Hi all--

     Following a suggestion from Ron Teitelbaum, the elected Squeak
leadership is considering making Squeak a member project in the Software
Freedom Law Center's Software Freedom Conservancy[1, 2]. Here's the
Conservancy's description of themselves from their website:

***

     The Software Freedom Conservancy is an organization composed of
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects. As a fiscal sponsor for
FOSS projects, the Conservancy provides member projects with free
financial and administrative services, but does not involve itself with
technological and artistic decisions.

     By joining the Conservancy, member FOSS projects obtain the
benefits of a formal legal structure while keeping themselves focused on
software development. These benefits include, most notably, protection
from personal liability for project developers. Another benefit of
joining the Conservancy is that projects can use it to hold assets,
which are managed by the Conservancy on behalf of and at the direction
of the project. The Conservancy is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization,
so member projects can receive tax-deductible donations to the extent
allowed by law.

***

     Our discussions with them have gone very well, and we now have a
proposed membership agreement (for now, at [3]). The Squeak leadership
is unanimously in favor of it.

     Please read this agreement and voice any concerns with it here on
squeak-dev.

     We currently plan to take action on 15 August 2007.


     thanks!

-C

[1] http://www.softwarefreedom.org
[2] http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org
[3] http://netjam.org/squeak/SqueakSponsorshipAgreement.pdf

--
Craig Latta
improvisational musical informaticist
www.netjam.org
Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]