New subject: [Foundation-l] Future Board election procedures and guidelines

20 Jul 2007

Stephen Bain wrote:
...
  On 7/19/07, Alison Wheeler
&lt;wikimedia(a)alisonwheeler.com&gt; 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.

--Michael Snow

Re: [Foundation-l] Future Board election procedures and guidelines