These are discussion points and ideas, nothing is set in stone and I've put this out there for feedback and discussion. I'll do similar for other subjects around the future of OTF.
Legal structure
I've always taken the view that OTF is a collective and a community. Even as admin, I've always taken the view that my job was to keep OTF running and for the benefits of the users as a whole in the spirit of what the community wanted to represent. With the need to handle money almost directly, I am distinctly uncomfortable with being a focal point for the money committed by the users. Basically, I don't like the idea of being the sole point of responsibility / failure of OTF. To use a cliche, I'm here as a custodian of OTF not an owner and my "job" is to make sure that the community is functioning well until the point that the users decide that the responsibility should be passed on to someone else.
While this was easily done when WSC paid for and effectively "owned" OTF, this wouldn't be the case when we strike out on our own. I think that we require some sort of legal structure. What I am thinking of is establishing OTF as a non-profit legal organisation of some kind. A quick search says that the best way is either as a co-operative or a Community Interest Company. Both of these look like legal entities where we can set up some kind of accountability, plus separate bank accounts and so on and so forth. If anyone has knowledge, experience or advice on setting up either of those two entities, or have a better legal model, I'm more than happy to hear from you.
(I'm basically stealing the model of another forum which went through this about a decade ago and I'm talking to them to understand exactly what the responsibilities are.)
I think that by doing this, we can set up some kind of model where no one person is solely responsible for keeping OTF going and yet the people in "charge" can be accountable to the userbase.
One thing that it does raise, as I understand it, is that if we went down the "co-op" route, then someone donating via Patreon would most likely become a member of the co-operative and have the right to vote on the people running it and stand for positions within the organisation. If we went down the Community Interest Company then that isn't the case. As I say, I might be wrong on this but right now I have no preference either way - a little more of an admin overhead but not much.
Finances
In terms of money, the obvious way is to use Patreon to set up a recurring subscription. There will probably also be a way to donate directly as a one-off. I don't know what the required finances would be - at the moment I am working through options and need to understand the size of the site and traffic that it generates. OTF is a big forum and we don't purge old posts. I quite like that but it does mean we have some heavy lifting.
I have some more thoughts about Patreon and donors but I need to get them in order before posting more suggestions.
I do want to say that if you want me to take this forward it is on the following starting principles:
If a co-op or CiC model is adopted, people who donate will have full access to the information about the actions, meetings and finances of OTF should they choose. (Non-donors would not.)
A co-op or CiC model means that people other than myself may be required to fill positions that are legal requirements, e.g. Treasurer and be co-signatories on bank accounts, legal formation documents etc etc. That probably sounds scarier than it is, I just don't think that one person should be the fulcrum of everything. And these positions will be as unpaid volunteers.
If OTF makes a "profit" after donations and costs, then it is kept back for either reinvestment to keep/improve service or simply stored for a rainy day. It will not be redistributed to the membership or the people running it.
OTF remains completely free to all users, whether they donate or not
OTF remains advertising free for all users
One thing I do want to make clear is that we are not in danger of shutting our doors through lack of finances - I have received several offers of donations via PM and I'm willing to put my own money in as well to keep the lights on for a good while yet. We don't need any payments or financial commitments just yet.
There's probably a whole lot more but the floor is open.
Legal structure
I've always taken the view that OTF is a collective and a community. Even as admin, I've always taken the view that my job was to keep OTF running and for the benefits of the users as a whole in the spirit of what the community wanted to represent. With the need to handle money almost directly, I am distinctly uncomfortable with being a focal point for the money committed by the users. Basically, I don't like the idea of being the sole point of responsibility / failure of OTF. To use a cliche, I'm here as a custodian of OTF not an owner and my "job" is to make sure that the community is functioning well until the point that the users decide that the responsibility should be passed on to someone else.
While this was easily done when WSC paid for and effectively "owned" OTF, this wouldn't be the case when we strike out on our own. I think that we require some sort of legal structure. What I am thinking of is establishing OTF as a non-profit legal organisation of some kind. A quick search says that the best way is either as a co-operative or a Community Interest Company. Both of these look like legal entities where we can set up some kind of accountability, plus separate bank accounts and so on and so forth. If anyone has knowledge, experience or advice on setting up either of those two entities, or have a better legal model, I'm more than happy to hear from you.
(I'm basically stealing the model of another forum which went through this about a decade ago and I'm talking to them to understand exactly what the responsibilities are.)
I think that by doing this, we can set up some kind of model where no one person is solely responsible for keeping OTF going and yet the people in "charge" can be accountable to the userbase.
One thing that it does raise, as I understand it, is that if we went down the "co-op" route, then someone donating via Patreon would most likely become a member of the co-operative and have the right to vote on the people running it and stand for positions within the organisation. If we went down the Community Interest Company then that isn't the case. As I say, I might be wrong on this but right now I have no preference either way - a little more of an admin overhead but not much.
Finances
In terms of money, the obvious way is to use Patreon to set up a recurring subscription. There will probably also be a way to donate directly as a one-off. I don't know what the required finances would be - at the moment I am working through options and need to understand the size of the site and traffic that it generates. OTF is a big forum and we don't purge old posts. I quite like that but it does mean we have some heavy lifting.
I have some more thoughts about Patreon and donors but I need to get them in order before posting more suggestions.
I do want to say that if you want me to take this forward it is on the following starting principles:
If a co-op or CiC model is adopted, people who donate will have full access to the information about the actions, meetings and finances of OTF should they choose. (Non-donors would not.)
A co-op or CiC model means that people other than myself may be required to fill positions that are legal requirements, e.g. Treasurer and be co-signatories on bank accounts, legal formation documents etc etc. That probably sounds scarier than it is, I just don't think that one person should be the fulcrum of everything. And these positions will be as unpaid volunteers.
If OTF makes a "profit" after donations and costs, then it is kept back for either reinvestment to keep/improve service or simply stored for a rainy day. It will not be redistributed to the membership or the people running it.
OTF remains completely free to all users, whether they donate or not
OTF remains advertising free for all users
One thing I do want to make clear is that we are not in danger of shutting our doors through lack of finances - I have received several offers of donations via PM and I'm willing to put my own money in as well to keep the lights on for a good while yet. We don't need any payments or financial commitments just yet.
There's probably a whole lot more but the floor is open.
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