OSCEdays Future (F) - An OSCEdays Foundation

This was started as a subtopic of this headtopic

It contains more ideas and questions for an OSCEdays foundation.


#1 Possible Goals & Motivations of a Foundation
The founding documents of the foundation will tell how the platform and questions around it are managed – legally binding – in order to make it easier for third parties to trust and use everything. Some possible ideas for jobs and goals of the foundation – content for the founding documents:

  • Maintain the platform – the digital infrastructure for the OSCEdays – and also develop it further (make everything as easy to access as possible),
  • Build and foster the community,
  • Facilitate OSCEdays events and international exchange and collaboration,
  • Develop openly shared guidelines for the platform – e.g. to make sure that everything is open source,
  • Own the OSCEdays brand (to protect the work of the community) ?
  • Develop/support open infrastructure projects to support the community and development of an OSCE,
  • Organize at least one event itself annually.

#2 Internal Structure
I don’t have thought about this at this point. But it is an important question to raise. What is the organisational and governance structure? Voting ? …

  • It has to pay people in order to make sure, the platform runs and the community can do work.

#3 Legal Form and Area
The legal form and country of the foundation will play its part in everything. I am not an expert at all in this matters. But I know one option I described below. Do you know others, better ones?

###“Eingetragener Verein” in Germany
I am based in germany this is the reason I can suggest this – an “Eingetragener Verein” (a “registered association”) could be an option. I also have a little experience with founding a Verein as I did it before. A Verein would have to be founded in germany – it is a german thing. (Three of the six founding members of the OSCEdays are based in germany at the moment (me, @cameralibre & @Alice_Audrey) and I think we would be interested in doing the job – but this is just a side-note at this point.)

Founding a Verein is relatively easy. It is possible as for-profit or non-profit and the non-profit version can receive tax-free donations! To create it you need to create a “Satzung” – a legal document that lays down how everything will be run (governance structure, fields of action etc.). So a transparent and predictable and therefore trustworthy behaviour of the OSCEdays would be possible.

But I really don’t have a clou, if this is the best or even a good way to handle it. Although I am pretty sure that this is something that would work.