Re: ASL/SPI partnership

On Tue, Jan 30, 2007 at 02:51:21PM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Anthony Towns writes ("Re: ASL/SPI partnership"):
> > The money should be on Debian's books, not SPI's. ASL retain direct
> > responsibility for its correct handling, not SPI, which is why it
> > shouldn't be in SPI's books.
>
> You mean, surely, that it should be on ASL's books. Debian doesn't
> have any books, since it's not a legal entity.

Even businesses which are not legal entities, like sole proprietorships
and presumably unincorporated nonprofit associations such as Debian,
should still do some form of accounting to keep track of the finances. I
agree ASL should also record on its books money that it holds in trust
for Debian, but there's no way Debian as a whole can get a proper
picture of its income/loss, balance sheet, cash flow, and net worth
across all its affiliated legal entities unless Debian keeps a set of
books for itself. Isn't there even someone delegated by the DPL as an
accountant for this purpose?

- Jimmy Kaplowitz
jimmy(at)debian(dot)org