Обсуждение: PgUS 501c3 Public Charity

Hello,

Yeah its not general technical discussion but this little bit of news
warrants more widely read attention. PgUS (http://www.postgresql.us/)
received its 501c3 public charity status today. You can view the
determination letter here:

https://www.postgresql.us/determination_letter

Thanks to everyone who helped!

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

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Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Yeah its not general technical discussion but this little bit of news
> warrants more widely read attention. PgUS (http://www.postgresql.us/)
> received its 501c3 public charity status today. You can view the
> determination letter here:
>
> https://www.postgresql.us/determination_letter

Just curious: is PostgreSQL as a project withdrawing from SPI?

--
Alvaro Herrera                                http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support

On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 3:04 AM, Alvaro Herrera
<alvherre@commandprompt.com> wrote:
> Joshua D. Drake wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> Yeah its not general technical discussion but this little bit of news
>> warrants more widely read attention. PgUS (http://www.postgresql.us/)
>> received its 501c3 public charity status today. You can view the
>> determination letter here:
>>
>> https://www.postgresql.us/determination_letter
>
> Just curious: is PostgreSQL as a project withdrawing from SPI?

No. Joshua is reporting the status of PgUS which is analogous to pgEU
in function - that is, it is primarily supporting & serving the
regional users and user groups. The core project will remain in SPI to
support global activities and the work of the developers/contributors
etc.

--
Dave Page
EnterpriseDB UK:   http://www.enterprisedb.com

Dave Page wrote:
> On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 3:04 AM, Alvaro Herrera
> <alvherre@commandprompt.com> wrote:
> > Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> Yeah its not general technical discussion but this little bit of news
> >> warrants more widely read attention. PgUS (http://www.postgresql.us/)
> >> received its 501c3 public charity status today. You can view the
> >> determination letter here:
> >>
> >> https://www.postgresql.us/determination_letter
> >
> > Just curious: is PostgreSQL as a project withdrawing from SPI?
>
> No. Joshua is reporting the status of PgUS which is analogous to pgEU
> in function - that is, it is primarily supporting & serving the
> regional users and user groups. The core project will remain in SPI to
> support global activities and the work of the developers/contributors
> etc.

Isn't the majority of donations going to go to PgUS and pgEU anyway?
What good will it to for SPI to attempt to support global activities
if it doesn't have any money?

--
Alvaro Herrera                                http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support

On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 4:22 PM, Alvaro Herrera
<alvherre@commandprompt.com> wrote:

> Isn't the majority of donations going to go to PgUS and pgEU anyway?

I don't believe so,

> What good will it to for SPI to attempt to support global activities
> if it doesn't have any money?

It wouldn't be any good, but it does have money so isn't a problem (at present).


--
Dave Page
EnterpriseDB UK:   http://www.enterprisedb.com

On Thu, 2009-05-07 at 16:25 +0100, Dave Page wrote:
> On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 4:22 PM, Alvaro Herrera
> <alvherre@commandprompt.com> wrote:
>
> > Isn't the majority of donations going to go to PgUS and pgEU anyway?
>
> I don't believe so,

Actually except for a very recent influx of a bulk sum into SPI, PgUS is
probably leading the pack for donations. I would expect that pgEU would
be in a similar situation after PgDay.eu.

>
> > What good will it to for SPI to attempt to support global activities
> > if it doesn't have any money?
>
> It wouldn't be any good, but it does have money so isn't a problem (at present).

There are a lot of pros and cons to staying with SPI. The number one pro
is that it gives International community members a way to help support
the project and in return gives .Org a way to return the support. Of
course there are issues in that as well which are probably best served
not being discussed on this thread (IRS rules etc..).

It is true that over the next year most money will likely funnel into
PgEU and PgUS. This makes sense as those are the most active communities
and those communities are actively providing services to their
respective communities.

I hope that a couple of things come out of this as a whole:

 1. I would like to see more country or regional non profits. They are
always going to be better able to serve their needs than .Org.

 2. For those places that won't or can't organize in such a way they
still have a place that they can affiliate with that will continue to
help support them.

In all I believe we need to be pushing hard to help any community that
is reasonably organized to get official (/me hints at Brazil).

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake



--
PostgreSQL - XMPP: jdrake@jabber.postgresql.org
   Consulting, Development, Support, Training
   503-667-4564 - http://www.commandprompt.com/
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Andrew Gould escribió:

> The public charity status lets those of us who pay income taxes to the US
> government claim donations to PostgreSQL as deductions on our income tax
> statements.  It encourages donations.  It makes donations more affordable.
> It does not limit where the money is used.  That's it.  That's all.

I know that.  But both pgUS and SPI have public charity status now.  Which one
would be a prospective US donator be more willing to donate to?  Josh just
confirmed money is currently flowing to PgUS.  But PgUS charter is to help the
activities within the US; so since SPI is going to have little money shortly,
the "global" communities (meaning everything outside US and Europe) are going
to find themselves without any means to fund getting people from there to here
(Yes -- "here" to me means outside the US/EU).

For it was SPI who used to fund US speakers to travel to places like Brazil.
Do you think Brazil is in a position to get nearly as many funds as the US
community?  I know my country is likely to raise very little money (we hardly
get enough money to handle a single yearly Linux conference; and that's only
because we bunch all F/OSS stuff together.  A single project like Pg is
unlikely to fly very far.)

I'll ask PgUS later to fund my possible flight to Cuba for a Pg summer school.
Oh wait a minute ...

Hey, but I forgot -- congratulations on the 501(c)3 status!

--
Alvaro Herrera                                http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support

On Thu, 2009-05-07 at 12:15 -0400, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> Andrew Gould escribió:

> Hey, but I forgot -- congratulations on the 501(c)3 status!
>


First, thanks!

I think we are getting a bit off topic here. If we want to continue this
let's move it to -advocacy.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake


--
PostgreSQL - XMPP: jdrake@jabber.postgresql.org
   Consulting, Development, Support, Training
   503-667-4564 - http://www.commandprompt.com/
   The PostgreSQL Company, serving since 1997