Re: Release Candidate of the PostgreSQL Europe association statutes

Hi Damien

On 13/01/2008, damien clochard <damien(at)dalibo(dot)info> wrote:
> 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.

Thank you for working on this.

> * The association is composed of : active members (who pay the regular
> membership fee ) , benefactor members ( who pay a more expensive annual
> contribution )

I am *completely* opposed to this.

We agreed in Prato that the aim was to create an organisation to help
promote PostgreSQL in Europe, by providing support and resources to
regional groups (for example,economies of scale when purchasing swag),
as well as undertaking our own promotional work.

As you know, PostgreSQL is an Open Source project, comprised primarily
of people who work voluntarily. Yes, some of those (myself included)
are lucky enough to be employed to work on PostgreSQL these days, but
even so I think the vast majority of us still contribute over and
above what we're paid to do.

Why in that case, are we saying that people who wish to contribute and
be part of the European Group will have to *pay* for the privilege of
doing so? That is the most anti-Open Source way of running part of the
project I can possibly imagine, and seems like an exceptionally
efficient way to minimise the number of people that decide to help
out.

The world-wide organisation providing the same services as the
European Group has no need to charge membership fees (nor does it have
any formal concept of membership for that matter) - and yet it's bank
account is quite healthy thanks to the donations solicited from
grateful users and corporate sponsorship, and it regularly sponsors
speakers at events and purchases swag for shows (in fact, is probably
going to buy pins for us to take to FOSDEM).

What justification is there for the European group to charge a
membership fee when it's clearly not necessary for the stated purpose
of the group?

Regards, Dave