Re: [nc-budget] An association under French law 1901

[Dany Vandromme <vandrome@renater.fr>]

>Its good to hear that we have options. As I see it, the main problem of
>setting up in France is the language problem.  My French is not good and I
>would be unable to operate within a French language constitution.

-
Hi Erica,
I am afraid that my english is still poorer than your french....
I think that this should not be taken as a serious argument, either way!
-

>
>It may be worth considering setting up in Australia.  The law here is
>somewhere between US and UK law and it is easy to set up a not for profit as
>a legal entity.  Another option is to set up a company in Anguillia.  This
>is a British dependancy, stable, and a tax free jurisdiction.  I understand
>it is easy to set up a company on-line for, I believe, a cost of around
>$us1000 and to establish associated banking arrangements.
>
>erica.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Elisabeth Porteneuve" <Elisabeth.Porteneuve@cetp.ipsl.fr>
>To: <nc-budget@dnso.org>; <rogerc@netsol.com>
>Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2000 12:14 PM
>Subject: [nc-budget] An association under French law 1901
>
>
> >
> >
> > Colleagues, it is a follow up of our Marina del Rey meeting
> > held on Thursday 16 November, 07:15 in Roger's suite.
> >
> > Elisabeth
> > --
> > NB. The original message from Roger, quoting Mike Roberts DNSO Accounting
> >     is attached at the end.
> >
> > Forming a not for profit association under French law
> > "la loi du 1er juillet 1901 et le decret du 16 aout 1901".
> >
> > A. General
> >
> > The law 1901 is explicitly dedicated for not for profit associations.
> > It is extremely flexible, and is used in France for various purposes.
> > The spectra ranges from associations of school's parents managing
> > minimal budget with no staff to non for profit association of banks,
> > with hundreds of employees. Approximately one million associations
> > in France use law 1901 framework. The European Academic and Research
> > Network, BITNET sister-network, was operationg in Europe in late 1980's
> > using French law 1901, with the international Board (Chair in Danemark,
> > Vice-Chair in Israel), and staff (Manager from Belgium, engeneers
> > from France, Italy and India/British Commonwealth).
> >
> > A non for profit using law 1901 is defined in its Status, which shall
> > be drafted accordingly to its purposes and composition, and include:
> >  1.1. Duration (may be limited in time, renewable periodically)
> >  1.2. Registration place
> >  1.3. Membership (may be open to individuals or moral persons, i.e.
> >       institutions; no requirement for French or European Union
> >       citizenship; the criteria for various membership such as full
> >       members or observers shall be described in Status of Association)
> >  1.4. Resources (membership fees as well as donations, either from
> >       public or private institutions or individuals)
> >  1.5. Fiscal regime (VAT, taxes on company benefits if any)
> >  1.6. Structure (very flexible, usually Board of Directors,
> >       General Manager, and General Assembly; the composition of
> >       Board and its renewal are defined in Status, the General
> >       Manager is a non voting member of the Board; the powers of
> >       the Board and its Chair are defined in Status as well,
> >       it include annual budget, work plan, recruitment plan,
> >       finances and accounting, rules for member's acceptance and
> >       revocation, and any other business as it see fits; the annual
> >       GA meeting is mandatory; the mandate of General Manager
> >       is defined in Status)
> >  1.7. The staff of non for profit association is submitted
> >       to the common French rule for employment (such as packages
> >       for retirement or medical insurance).
> >
> > To declare a non for profit using law 1901, the following shall
> > be accomplished:
> >  2.1. Status shall be written (either using any of standard
> >       examples provided in loi 1901 books, or adapted carefully
> >       to the desired purposes)
> >  2.2. Declaration at the prefecture of the Registration place,
> >       then subsequent public record and number in the French
> >       Journal Officiel (JO). The declaration may be accomplished
> >       by a delegate from Board, the cost is 290 FF. Within 2 weeks
> >       such a declaration is recorded in the JO, and the association
> >       acquire a legal status. Once the legal status established,
> >       the association is ready to run its business, including
> >       an opening of a business bank account (no restrictions on
> >       currency, may be in dollars US).
> >
> > B. Proposal for the DNSO
> >
> > AFNIC is in the process to move its offices to a new place in
> > Saint Quentin en Yvelines (Versailles area). The buildings place
> > has been rented, it will be refurbished in January, operations
> > starting on 1 February 2001. The building place is larger than
> > necessary for AFNIC purposes, and the independent entrance with
> > 100 square meters has been granted to the DNSO from the Saint-Quentin
> > economic area. The Saint Quentin grant covers one year of office rental,
> > equivalent to 20,000 USD, as well as city taxes exemption.
> > AFNIC is co-located in the same building, with its bunker for servers,
> > with secure and redundant high speed connectivity, and the high
> > quality professional engineers service operation a TLD registry.
> > AFNIC legal counsel, who drafted our law 1901 Status, may provide
> > a help to draft the similar for the DNSO.
> > Some preliminary contacts has been established with an independent
> > accountant, willing to work for the DNSO on consulting base,
> > and an independent manager willing to ensure the current
> > professional service, with the help of AFNIC in back office.
> > To be completed a half-time dedicated Technical Officer is needed for
> > the dnso.org server and related services.
> > The DNSO managing secretariat may start its operations very easily.
> >
> >
> > --original message from Roger, quoting Mike Roberts DNSO Accounting--
> > From owner-nc-budget@dnso.org Fri Nov  3 16:02 MET 2000
> > Message-ID:
><3309B573228FD411AF4500D0B784A148AA0EE4@netsol-nic-ex01.prod.netsol.com>
> > From: "Cochetti, Roger" <rogerc@netsol.com>
> > To: nc-budget@dnso.org
> > Subject: [nc-budget] AGENDA
> > Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 09:58:36 -0500
> >
> > 1. Review Voluntary Funding Program
> >
> > 2. Review P{rofessional Services Selection Plans
> >
> > 3. Review Disposition of ICANN-administered funds
> >
> > 4. Other matters (see below)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mike Roberts [mailto:roberts@icann.org]
> > Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2000 12:23 PM
> > To: Ken Stubbs
> > Cc: rogerc@netsol.com; schroeder@icann.org; ajm@icann.org;
> > touton@icann.org
> > Subject: DNSO Accounting
> >
> >
> > Ken -
> >
> > In the course of the preparation of our annual financial statements
> > by Bremer and Hockenberg, our accountants, and the annual audit by
> > KPMG, Diane and I were informed that the current informal "trust
> > account" treatment of DNSO funds by ICANN staff is not a permitted
> > practice under current accounting principles and practices for
> > non-profits.  In order for ICANN staff to get out of trouble, the
> > funds currently residing in our corporate bank account must go
> > somewhere else by the end of the calendar year.
> >
> > I discussed the situation briefly with Roger when Joe and I had lunch
> > with him last week in DC, since Verisign has made its own funding
> > offer to the DNSO.
> >
> > It is up to the Names Council to make a decision about the handling
> > of the funds it raises, but I see three reasonable alternatives,
> > listed below in order of my personal preference.
> >
> > (1) Make accounting a responsibility of a host organization for the
> > DNSO.  This is what the ASO and PSO do, and there are certainly
> > plenty of large corporations in a position to take on the host
> > responsibilities for the DNSO, in the US or elsewhere, in a similar
> > fashion.  If the burden is considered significant, the responsibility
> > can be rotated, as it is in the ASO/PSO. This brings you within an
> > established organizational framework where, as the saying goes,
> > "routine things are handled routinely."
> >
> > (2) Ask the ICANN Board to include a revenue and expense item in the
> > annual ICANN budget for the DNSO, and to include the necessary staff
> > effort to administer the funds as well.  This also puts you in an
> > established organizational framework, with annual audits, but would
> > require that your activities be conducted according to whatever
> > policies the Names Council and the Board mutually worked out. Since
> > the DNSO already operates under provisions of the Bylaws, this
> > shouldn't be a big deal.
> >
> > (3) Use the DNSO unincorporated association account you have opened
> > as the basis for all your accounting and adopt whatever procedures
> > and controls on the account that satisfy the NC's own accountability
> > requirements.  This is the "roll your own" solution and works - if a
> > Names Council member is willing to ride herd on the procedures and
> > whomever is doing the accounting.
> >
> > Sorry to hassle you about administrivia, but we have to get this
> > cleaned up soon.
> >
> > - Mike
> >

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Dany VANDROMME                    |  Directeur du GIP RENATER

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