BOARD OF GOVERNORS VOTE: Incorporate Veres One as a Nonprofit Foundation in Canada

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*Greetings Veres One Community Group,*

*

Given the consensus on the mailing list and the end of the time period 
for community input on the incorporation proposal, I would like to call 
for a vote by the members-to-be of the Board of Governors on the 
following proposal:


PROPOSAL: Incorporate the Veres One Foundation as a non-profit in Canada.


Members-to-be of the Board of Governors, please reply with a +/- 1 to 
this email with your vote on the proposal.


Details on this vote follow.


We currently have six members-to-be that have agreed to serve on the 
Board of Governors <https://veres.one/about/>with a seventh and final to 
be announced and added later next month. I should note that because the 
Foundation doesn’t exist yet, and because the Board of Governors can’t 
be officially formed until the Foundation exists, that this is more of a 
vote in spirit than a legally binding vote. Digital Bazaar continues to 
hold all legal and financial liability in the formation of the Veres One 
Foundation until such a time as the Board of Governors is officially and 
legally in place.


Below is the specific proposal that was discussed on the mailing list 
including background information. The proposal (above) to be voted on 
has been edited to include only the essential information:

UPDATED PROPOSAL: After doing more research into the various country 
options for incorporation my proposal has changed somewhat. I propose 
that we incorporate in Canada to start with and leave the next country 
of incorporation more open ended. Canada may end up being a good long 
term home for the Veres One Foundation. The CG and the Board can decide 
where, when, and if the Veres One Foundation should migrate to another 
jurisdiction at a later date.”


The entire discussion thread can be found in the mailing list archives:

https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-veres-one/2018Aug/thread.html


I believe there has been some good discussion on the proposal and that 
we have consensus (see tally below) to move forward with a vote.


Since this is our first proposal and vote as a community I would like to 
remind everyone that the function of the Board of Governors (Board 
members may also be CG members) is to act as guardians of the mission 
<https://veres.one/summary/>and not to favor their preferred proposals. 
The Board of Governors are tasked with first determining whether 
consensus has indeed been achieved as part of the “consideration” phase 
of the decision making process 
<https://veres.one/network/governance/>and then pass the proposal unless 
it endangers the Veres One Mission. The final decision is determined by 
a simple majority vote. Governors who reject proposals are expected to 
provide an explanation to the Veres One Community Group


Tally of responses to the Proposal:


Ten -- +1

Two -- 0

Zero -- -1


More specifically:


Anriette Esterhuysen: +1


Matt Stone: +1 “+1 on the basis of Adam's thorough analysis and 
recommendation. Personally I'm glad we're not trying to go to 
Switzerland right now (or maybe ever). When I hear of "Swiss neutrality" 
in a topic like this I feel a slight eye-roll come on.  Their marketing 
is good. Bose speakers anyone?”


Dorothy Gordon: +1 "I hope we can come to a decision soon. I go with 
Canada now, Estonia would be my second choice." Dorothy, apologies for 
missing you on the first tally.


Markus Sabadello: +1 Canada makes sense I think, even though I have to 
admit I also liked the Swiss option :)


Kilnam Chon: “Canada sounds better than others”


Kaliya Young: “Canada seems like the best option. They (the Canadians) 
are doing really good identity work too.”


Joe Andrieu: +1, “Canada is alright”


Manu Sporny: +1, agreed. “The country has a fairly excellent track 
record wrt.

identity work, the government is progressive wrt. Privacy…”


Dave Longley: +1


Adam Lake: +1


Melvin Carvalho: 0 “Not a stakeholder in this, but Estonia sounds like 
an exciting option”


Christopher Allen: 0, Abstain*

-- 
Adam Lake
Director, Business Development
Digital Bazaar
Veres.io
540-285-0083