[members] update on Parrot Foundation status

[Allison Randal]

On 04/18/2013 01:21 PM, Jonathan "Duke" Leto wrote:
> 
> 1) How will the finances of Parrot Foundation be transitioned to The
> Perl Foundation? Will there be a "separate bucket" for Parrot funds?

The transition is a matter of writing a check from the Parrot Foundation
to the Perl Foundation, after the closure is complete, and all of
Parrot's expenses have been paid.

TPF tracks separate "funds" for a number of different projects. They
will set up a fund for Parrot, if we request it, and the funds donated
from the Parrot Foundation will appear as a separate budget item, for
future use by the Parrot project. See, for example:

http://www.perlfoundation.org/perl_5_core_maintenance_fund

> 2) Who will manage the distribution of these funds?

I'm on the board of TPF and will act as Parrot's representative as long
as needed. I can authorize payment of Parrot funds for any Parrot
expenses. Parrot hasn't had any expenses other than basic legal and
accounting in years now, and doesn't have a huge pile of money to fund
development work anyway.

If that changes, and Parrot is suddenly flush with money (that'd be a
nice change), then Parrot has the option of setting up a committee
within TPF to vote on and allocate Parrot funds for Parrot-specific
projects.

> 3) Will this allow Parrot developers to write TPF grants to work on Parrot?

Parrot developers already can and have submitted grants to TPF. But, the
Perl grants committee is focused on projects that benefit Perl (Coke is
on that committee), so the Parrot grants approved through them will be
Perl-related in some way. The affiliation with TPF does not grant Parrot
any greater access to general Perl funds than it has currently. This is
simply a "hosting" arrangement for the Parrot intellectual property and
(small amount of) remaining funds.

For comparison, it's probably worth noting that TPF ran over $100k of
grants last year
(http://news.perlfoundation.org/2013/01/2012-year-end-report.html), so
Parrot's funds don't represent any significant burden or benefit to TPF.
It's just a stable, well-managed umbrella that Parrot can ride under
(short-term or long-term).

Allison