On 7/20/07, Michael Snow <wikipedia(a)att.net> wrote:
Stephen Bain wrote:
On 7/19/07, Alison Wheeler
<wikimedia(a)alisonwheeler.com> wrote:
On Wed, July 18, 2007 15:52, GerardM wrote:
It is not even true that a board member could not
be paid a
salary because otherwise the legal entity is an for profit
organisation.
OK, I might have slightly muddied the two points there in the way I
worded
my point, but to clarify: in the UK (and, no doubt, some other
jurisdictions) it is not permissible to pay the board member of a
non-profit / charitable organisation for their being a board member,
whereas with a 'for profit' organisation this would be normal.
That's
correct, you can't pay a board member for being a board member,
since (in just about every case) the board are the non-profit
corporation equivalent of shareholders in a for-profit corporation.
A board is not
a nonprofit corporation equivalent of shareholders in a
for-profit corporation. The equivalent to shareholders would be members,
of which the Wikimedia Foundation doesn't currently have any, or perhaps
failing that, donors in some sense. The for-profit corporation
equivalent to a nonprofit corporation's board is - surprise, surprise -
the board of the for-profit corporation.
I don't see what the comparison to shareholders has to do with the issue
anyway. A for-profit corporation can certainly pay shareholders for
being shareholders. It's called a dividend, or a distribution, which is
one of the things that absolutely distinguishes a for-profit corporation
from a nonprofit.
Indeed. And a further thing that separates Foundation trustees from
being shareholders is that the trustees have not made an undertaking
in expectation of getting some dividend based on the profit made by
the corporation.
The only thing the Wikimedia Foundations trustees have promised,
hopefully, is that they will do their best; not that they will try
to maximise the money gathered for some party who gains
monetarily from what the Wikimedia Foundations activities bring forth.
It would be a sad day if you could buy into the board of Wikimedia
Foundation, like shares can buy control of a corporation. I know that
Jimbo has spoken on this matter to different effect, but this is my view.
--
Jussi-Ville Heiskanen, ~ [[User:Cimon Avaro]]