[AUUG-Talk]: Who gets AUUG's assets?

[Karl Auer]

Executive summary:

AUUG can give whatever it likes to whomever it likes, limited only by
good faith, the law, and the stated aims of the group, *provided* it
does so before the group is wound up. If the group is wound up, more
restrictive parts of the constitution come into force.

Detail:

There has been much discussion of the assets of AUUG and how to dispose
of them and who they may be disposed of to in the event that the group
is wound up. 

The constitution controls, very closely, who may receive the assets of
the group if the group is wound up.

Up until the point where the group winds up, however, the group's assets
are still under the control of the committee, and the committee is NOT
restricted in who they can give money or other assets to. Except of
course that they must act in good faith, within the law, and follow any
specific guidelines the constitution may have.

That means that ANY organisation that the current AUUG thinks is worth
supporting may be given any assets at all that the committee thinks fit.

Only if AUUG is allowed to be wound up do those restrictions about who
can get the assets come into play.

So: If an organisation exists that the AUUG committee thinks is one that
will further the aims of the AUUG, then the AUUG committee can
encourage/support that organisation however it thinks fit, with cash or
any other AUUG assets. The beneficiary can be any kind of organisation
at all - incorporated, unincorporated, for-profit, non-profit -
anything.

What this *specifically* means is that if a new AUUG were to be created,
in whatever form were felt suitable by its founders, it could be given
some or all of AUUG's assets.

If the sole reason for such a step were to be to evade the wind-up
clauses of the constitution, then I suppose a case could be made that
such a step was in bad faith. The committee would need to be sure that
it was not acting simply to evade the wind-up clauses, but rather in the
interest of furthering AUUG's aims.

Regards, K.
 
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)

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