That’s something I wish for HSA, too. And maybe to such meetings non-members are welcome. Just a thought, we’ll see…
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Checked a bit, atleast EU residency should be perfectly fine, for non-EU members what I found is a bit foggy, so not sure there.
As I said, a Zoom (or similar software) meeting would be possible and cool. And I think non-EU members have full rights.
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Please let’s not use proprietary US spyware to talk about free software.
There’s Jitsi,which is free software and there are some open servers in the EU,or it can be self-hosted.
I’m also interested in such a meeting,but only if free software is used.
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Yes, it seems obvious we would use jitsi instead (mentioned above as similar software) I think there is ni dissgreement here 
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HSA has alink to begeistert,
https://begeistert.org/ Website is down, does anybody know why?
Happy to see there is something around over here in good old Germany.
Would be nice if there would be some Jitsi session, specifically as it is a easy way to get things off the ground again.
If an Jitsi instance is needed, feel free to ping me (e.g. on IRC).
Do you have link or something with a bit of infos? Would be fun to at least say hello and provide some cookies.
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I wasn’t aware that Zoom isn’t libre. I totally agree that proprietary software should not be used for us, especially as there really are free alternatives.
I will join the HSA soon (might take until begin of February). I would love to see other people there. Charlie Clark is very responsive to emails.
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I’ll also join soon.
It’s nice that the form can be sent by email,makes stuff easier and faster.
Anyway,I haven’t used my printer for more than a year and I’m pretty sure that the ink is dry and it won’t work that easily.
Have you considered starting a local user group? It doesn’t need a nonprofit to get started. Just post a message on the forum here and organize something local (in your city or your country) and see who wants to join.
And if it’s an online hangout (with whateâer tool), well that requires even less organization. Just share a jitsi link with a time and date, and the worst thing you risk is that no one joins?
It seems a good idea to start doing this and work on local communities. Then the events may grow larger and eventually there may be a need to set up a local nonprofit
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Just sent my membership request
Let’s see how things go then.
Maybe,if enough interested people are found,something like BeGeistert can be done again some day.
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Hi, a very good service is Jitsi by the Freifunk group in Munich: https://meet.ffmuc.net
There are also apps available for MacOS, Linux and Windows: Spenden für den Betrieb: [ffmuc.net/wiki/]
To all the German people in this forum: I think it would be appropriate to start a new thread in German. As this has quite some specific terms (Vereinsrecht, Satzung, Vereinmaierrei ) a German thread would be easier. I don’t wanna offend anybody setting up a non-english thread. (Btw: being a member of a Verein is generally open to everybody independently from nationality. So it isn’t an exclusive German thing.)
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According to who.is, the site also expires at 28th July this year. 
Domains usually expire after 1 year if you don’t renew them,so there’s nothing wrong with this date.
It will probably automatically get renewed before the 28th July.
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Not offensive at all, just put it in the International category.
If you don’t see that category, it might be muted.
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Okay, I was thinking about this thread and - although I’m not an expert in German law on associations („Vereinsrecht“) - I want to point out a few things.
VoloDroid startet the thread with the notion, that there should be another entity other than Haiku Inc, that could accept donations dedicated to Haiku. Haiku Inc. is a „non-profit“ company under US law. I am not aware of the specific benefits under this law, but I guess people had reasonable and valid motives to choose this construct. Whether it is reasonable to consider other options, must be evaluated by the owners of Haiku Inc.
So what are options here in Europe? I can only speak about Germany. I’ve no clue about regulations in other European states. So the options in Germany are:
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Associations („Vereine“) in Germany have strong cultural and legal foundations. You find them everywhere. Chess clubs can be a Verein. But even the German Red Cross is one. Vereine ought to be registered at a court. Then, they are a „registered association“ („eingetragener Verein“, „e.V.“). With that registration the association has legal capacity, meaning you can do business, do renting etc. Liabilities aim towards the association itself not towards its members. Apropos: doing business. A Verein is allowed to have some kind of business, but this business must be of subordinate importance. Otherwise you’re a normal business, and you’re treated like a company. So basically, every Verein is non-profit per se. Additionally there can be a special status associated with an association: being „gemeinnützig“. I would translate that into „being charitable due to public interest“. One benefit of being „gemeinnützig“ is for example, that donations and membership fees are tax deductible. The Verein has to apply for this status at the tax office. There a 27 causes that - if they meet the goals of your association - make your Verein „gemeinnützig“ (https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ao_1977/__52.html)
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To make it more complicated: you can have a company that is „gemeinnützig“ (e.g. gemeinnützige GmbH) as well. Then, this company won’t pay neither corporation tax nor the local business tax. But it has to meet the criteria mentioned above.
It would be great to have an Haiku Verein or a company that is „gemeinnützig“, but the development and support of an open source software is not „gemeinnützig“. Thus, the Haiku Support Association e.V. is registered, but not „gemeinnützig“. (That is also the reason why Mastodon isn’t a gGmbH anymore. https://www.heise.de/news/Mastodon-Laut-Finanzamt-nicht-mehr-gemeinnuetzig-9701317.html)
So there seems to be no financial benefit to set up an additional entity - at least not in Germany. Nonetheless, it’s totally reasonable to have an association that promotes the development of or other forms of support for Haiku, as there are plenty of other advantages (https://www.buergergesellschaft.de/praxishilfen/arbeit-im-verein/gruendung-und-grundlagen/worin-liegt-der-anreiz-einen-verein-zu-gruenden)
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It depends how you frame it.
I you want to hire developers to develop the software, then yes, that is too close to a normal software development company. But if it’s more like a “computer club”, I think it can work.
So, organizing coding sprints and conferences should be fine. Having some presence at existing conferences as well (we do this without a nonprofit in France already, but I’d love to see a Haiku stand at Froscon for example). And if you want to build a community and attract more developers, this is a great way to do it, maybe more important than hiring people at this point?