[Npoc-discuss] Creating an NGO for NPOC in Estonia - with a bank account

Wed Apr 28 13:19:26 UTC 2021

Hi Raoul,

Thanks for sharing these, very good to see feedback from our membership. As I am not knowledgeable of the minimum legal requirements for NGOs charters under Estonian law, I cannot comment on the charter as to what is missing and what can be changed (usually, the law mentions some mandatory elements to decide, but this may not be the case in Estonia). I would suggest, however, adding some provisions on the procedure to become a member and on who can be a member specifically (i.e. natural persons only, legal persons too? NGO-involvement as a criteria, or no such

My only question - and this is addressed to everyone - relates to founding members and general members and how they are reconciled with annual changes in NPOC leadership. Leadership changes every year through elections - is there a connection between this and the NGO board of directors? This is relevant since NPOC funds will be effectively under the pen and supervision of the NGO Board of directors, so we need to ensure procedures are in place so that NPOC leadership has effective control over that decision.

I hope this makes sense,
Best,
Ioana

Ioana Stupariu
SJD Candidate - International Business Law
--------------------------------------------------------
Central European University
Department of Legal Studies
Nador u. 11, 1051 Budapest, Hungary
Phone: +40744251228
Stupariu_Ioana at phd.ceu.edu | www.ceu.edu<http://www.ceu.edu>

[Risultati immagini per ceu logo][https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1BagXXaNk9Ct-0E173kqDcdjXA1Ul7dPB&export=download]

________________________________
From: Npoc-discuss <npoc-discuss-bounces at icann.org> on behalf of Raoul Plommer via Npoc-discuss <npoc-discuss at icann.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2021 1:34 PM
To: Joan Kerr <joankerr at fbsc.org>
Cc: NPOC Discuss <npoc-discuss at icann.org>
Subject: Re: [Npoc-discuss] Creating an NGO for NPOC in Estonia - with a bank account

Here's the draft of the charter, copied from a minimal charter in Estonia. For some reason, I did not upload this to the cloud last time, but now it can be found there also: https://cloud.npoc.org/index.php/s/gHKke3mRcri3cFJ

**********

Statutes of DNS for NGOs (This name is a placeholder, we can think of a better one :)

I GENERAL PROVISIONS

1.1 The NGO, DNS for NGOs (hereinafter the association) is a public interest organization based in Tallinn.

1.2 The purpose of the association is to promote the importance of DNS to the NGOs of the world and to support NPOC's mission at ICANN, including financial support.

-- (NPOC's new mission statement, just for reference)
1    Mission and Principles.

1.1 The Not-for-Profit Organizations Constituency (hereinafter to be referred to as the NPOC) is part of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) and, according to the ICANN bylaws, is a member of the Non-Commercial Stakeholder’s Group (NCSG).

1.2 The mission of NPOC is to represent not-for-profit organizations by addressing their operational concerns with generic top-level domains (gTLDs). Operational concerns are defined as issues arising from the use of the gTLDs by the not-for-profit organizations to achieve their own mission. Those can include but are not limited to domain name fraud, intellectual property abuse, privacy, security, stability, and resiliency, as well as transparent domain registration process and continued use of domain names.

1.3 The members of NPOC are committed to carrying out its mission in an accountable and transparent manner and to ensure that new participants, the ICANN community, and the general public may easily access and understand its operations and processes. NPOC members are expected to follow the ICANN Expected Standards of Behavior.
--

II RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF MEMBERS

2.1 People who are ready to take an active part in achieving the goal and fulfills the requirements of the articles of association. Those who do not meet these conditions may be expelled.

2.2 The General Meeting decides on the admission and expulsion of members and the imposition of obligations on them.

2.3 A member of the Association has all legal rights and the right to receive comprehensive information from the governing bodies where all members of the association may participate.

III MANAGEMENT

3.1 The highest body of the association is the general meeting of members in accordance with the law, in which all members of the association may participate

3.2 The convening of the general meeting and the adoption of resolutions shall be based on law. The general meeting has a quorum regardless of the number of participants.

3.3 The board of directors is elected by the general meeting for two years and may have two to seven members, of which the majority must be NPOC's members at ICANN.

IV ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

4.1 The association is dissolved in accordance with the procedure prescribed by law.

4.2 and to a similar organization or legal entity in the public domain that is a member of the list of religious associations.

*****

That's it, short and sweet. Please make suggestions to improve this draft.

-Raoul

On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 at 16:14, Joan Kerr <joankerr at fbsc.org<mailto:joankerr at fbsc.org>> wrote:
Hi Raoul,

As you know, I support this venture and think this is good for the Constituency.  If i could suggest that the Charter, or a statement is posted so everyone understands the new entity and its purpose.
Thanks,

On Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 12:40 PM Raoul Plommer via Npoc-discuss <npoc-discuss at icann.org<mailto:npoc-discuss at icann.org>> wrote:
Dear members of NPOC,

For 2+ years we have been talking about setting up an NGO to have a legal entity that is able to collect donations and other payments for projects that NPOC is doing.

Some obvious benefits as an NGO include:

1) $10 000 Google ads money MONTHLY
2) To be able to accept donations and project funding from organisations like the PIR
3) Having a registered NGO in Estonia means we can open a bank account there and with the help of the Estonian digital citizenship (100€ per person), we can manage our account from overseas AND change signatories for it, without ever visiting Estonia after the organisation is registered.

What we need to do:

1) Finish the draft of the charter of the NGO.
2) Pay one Estonian guy 200€ for
- Translation
- processing our registration
- becoming board member for the first term
- putting his address as the address of the NGO
3) Paying for the registration of the NGO to the Estonian government (<€100)
4) Open a bank account and have two of three board members (two from NPOC EC) get the Estonian digital citizenship
5) Pay €100 for each signatory
6) Pay €100 for me to go to Estonia and sort out the final steps in a day or two.

So that's approximately 200 (Estonian guy) + 200 (two signatories) + 100 (registration fee) + 100 (My trip to Estonia) = €600 altogether

I am sure there will be questions for a big decision like this, so please, let it rain! I'll try to answer them all, best to my knowledge. :)

-Raoul
_______________________________________________
Npoc-discuss mailing list
Npoc-discuss at icann.org<mailto:Npoc-discuss at icann.org>
https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/npoc-discuss
_______________________________________________
By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.

--

Joan Kerr, Entrepreneur, Mixed Media Artist, Community Leader

_____________________________________

Chair, Climate Smart Victory Garden Team

Chair, ICANN, Not for Profit Operations Constituency

Chair, IEEE Sustainable Agriculture Working Group

Chair, Science for Peace, Climate Smart Victory Gardens

Member, Public Registry Advisory Council

Advisor, Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network, (CSAYN) Canada

UN WSIS Award Recipient, for Content & Creativity

Durham Region Recipient, Community Partnership Award

Founder, Foundation for Building Sustainable Communities

www.joankerr.ca<http://www.joankerr.ca/>, www.fbsc.org<http://www.fbsc.org/>

Skype: joankerr_fbsc

1-416-907-0783
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/npoc-discuss/attachments/20210428/83f93fb4/attachment.html>