can not attend a meeting - how would decisions be made in that case - may it be possible to hand in the decision later by that member
  • tbc.

then the community could vote on it - in a refferendum that would indicate the “peoples” will

then the first committee constitutes the peoples will
after that elections and appointments could be held

et voila we have an excecutive board

@rmehta until when do you want that done?- end of january ?

P.S. I would volunteer as well but I think others that committed more should be give choice
to be the first committe´s volunteers - but if you need me I´ll be there!
Never the less - even if I would not be an excecutive committee or later Board Member I am happy to assist in formulating proposals, doing other preparational work, etc

3 Likes

Thanks @spa for your thoughts. I agree. We should do this in a consensual manner since this is still a pretty small active community. Will look forward to you help as we go forward. Things should be up and running by end of Jan!

2 Likes