Release Candidate of the PostgreSQL Europe association statutes

hi everyone !

Proof-Reading
===========

After a few weeks of work, the statutes for the upcoming European user group
are ready to be submitted to you.

Check it out :
http://wiki.postgresqlfr.org/doku.php/pgeu:statutes

I wrote most of it, using the statutes of the french association as an
example. Andreas, Robert, Magnus and Stefan (among others) did some
proof-reading and made useful remarks. Many thanks to them !

Don't hesitate to make any comment on this document.

Once everyone is ok with it, i will translate the statutes in French. Only the
french version will be legally valid.

To put it clear ; if you have any remarks to make, **now is the time** !

Main principles
============

For people who don't want to bother with the legal babble, here's a concise
summary :

* The association is named "PostgreSQL Europe" and located in Paris,France .
Its main goal is to promote PostgreSQL in Europe.

* The association is composed of : active members (who pay the regular
membership fee ) , benefactor members ( who pay a more expensive annual
contribution ) and honorary members ( who have rendered service to the
association )

* Only active members can take part in voting and be candidate to elections.

* Once every year, the members gather to the "General Assembly" . A moral and
financial report is presented by the Executive Committee . The active members
proceed to the election of half of the "Board of Directors" . The active
members can also change the statutes if needed.

* The Board of Directors is composed of a least 3 members and at most 16
members. The Board meets on a regular basis (physically or electronically)
and takes the main decisions. Every year, the Board elects within its members
3 persons who will compose the Executive Committee

* The Executive Committee is in charge of the administrative work. It is
composed of a President ( who is the legal representant of the association),
a Treasurer ( who takes care of the money ) and a Secretary (who is basically
in charge of communication)

* The members of the first Executive Committee will have their names written
in the statutes and they'll have to sign these statutes ( written in french )

* Members are benevolent, they cannot receive any compensation, howeverthey
can obtain the payment of expenses incurred for the purposes of the
association. The association can have employees but they cannot be members
of the association.

* The association cannot make profits. All the money gathered must be used to
achieve the goals of the association

Roadmap
============

The first gathering of PostgreSQL Europe will happen in FOSDEM (fosdem.org) at
the end of February. We will collect the first membership applications and
elect the first Board of Directors.

To make things simple the first Board of Directors will be composed of 3
persons. Therefore these 3 persons will also be the 3 members of the
Executive Committee

I think Andreas will send a more specific document about the election
procedure.

Once these 3 persons are elected, i'll make them sign the french version of
the statutes. i'll go to the french authorities to register the association.
This will cost at least 30€ and it might take a week or two provided i don't
get caught in the french administration vortex madness :-)

Then i'll make a public announcement in the french official journal
(journal-officiel.gouv.fr). This might take another month. This might cost
money too.

Once the announcement is published in the official journal, the association
will be up and running

i hope this will happen before may.

then we'll have to open a bank account, but that's another story.

Rendez-vous at FOSDEM !
=================

As you can see we're in bit of a hurry. So the sooner you make comments and
ask questions about all this, the better.

Once a again i'd like thank every peoplewho helped me writing these statutes.

I really hope that many PostgreSQL fanatics will meet @ FOSDEM and that beyond
all these legal issues we can make this European User Group a reality !

Thanks for your attention !

Regards

--
damien clochard
http://dalibo.org | http://dalibo.com