On 12/08/2024 17:56, Attila Pinter wrote:

On Monday, August 12th, 2024 at 10:31 PM, Patrick Fitzgerald <patrickf@i-layer.com> wrote:

On 12/08/2024 16:56, Richard Brown wrote:

On 2024-08-12 16:52, Patrick Fitzgerald wrote:

Richard, would you like to help by working with us to draft the kind
of policies that make sense from your point of view, you are very
welcome. Seriously. I'd rather engage in something constructive rather
than this. How you draft something and I'll get it checked, and put it
on the website?

Or we collaborate? That's what this community is all about, isn't it?


I contribute to Projects I trust

That does not include your foundation

Aah, at last we are getting somewhere.

So you would not contribute to the Foundation in in order to make it more transparent?

Please list the reasons for you mistrust, and

-   We will do our best to either clarify any misconceptions
-   Correct any inaccuracies
-   Do what we can do in order to earn your trust

In our haste to provide services to this community, perhaps our communications have not been timely; I wish to correct this.

Richard, please help us to help the community.

Thanks - Patrick

When it came down to it, this is turned out to be a beef that Richard has with a board, and therefore me. I'm ok with that. Wish it wasn't the case, but it is what it is.

It seems there might be some confusion here. I agree with what Richard said — it's a valid point.

Which one?

Financial transparency? working on it.
My apparent control? working on that too.
GDPR? working on that, but IMHO we are are compliant, but will consult a lawyer to check.

If there is anything else: please let me know.

The existence of this thread alone highlights the potential trust issues that may exist in the community. I initially raised these concerns in the Bar, where people argued with me at least 3 hours. The moment money is involved, our relationships will inevitably change.

Money is always involved, it just depends on who is spending it, or who is donating it in the form of $ or time.

And yes, the way you handled things in the past a board member doesn't help much with building trust in my personal opinion.

Happy to discuss that in the bar, if you have only heard one side of the story.


Anyhow, I'm asking these questions here because they haven't been addressed anywhere ever. There's a general lack of communication surrounding the foundation, aside from the fact that it's "here to support the project", yet, the Board doesn't recognize it as the project's official foundation and won't make an official statement on why.

Good point, it has never been raised as an issue before in that way...

Perhaps it should be raised as a board level issue. (But as a couple of project members don't trust the board, who is going to do that?)
Has the board been asked to make a statement as to why? (honest question)
I can tell you the unofficial reasons:

If you were at oSC 2019 you'd understand why I am doing this. If you weren't - ask someone who was.
All of the trustees of the Geeko Foundation want to build something that helps the community.
As an idea it has bounced around for some time, but nothing had ever eventuated: so I took the risk and set it up.
Therefore, I guess, it has kind of achieved "default" status, as there was no where for donations to go to. Now there is.

If you want to improve things, focus on better communication and avoid taking things personally when tough questions are asked due to a lack of transparency. Just my 2C.

Agreed, but as I have stated: I need more help doing this. I don't take it personally when people ask for more accountability. I welcome it.

The "Persons with Significant Control" question was appropriate - and I gave you the same answer that my accountants gave me. But I am working with them on Wednesday to correct this, and results should be available this Thursday. (or as soon as HMRC can publish it).

A company tax return in the UK can be filed a maximum 12 months from the end of the financial year. We are working on this right now. However the resulting accounts will be dry reading indeed. So...

What do you want to see? (honest question). We can build a template that our accounting system can pour in the data, but unless we are told what people want... the effort will be worthless.

Even worse, and more pressing, is the fact that people are likely to want to see up-to-date numbers on TSP, but the accounts will be report on up to the 28th of February 2024. So a custom report will be need to be generated for this. I have asked a question in this thread (about what kind of format the TSP information should be delivered in) but it hasn't been answered yet.

It's kind of ironic that we are suffering the same issue as most of the project: lack of developers. But I know that if GF we pay someone, then that would not be "OK" with the community. (I guess?).

I have no doubt that we will get there in the end though. These things take time.

--
Br,
A.