Re: Offlang suggestion & counterproposal

> Van: Jan van Steenbergen
>
>
> Yes, but why would you want to create a rechtspersoon
> for a group of five people?
I didn't say the total organisation would consist of only 5 people, I said
that 5 volunteers would be enough to run it. Other than that you could have
members who just participate in activities without actually doing any work
for the organization.

The main advantages for creating a corporate body are to eliminate financial
risk. This will only be applicable when an organization starts organizing
events or publishing a magazine. Also, as a non-profit corporate body you
could claim certain forms of government funding (subsidies) which you could
not claim otherwise. Whether or not this would be applicable depends on the
type of activities yuo want to organize.

> The same activities can well be performed in a rather unofficial way,
without
> a board and without statutes.
Yes, the activities you describe could, but as soon as you
a) Own valuable property (not applicable)
b) Organize costly events (such as conventions or publishing a magazine)
c) Want to make legal deals without individual financial risks in general
.. you should found a corporate body.

> Besides, for €30 a year I would prefer to have a nice
> deer steak with raspberry sauce, and discuss our languages over the table
;)

Agreed :-)

> > > Some smaller, clublike things could be possibly be
> > > done, though. I think of, for example, the Conlang
> > > Database Project, or even the FAQ project.
> >
> > They are more activities, not really organisations.
>
> True, but they would suit such an organization.
> Besides, the organization could play an assisting,
> hosting or coordinating role sometimes.
Yes, as a coordinating organization this would fit. But that is a rather
dull job, just coordinating or hosting activities that others carry out. In
my experience, such organization never last long. For such activities as a
single project with a well defined goal, it is better to form an ad hoc
committee with interested parties, which can be abolished after it has
reached its goal.

> > > Furthermore, it would be thinkable to create a
> > > conlang weekly, or monthly, to be available for
> > > members of the List and eventual other
> > > subscribers.
> >
> > Hmm, we have a lot of that already.
>
> In the form of a periodical? I must have failed to
> notice them, in that case.
No, not in the form of a periodical. But unless you put some real effort
into it (guest articles by interesting people etc.), it wouldn't add much.
If it is just a cut and paste from the archives, don't go into any trouble
for me, because I would not be interested. And if it is the real thing, you
would need an organization in itself to make it, because it is simply too
much work to go uncoordinated. However, this goes mroe along the lines of a
(volunteer) company, rather than a member organization.

Maarten