Should OBO Foundry pursue non-profit status?

[matentzn]

For 20 years, the OBO Foundry has been run as a volunteer organisation. Occasionally, core infrastructure has been funded by grants awarded to OBO Operations Committee members, but the majority of the work has been done on a volunteering basis. This means, on the one side, that the OBO community could organise itself from the bottom up, resulting in a network of passionate scientists and developers that contribute their resources to a common cause. On the other hand, the lack of bespoke resources and the reliance on scarce volunteer hours sometimes makes it very slow to progress. For this reason, a debate has started on whether it may be worth the effort to form a non-profit, which is able to receive funds (donations) which can be spent on core infrastructure. The Governance team, driven by members of our community including @sabrinatoro, @handemcginty and @mellybelly have laid the groundwork for organisational change that would be necessary for such a move. For now, though, we still do not have a good feel _ whether the effort is worth it to reach our goal_ (core funding for core OBO infrastructure and processes), or whether there are more efficient means to get these resources. What is your opinion?

[hoganwr]

This is an important discussion so thank you for getting it going. I'd be interested to know what other means there are--besides status quo and nonprofit status--to assess whether they're more or less efficient. I'm also curious to know what sources of funds the non-profit would have other than the donations mentioned. And who would be donating and from what funds? Is one idea that we'd have subawards to the non-profit on our grants?

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On Mon, Nov 20, 2023 at 1:50 AM Nico Matentzoglu ***@***.***> wrote: For 20 years, the OBO Foundry has been run as a volunteer organisation. Occasionally, core infrastructure has been funded by grants awarded to OBO Operations Committee members, but the majority of the work has been done on a volunteering basis. This means, on the one side, that the OBO community could organise itself from the bottom up, resulting in a network of passionate scientists and developers that contribute their resources to a common cause. On the other hand, the lack of bespoke resources and the reliance on scarce volunteer hours sometimes makes it very slow to progress. For this reason, a debate has started on whether it may be worth the effort to form a non-profit, which is able to receive funds (donations) which can be spent on core infrastructure. The Governance team, driven by members of our community including @sabrinatoro <https://github.com/sabrinatoro>, @handemcginty <https://github.com/handemcginty> and @mellybelly <https://github.com/mellybelly> have laid the groundwork for organisational change that would be necessary for such a move. For now, though, we still do not have a good feel _ whether the effort is worth it to reach our goal_ (core funding for core OBO infrastructure and processes), or whether there are more efficient means to get these resources. What is your opinion? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#2477>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAJR55VQI4VG2TTWWJRD2Q3YFMDS5AVCNFSM6AAAAAA7SO6VJ2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43ERDJONRXK43TNFXW4OZVHA3TCMBUGY> . You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[nlharris]

As I've expressed before, it's not a question of should we or shouldn't we pursue becoming a non-profit; the question is, who would lead/do the significant work required to accomplish this (without getting paid for that work)? (Not me, that's for sure!)

[matentzn]

Yeah, it's a very important question. Is there a way to secure a more constant stream of funding to establish a more mature, faster moving organisation, to avoid a full blown non-profit effort?

[hoganwr]

Nico, thanks for confirming that I've understood the question / key issue correctly. Nomi, I agree: I also understood the status quo as the least preferred option. I look forward to hearing folks' thoughts on options in between status quo and full-blown non-profit, and their relative advantages and disadvantages. I'll be sure to share any ideas of my own (at present, none sufficiently formulated, admittedly).

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On Mon, Nov 20, 2023 at 2:02 PM Nico Matentzoglu ***@***.***> wrote: Yeah, it's a very important question. Is there a way to secure a more constant stream of funding to establish a more nature, faster moving organisation, to avoid a full blown non-profit effort? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#2477 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAJR55QTBQZCGIUDZM76G2DYFOZM7AVCNFSM6AAAAAA7SO6VJ2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM3TMMRTGI3DE> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: <OBOFoundry/OBOFoundry.github.io/repo-discussions/2477/comments/7623262@ github.com>

[hoganwr]

I'm bumping this discussion because there was significant confusion on the OFOC call last week. We do not need a new workgroup to study the issue. We have the report of an existing governance group, which was presented by Hande to OFOC on the 9/19 call (as recorded in the minutes). I am sorry I could not make that call. Reviewing the minutes, however, the key question is not non-profit status, so that is one source of confusion to clear up.

The key question is whether we form a governance group. And the rationale for it is in the document. I reproduce the link here for your convenience: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10dXXYr-Wmu1JK9UfvoKp-Btb29KqUy2WFGHlAvUbrNI/edit

So we should not start yawg (yet another working group) until we have properly concluded the work of the existing one, IMHO.

[mellybelly]

The governance task team is awaiting feedback from the OBO-operations committee and would be happy to help design or lead a non-profit strategy and/or formalize a governance group. Maturing governance is necessary as part of non-profit creation, and was one of the main rationales for instantiating the governance task team in the first place. We also hosted a community survey and several town halls on this topic.