Hi Yaron, You might have a look at 501(c)(6). I have very limited familiarity with it, but it seems to be used by business services cooperatives and at least one nonprofit software support organization.
I would encourage you to get more people on your board, preferably people who are well placed in the kinds of organizations that you would like to support. While I don't mean to discourage you, I think you are very early in the business formation process. Getting board members who are experienced businesspeople could help both the organization's credibility and the organization's formation process. You might also benefit from advice from a CPA and/or small business attorney. I am assuming that you are located in the United States; if that is so then I would encourage you to contact your local office of the U.S. Small Business Administration for advice. Good luck, Pine On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 10:46 AM, Yaron Koren <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Pine, > > Thanks for your questions. > > On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 1:27 PM, Pine W <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Thanks for the announcement. > > > > I see that membership has a minimum price of $2,000 per year. Why is > there > > a fee to join the organization? > > > > Because money is the main focus of this organization - specifically, > getting funds from organizational users of the software and putting it to > use in development, evangelism, etc. Of course, a lot of development and > evangelism can be done for free, but that's not the main focus of the EMC. > There are other organizations that handle volunteer efforts at improving > parts of "enterprise MediaWiki", most notably the MediaWiki Stakeholders' > Group: > > https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_Stakeholders%27_Group > > > > > > Is the organization a 501(c)(3)? > > > > No, but the hope is for it to become an official nonprofit, either by > becoming a 501(c)(3) or via another route. In the last few years the IRS > has apparently been less willing to give 501(c)(3) status to open-source > software organizations like this one, with some high-profile rejections > like the OpenStack Foundation. I haven't tried applying to the IRS yet, > though, so we'll see. > > > > > > Who are the owners or directors of the organization? > > > > At the moment, I'm the sole owner and director. > > -Yaron > > > > > > Thank you, > > > > Pine > > > > > > On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 7:49 AM, Yaron Koren <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > I'm very excited to announce the launch of the Enterprise MediaWiki > > > Consortium (EMC), an organization devoted to supporting and maintaining > > > "enterprise MediaWiki" software. > > > > > > As you may know, a lot of open-source software has some sort of > > > organization or foundation that is intended to pool money from users of > > the > > > software toward developers. MediaWiki is in an unusual situation: it is > > > funded by the Wikimedia Foundation (and, to a lesser extent, Wikimedia > > > Deutschland and others), but those organizations' primary allegiance is > > to > > > software that runs on Wikimedia sites. That leaves a lot of > > > MediaWiki-related software (extensions, skins, etc.) that is mostly > > > intended for use on non-Wikimedia sites, i.e. "enterprise" uses: some > of > > > this software has significant usage, but very little of it has > > > institutional support. > > > > > > That is where the Enterprise MediaWiki Consortium fits in. It is > intended > > > to fund the development of extensions and other software that otherwise > > has > > > no funding source. The set of software being funded is entirely up to > the > > > membership of the EMC, and of course the amount of support that can be > > > provided depends on the amount of money that members contribute - an > > amount > > > that will hopefully grow over time. > > > > > > If you belong to an organization, company or website that makes use of > > > MediaWiki - and specifically, of MediaWiki-related software not used on > > > Wikimedia sites - please consider joining the Enterprise MediaWiki > > > Consortium - to provide much-needed support for the software you use, > and > > > to have a greater say in shaping its future. > > > > > > You can read more about the EMC here: > > > > > > http://enterprisemediawikiconsortium.org/ > > > > > > -Yaron > > > _______________________________________________ > > > MediaWiki-l mailing list > > > To unsubscribe, go to: > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > MediaWiki-l mailing list > > To unsubscribe, go to: > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l > > > > > > -- > WikiWorks · MediaWiki Consulting · http://wikiworks.com > _______________________________________________ > MediaWiki-l mailing list > To unsubscribe, go to: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l > _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list To unsubscribe, go to: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
