Draft - Has not been approved by the Board

The Application Process

1. The name of your project, and some details about it if we wouldn't have heard of it before.
2. Which SPI services you will need.
3. Who is going to be your liason to SPI, and what your process for selecting/electing liasons is.

After talking to you, the board member will draft your application into a resolution similar to this one:

SPI resolution 2006-09-19.mcs.2

WHEREAS

 1. Gallery is a substantial and significant Free Software project.

 2. The Gallery developers would like SPI's support and assistance, including taking donations.

THE SPI BOARD RESOLVES THAT

 3. Gallery is formally invited to become an SPI Associated Project, according to the SPI Framework for Associated Projects, SPI Resolution 1998-11-16.iwj.1-amended-2004-08-10.iwj.1, a copy of which can be found at http://www.spi-inc.org/corporate/resolutions/2004-08-10-iwj.1

 4. Currently, Bharat Mediratta is recognised by SPI as the current authoritative decisionmaker and SPI liason for Gallery.  Successors will be appointed in turn by the sitting project liason.

 5. This invitation will lapse, if not accepted, 60 days after it is approved by the SPI Board.

This resolution will be presented to the board and the list of SPI contributing members, and discussed.  If your project is in some way political or controversial, you may be called on to champion it to the SPI membership.  This process is really not as adversarial as it seems; since we have never dismissed an associated project, the members just want to avoid any difficult-to-rectify mistakes.

After at least three days for discussion, the resolution will then go to the next SPI Board Meeting, which are held monthy on irc.oftc.net, channel #spi, according to a schedule published on the SPI web site.  You are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Board members will judge the application on several merits:

Free Software: is the project a genuine Free Software community project?

Substance: Does it have an established development community, history of software releases, etc?

Significance: Is the project used by a broad audience, or does it have political or market significance?

If the resolution passes, your project will be accepted and you will be notified of the invitation.  You then have the amount of time stated in the resolution, usually 60 days, to officially accept.

Your Project Liason

The Liason is the person from your project to whom the Board listens for all authortative decisions regarding your project assets, fundraising, expenses and disposition.  While the Board is happy to talk to other members of your project, only the Liason will be able to send any instructions regarding your funds or assets, unless they delegate someone else.

The SPI Board does not care how the Liason is chosen in your project, as long as there are clear rules which let the Board know to whom to listen, especially in the event of disagreement.  For most projects, it is simply one of the project founders who volunteers and appoints his own successor.  A few projects, such as Debian and PostgreSQL, have well defined election procedures.

It is recommended, but not required, that your Liason attend Board meetings, and subscribe to the board@spi-inc.org mailing list.  He or she will be subscribed to the liasons@spi-inc.org list.  At Board meetings, Liasons are considered "Advisors", able to bring proposals to the Board and speak but not to vote (unless, of course, they also happen to be Board members).

Participating in SPI Politically

All major contributors to your project are eligible for SPI contributing membership, but they each have to apply for it individually: http://www.spi-inc.org/about-spi/membership.  You can speed the membership acceptance process up by supplying the Board and Membership Committee with a list of eligible contributors for your project.  You will be consulted where there is doubt.

As the Contributing members elect the Board, as well as argue decisions which the Board feels are controversial enough to merit wide discussion, it is important that your project members join SPI to ensure your project is well represented.

Fundraising

All money activities in SPI are administrated by the Treasurer (treasurer@spi-inc.org). 

SPI can accept donations for your project one of two ways: checks or credit cards.  Checks must be in American or Canadian dollars and are mailed directly to SPI's mailing address.  Credit cards are processed by an external service, Click&Pledge at this time.   Contact the Treasurer to set up your access to credit card donations, which may include the ability to create special donation pages for individual campaigns or events for which your project is collecting.

In either case, it is important that the donor designate that the gift is to go to your organization.  If a gift arrives without a designated project, the Treasurer will attempt to contact the donor, and if unsuccessful will place the money in the SPI general fund.

Please note that as a US 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization, there are legal restrictions on what money SPI can accept.  Most common project fundraising activities are fine, but if you plan to do anything unusual, please clear it with the treasurer first.  Sales of fixed-price items (like T-shirts) are acceptable but the Tresurer needs to know about how the money was collected.

All donations to SPI are charitible under US law, except for things like t-shirt sales and event tickets.  As a US non-profit, we are unable to provide donation tax credits to citizens of other countries.

All transaction costs (such as the 4.5% for credit cards, and wire transfer fees) are deducted from the contribution.  5% of the remainder is deducted for SPI overhead, primarily accounting, photocopying and postage.  The remaining money is held in trust for your project. 

Please do note that due to processing time, it can take between a few days and a few weeks for a donation to hit the bank account and be available for your project to spend.  Under unusual circumstances you can draw money from the SPI reserves against donations which are confirmed (i.e. check received) but not deposited, but this is not normal practice.

You will receive notice of any donations made to your project, with donor details if available.   It is good practice to send personalized thank-you e-mails or letters to your donors.

There is no expectation that SPI be your exclusive fundraising vehicle.

Paying Project Expenses

Your Liason can request payment of project expenses at any time by sending a request to the treasurer.  If the expense is legal, it will be paid as soon as the Treasurer can reasonably manage it.  Please note that paying expenses usually means mailing checks, so payment generally takes two weeks or more.

Requests for payment should be accompanied by paperwork detailing the expense.  If the paperwork is not electronic, you can fax or mail it.  Generally, it is expected that individuals will pay the expenses up front and be reimbursed by SPI, but advance payment can be arranged with sufficient advance warning to the treasurer.  The Treasurer also has a credit card for online purchases which for some reason need to be made directly by SPI.

There are tax law restrictions on what we can legally pay for as a 501(c)3 Non-Profit.  Common expenses like travel, equipment, flyers, booths, conference expenses and legal help are generally fine, but some things like software development contracting need to be handled carefully.  When in doubt, contact the Treasurer.

Transaction fees from paying expenses (wire transfer fees, cashier's checks and postage) will be paid out of your project funds.  Money may be transferred only to other 501(c)3 US non-profit organizations, and may not be transferred to private companies, other types of non-profits, or foreign organizations except in compensation.

The Treasurer will give you a monthly report of donations collected and expenses paid for your project.  In the future, there will be an online reporting interface which will allow you to check balances at any time.

Assets

Substantial equipment, software or other assets which you buy with SPI money becomes an asset of SPI (the current threshold is $300, but this may be raised).  Further, you may transfer other assets you own, especially intangible assets like trademarks and licenses, to SPI for protection.  SPI will also accept donations of assets on your behalf.

Ownership status does not affect the physical location of the asset; your server may be held by SPI but be racked in Borneo and adimistered entirely by your project.

Once held by SPI, assets may only be transferred to another 501(c)3 US non-profit.

Legal Assistance

TBA

Leaving SPI

Your Liason may decide that your project is quitting SPI at any time.  Any assets and money held by SPI for your project may be transferred to the 501(c)3 US non-profit of your choice, or simply held until expended.