Re: Resolution 2019-05-25.jrk.1: Removing Jenkins as associated project

On Fri, May 31, 2019 at 08:49:37AM +0800, Kohsuke Kawaguchi wrote:
> I'm the liaison of the Jenkins project to SPI.
>
> IANAL, but this status difference was identified from the beginning. The
> legal counsel from both sides looked at this and I believe they concluded
> that there are a number of ways forward. I believe the 1st choice is to
> transfer the assets to a 501(c)(3) under the LF. This is laid out in
> "whereas #5",

Has the LF committed to provide the resources to create the legal
entity that would then apply for 501(c)(3) status? And it's
understood that it can take between 2 and 12 months for the IRS to
approve granting the 501(c)(3) status to an organization, right?

This is under normal circumstances; with the IRS being slammed dealing
with the recent changes to the tax law, I have no idea what the
current guestimate for how long the IRS will take.

One of the issues that caused a huge amount of problems with the
Usenix / NewSage controversy in 2005 was a misunderstanding of how
long it can take to gin up a new 501(c)(3) organization, and the
reluctance of the then Usenix board to risk their 501(c)(3) status
transfering substantial assets to a non-501(c)(3) organization.

(I served as Treasurer on the Usenix board at the time, and the whole
thing was a real mess. This was not the whole cause of the
controversy, but the legal issues around transfer of 501(c)(3) funds
and the assumption by some that it would be trivial to create new
501(c)(3) orgs on short notice were certainly contributory factors.)

- Ted