[Foundation-l] Please review our new charter

[jamesmikedupont at googlemail.com]

Dear sirs,

we have a new charter for our new Free Software, Open source and
Wikimedia organization,

The idea is to create a local organization that promotes and supports
* free/libre software
* open source
* wikimedia
* creative commons
* open standards such as from the w3c

in kosovo, which is so small that it does not make sense to have 10
different organizations.

We are working on recruiting and training the young people of Kosovo
to learn to use and help improve the great technologies that you
people have produced.

All people and all nations are invited and there will be no
discrimination of any sort.

We will invite the other organizations to appoint members to
collaborate in our working groups to implement and promote our common
goals in newborn Europe.

We are working on creating the a large yearly conference  in Pristina,
Kosovo  starting on August 28 this year, but with three dates :

Prishtina August 28-30 2009                Developers Day(s)
Ferizja Sept 4-6 2009                            Education Day(s)
Prishtina Trade Fair Sept 23-28 2009 Business Days(s)

http://groups.google.com/group/free-software-conference/

please review and comment the charter, feel free to join are project
and edit the wiki directly,
or send your comments back to me so that I can incorporate them.

http://code.google.com/p/sfck/wiki/CHARTER
 CHARTER
Charter of Asociacioni per Softver te Lire dhe të Hapur (ASLH)

   * Articles of Association
   * §0 – Preamble
   * §1 – Name, Office, Nature
   * §2 – Definition of Terminology
   * §3 – Purpose of the Association
   * §4 – Activities of the Association
   * §5 – Membership
   * §6 – Assembly of Members
   * §7 – Meetings of the Assembly of Members
   * §8 – Board of Directors
   * §9 – Officers and Employees
   * §10 - Financing of the Association
   * §11 - Liquidation
   * §12 – Amendments to the Statutes
   * §13 – Reporting Periods and Accounting Years
   * §14 - Inception of the Articles of Association

Articles of Association
§0 – Preamble

Upon entering the digital age, in which real and virtual space will
equally determine the social, cultural and scientific development of
mankind, Asociacioni për Softuer të Lirë dhe të Hapur (ASLH; The
Association for Free and Open Software) has the long-term goal to
raise and work on the questions this will necessarily raise.

The direct function of ASLH is the unselfish promotion of Free and
Open Source Software and Knowledge as well as creating and propagating
the awareness of the related philosophical and social questions.

The further mission of the ASLH is to empower and engage people around
the world to collect and develop educational content under a free
license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and
globally.

The ASLH will provides the essential infrastructure and an
organizational framework for the support and development of open
knowledge and software projects and other endeavors which serve this
mission. The ASLH will make and keep useful information from its
projects available on the Internet free of charge, in perpetuity.

To create the best benefit for the people of Kosovo the ASLH will join
forces with other supporters of the same causes. Instead of creating
multiple organizations in Kosovo we ask the other international
organizations to join forces with us an form working groups under the
ASLH to implement our common goals in the small republic.

The term Free and Open Source Software and Knowledge in the sense of
the ASLH does not refer to the price, but rather to the following four
freedoms:

   * the freedom to use a program and knowledge for any purpose
   * the freedom to study the program and knowledge and adapt it to
your own needs.
   * the freedom to make copies for others.
   * the freedom to improve a program and knowledge and make these
improvements available to others, so that the whole community
benefits.

This definition of Free Software goes back to the idea of freely
exchanging knowledge and ideas that can traditionally be found in
scientific fields. Like thoughts, software is non-tangible and
duplicable without loss. Passing feeds an evolutionary process,
advancing thoughts and software.

Only Free Software preserves the possibility to comprehend and build
upon scientific results. For scientists, it is the only kind of
software which corresponds to the ideals of a free science.
Accordingly, the promotion of free software is also a promotion of
science.

The distribution of information and the forming of an opinion are done
increasingly by digital media, and the trend is to foster the use of
those means for a direct citizen participation to democracy.
Therefore, a central task of the ASLH is to train proficient citizens
in these media, thereby promoting democracy.

Digital space ("Cyberspace"), with software as its medium and its
language has an enormous potential for the promotion of all mental and
cultural aspects of mankind. By making it commonly available and
opening up the medium, Free Free and Open Source Software and
Knowledge grants equal chances and protection of privacy.

Coining the awareness for the problems related to the digital age in
all parts of society is long-term goal and a core aspect of the work
of the ASLH.

Therefore the ASLH will seek to increase the use of Free and Open
Source Software and Knowledge in schools and universities in order to
parallelize the education in real space matters with the creation of
understanding and awareness of problems in virtual space.

Free and Open Source Software and Knowledge guarantees traceable
results and decision-making processes in science and public life as
well as the individual rights to free development of personality and
liberty of opinion. It is the job of the Free and Open Source Software
and Knowledge into all areas that touch public life or "informational
human rights" of citizens.
§1 – Name, Office, Nature

1.1 The association will be known as Asociacioni për Softuer të Lirë
dhe të Hapur, abbreviated as ASLH.

1.2 The association's registered offices are located in Prishtina.

1.3 Should no fixed registered office be established, it will be
managed from the residence of the general manager at any given time.

1.4 The Association shall be a non-profit organization as defined by
the laws in force in the Republic of Kosovo.
§2 – Definition of Terminology

2.1 Free (as in Free and Open Source Software and Knowledge): the
originator puts the intellectual work into the public domain free of
charge and in an irretrievable manner. In doing so, the originator
allows others the freedom to use the work for any purpose, to study
how it functions, to adapt it to his/her own needs, to copy it for
others and to improve it and make changes available for the common
good.

We talk of Free and Open Source Software and Knowledge in include not
only software, but also the knowledge stored in the form of Wikis and
Documents.

In order to protect these freedoms, we understand the that Free and
Open Source Software and Knowledge is to be software, documentation,
instructions, Wikipages, videos or other media that is licensed under
the latest version of one of the following licenses:

   * GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html )
   * GNU Free Documentation License Version
(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)
   * Creative Commons CC-BY-SA license Attribution-Share Alike
Unported (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa)

2.2 Open (as in Open Software): since not all intellectual work can be
or is protected with the same strength as the above mentioned
licenses, we therefore recognize this secondary source of free
software:

   * http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd

   * http://www.opensource.org/licenses

2.3 Free and Open Source Software and Knowledge: Any computer
algorithm or other form of intellectual material. We include
wikipages, videos, documentation and software in this definition.
§3 – Purpose of the Association

3.1 The purpose of the Association is to promote, develop, distribute
and support:

   * Free/Libre software as defined by the GNU.org project.
   * Open Source software as defined by the www.opensource.org.
   * open and participatory knowledge as defined by Wikimedia foundation.
   * information technology education such as Open Courseware from MIT.
   * open society using open and free communcation standards such as
those from the W3C.org.

in Kosovo.
§4 – Activities of the Association

4.1 Activities of the Association are:

   * Run a yearly conference made available to the general public for
the lowest possible charge that will further the aims set out on §3.1
   * Enable access to free and open source software and knowledge by
facilitating distribution and localization into the national languages
of Kosovo

   * Coordinate with national and international partners and sponsors
in the industry, academia and government to further the goals set out
on §3.1

§5 – Membership

5.1 The membership of the Association is open to any person regardless
of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, religious
belief, age or physical capacity.

5.2 The Assembly of Members shall determine whether a membership fee
shall be required from members. Failure to pay the membership fee,
after written or email notice of not doing so, shall be a ground for
the exclusion of the member from the Association.
§6 – Assembly of Members

6.1 The Assembly of Members is the highest governing body of the
Association. It shall consist of all members of the Association.

6.2 The Assembly of Members shall have ultimate responsibility for the
policies and financial affairs of the Association.

6.3 Apart from the other powers given to it by these statutes, the
Assembly of Members shall also have the following powers: to elect
members of the board of directors; to approve reports by officers; to
approve the annual working plan; to approve the spending of money over
€300.

6.4 The Assembly of Members can delegate any of its responsibilities
to the Board of Directors or any other organ or officers of the
Association, by the decision of the majority of its members.
§7 – Meetings of the Assembly of Members

7.1 The Assembly of Members shall meet at least once a year at an
Annual General Meeting (AGM) at which time it shall review and approve
the assets, liabilities, income, expenditures and programmes of the
Association for the past year. It shall also consider anticipated
assets, liabilities, income expenditures and programmes for the
upcoming year.

7.2 The Assembly of Members can also meet at Extraordinary General
Meetings (EGMs) whenever required by (half of the members) or by the
Board of Directors. Such request must be addressed to the Secretary
who will issue the notice of the meeting to all members, according to
the procedure described in paragraph 6.3 here below.

7.3 Written notice of AGMs and/or EGMs, stating the date and place of
the meeting, together with an agenda of the meeting, shall be
distributed to all members at least 7 (seven) days before the day on
which the meeting is to be held.

7.4 A minimum presence of (half) of the members is required for
meetings of the Assembly of Members to conduct business. If this
minimum ('the quorum') is not obtained, the meeting shall be postponed
to a specified later date and a new notice shall be sent to all
members.

7.5 Each member of the Association has one vote in the Assembly of Members.

7.6 Decisions in the Assembly of Members shall be taken by majority of
the members present.

7.7 Any member of the Assembly of Members shall abstain from voting on
a decision on any matter in which he or she has a personal or economic
interest.
§8 – Board of Directors

8.1 Apart from other powers given to it by these present statutes, the
Board of Directors shall be responsible for presenting an annual
working plan to be approved by the Assembly of Members and
safeguarding the property and good standing of the Association. The
Board of Directors shall always act in accordance with the purpose of
the Association.

8.2 The Board of Directors shall be composed of a diverse group people
in good moral and legal standing and significant achievement in the IT
industry, academia and society. They will be elected individually by
the Assembly of Members by a simple majority. Each director shall
serve for a term of (one) year and shall remain in office until a
successor takes office, or until death, resignation or removal.

8.3 The Board of Directors shall consist of at least 5 (five) Members.

8.4 Members of the Board of Directors can be removed before the end of
their term by a vote at an AGM or EGM of the Assembly of Members.

8.5 In case of the death, resignation or removal of a member of the
Board of Directors, the Assembly of Members shall elect a successor to
serve the remaining term.

8.6 Decisions by the Board of Directors shall be by majority.

8.7 The Board of Directors can decide to refer any matter to the
Assembly of Members for decision.

8.8 No remuneration or compensation shall be paid to the Directors
without the approval of the Assembly of Members and only where the
remuneration or compensation is reasonable and for work performed for
the Association.

8.9 Any member of the Board of Directors shall abstain from voting on
a decision on any matter in which he or she has a personal or economic
interest.
§9 – Officers and Employees

9.1 If necessary, the Board of Directors shall appoint employed
Officers or hire agents to undertake the daily conduct of business of
the Association. The terms of their employment will be determined by
the Board of Directors upon a simple majority approval by the Assembly
of Members.

9.2 The Officers will be employed under a written agreement that
details all salaries and benefits to be paid to the Officer. Any
salary or benefit shall be reasonable and paid only for work performed
for the Association. 9.3 Any Officer may resign at any time by giving
written notice to the Board of Directors, to the chairman of the
board, to the vice-chair, or to the secretary of the Association. Any
such resignation shall take effect at the time specified therein, or,
if the time be not specified therein, upon its acceptance by the Board
of Directors.
§10 - Financing of the Association

10.1 The funds required for the Association are raised through:

   * membership fees,
   * entry fees from the annual conference
   * sponsoring fees paid for the conference
   * contributions by government and other public bodies
   * donations
   * other financial contributions made by third parties,
   * benefits paid to the Association for activities it pursues for
the common good, including lectures.

10.2 The members pay fees based on the decision taken by the Assembly
of Members in simple majority vote.

10.3 No portion of the income or property aforesaid shall be paid or
transferred, directly or indirectly, by way of dividend, bonus or
otherwise by way of profit, to persons who, at any time are, or have
been Members of the Association or to any one or more of them or to
any person claiming through any one or more of them. This includes
associates, friends and family.

10.4 Except, with the previous approval of the Assembly of Members, no
remuneration or other benefit in money or moneys worth shall be given
by the Association to any of its Members, whether officers or
employees of the Association or not, except payment of out of pocket
expenses, reasonable and proper interest on money lent, or reasonable
and proper rent on premises let to the Association.

10.5 Nothing in this clause shall prevent the payment by the
Association in good faith of reasonable remuneration to any of its
officers or employees or to any other person in return for any
services actually rendered to the Association.
§11 - Liquidation

11.1 In case of a liquidation of the Association or termination of its
tax-privileged status any assets remaining after the discharge of
liabilities will become assets of the:

University of Prishtina
Address:
Rektorati, Rr. Nene Tereza, p/n

10 000 Prishtina

Tel: +381 (38) 244183
Fax: +381 (38) 244187

which has to use them exclusively and directly for non-for-profit purposes only.
§12 – Amendments to the Statutes

12.1 The present statutes can be amended by the decision of a three
fourth majority of the Assembly of Members.
§13 – Reporting Periods and Accounting Years

13.1 The Board of Directors and appointed Officers shall provide
annual reports to the Assembly of Members AGMs or whenever requested
by an EGM.

13.2 The accounting year of the Association shall coincide with the civil year.
§14 - Inception of the Articles of Association

14.1 These Articles of Association come into effect immediately
following a decision by the Assembly of Members on xx February 2008 in
Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo, and online.