[Ambassadors] EMEA: Preliminary Statutes
Jeroen van Meeuwen
kanarip at kanarip.com
Sun Jan 20 19:26:24 UTC 2008
red_alert wrote:
> Jeroen van Meeuwen wrote:
>>> 2) wtf, 1,000? isn't that a little too high? or maybe even more than
>>> just a little... or is there a good reason for that amount?
>>>
>>
>> Like Gerold already suggested too, this is a maximum contribution fee
>> the NPO can request from it's members, and maximums are often high. I
>> would not expect to see this maximum reached, ever, but from a legal
>> point of view the NPO must have /a/ maximum. So you choose one that is
>> not insanely high, but will also not limit you for many, many years to
>> come. Money devaluates over time and given that the General Members
>> Meeting must unanimously agree on raising or lowering this maximum,
>> having to do so every 5, 10 or even 20 years would become a problem
>> for any organization.
>
>
> Ok, that's the reason in favor of such a high amount. Are there no
> contras then? I know that in some countries the maximum fee is important
> when it gets to liability but AFAIK this is not the case in Germany (at
> least not with an e.V.). Something else to consider?
> ...if not, I'd say 1,000 Euro is fair.
>
Well, imagine what it would look like if we said 3 billion is the
maximum contribution fee. I'm not sure that would be accepted by the
German Financial Department (so there's a contra). As I'm not German
though maybe Gerold is in a better position to give you the proper
answer ;-)
> What initial fee are you going to propose at the formation, anyway?
>
We -anyone- can propose and reason for any amount of contribution fee,
the trick is to find one the others agree with. As the Statutes
describe, the contribution fee is a General Members Meeting's
responsibility (2/3 majority of votes cast required -should these
Statutes be accepted) -which is probably going to vote on what the board
(to be elected still) proposes. So far the initial pseudo-official
response to your question.
Now in more general terms; There is of course the "minimum" contribution
fee that makes a person become a "regular" member -this would be the
mandatory fee.
We /could/ also decide to have something like a "gold" or "platinum"
membership. In some cases Associations decide a "gold" or "platinum"
gets a certain discount at whatever the Association sells (in some cases
you can imagine that includes event entrance tickets or merchandise). An
Association could however also decide a "gold" or "platinum" member pays
a higher contribution fee, but gets /nothing/ in return (besides the
obvious kudo's from the other members). Then there's something we call
"honorable member" (I'm sure I didn't translate that very well), which
basically is a member that doesn't have to pay a contribution fee for
the rest of his/her life -again, GMM would decide, mostly given due to
exceptional achievements, etc, etc.
Some of these forms of contribution fees or distinguishing different
types of members will need to be in the Statutes as well, as well as
being able to appoint those "honorable memberships" to anyone.
Again, it's these things we may want to think about on beforehand, as
changing the Statutes afterwards is way harder then getting them right
rightaway.
Kind regards,
Jeroen van Meeuwen
-kanarip
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