[Abbenay] Membership?

[Jobjörn Folkesson]

Some legal discussion:

As you probably know, there is something called "legal person" (sv:
"juridisk person"). Like real people, legal persons have the right to
enter agreements, own property, be in debt, etc.

Different countries have different rules about what is required for an
association (sv: "förening") to be recognized as a legal person. In
Sweden, there is a difference between economic associations (sv:
"ekonomiska föreningar") and not-for-profit organisations (sv:
"ideella föreningar"). An economic association is formed to further
the immediate economic interests of its members, for example as a work
cooperative, a trade union, or a consumer cooperative. Economic
associations are bound by lots of laws, and require formal
registration.

Not-for-profit organisations, however, do not. Nothing at all is
required for an association to become a legal person - it just is,
from the moment it is created. In most cases, you'll have to be able
to show written bylaws, but theoretically, nothing is stopping you
from having the bylaws recorded on tape. Or for that matter, you don't
even have to record it. Also, you usually need a board - there is no
actual legal precedent for this, the courts have just assumed that
that is how it must be. Unless you like hassling with the courts (some
people do, which is why I know all this), you'll need a board.

Then, there's "organisationsnummer". They're like "personnummer"
(usually compared to American social security numbers... is there, by
the way, anyone reading this that actually is unable to read
Swedish?), but for legal persons. Back in the days, you didn't have to
have one to open bank accounts etc, but now you do (although if you
give them enough trouble you can do it without a number). Skatteverket
is responsible for handing out these numbers (and it is when they
refuse that you go to the courts). Note, however, that having an
organisation number is not what makes your association a legal person
- it was already, now it just has a number.

Ungdomsstyrelsen (eng: "Youth's board") is responsible for handing out
money to organisations with young people as members. They have some
requirements, but these have nothing to do with forming an association
- just with their handing out money. In order for an association to be
eligible, it has to have at least 1000 members, so most associations
form larger organisations such as Förbundet Unga Forskare or Sverok.
For associations without a larger organisation to belong to, there are
some (I know of one, at least) "umbrella" organisations that house a
lot of different associations. Alternativa Politikerveckan
(www.alternativveckan.se) is a member of Booster (www.boosta.se) and
that arrangement is working out quite good.

If an association is too small to get money from Ungdomsstyrelsen, all
hope is not lost. Most municipalities and counties have various forms
of grants, often in the form of "local activity support" (sv: "lokalt
aktivitetsstöd"). There are also many funds and foundations you can
get donations from if you do some digging.

Any questions regarding this, don't hesitate to ask!

regards
Jobjörn

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 22:00, Hedvig Skirgård
<hedvig.skirgard at gmail.com> wrote:
> Might I add that FUF and UFS of course are not allowed to give information
> about members to a third party and that the goverment can only request
> information on FUFs members if there is suspicion of fraud i.e. faked
> members. If such a case arouse the only thing the board of youth would be
> interested is if all members have made a free choice of joining the
> orginsation every year and that no tampering with data has been made. The
> are very uninterested in who is in which förening to be honest and it would
> be quite illegal for them to look up specificly which members Abbenay has.
>
> Need I say that FUF has never been suspected of data tampering?
>
> That reminds me, the content of this mailinglist is public since you can
> find it here:
> http://eval.nu/pipermail/abbenay_eval.nu/
> Is this the way we want it?
>
> This being said, I do understand you concerns. I'm sorry if I come of harsh.
>
> /Hed
>
>
> 2009/12/14 Hedvig Skirgård <hedvig.skirgard at gmail.com>
>
>> This decison was made over half a year ago and was sent in to FUF in
>> october. There is a förening called Abbenay that you can become a member of
>> since september.
>>
>> At the time I wanted something quick and simply and more people than me
>> agreed on Google Docs. I acutally reread the privacy pages again just today
>> and I don't find the choice nonchalant. The reason why we changed to
>> eval.nu we're mainly because google groups didn't work very well. If
>> somebody has a good suggestion for the filling in of the form that is easy
>> and works with excel (which is what FUF:s membership database uses), do let
>> me know.
>>
>> I've written a text about how information on members is being shared, this
>> is known fact to all who fill in the form, hence I dont' see the problem
>> since we also state that non-members are welcome to acitivties.
>>
>> /Hed.
>>
>>
>>
>> 2009/12/14 Tommy <tommy at nevtelen.com>
>>
>>> Hello there.
>>>
>>>
>>> I would just like to voice my concerns regarding the decision to become
>>> a "förening". This means that the members have to be registered and the
>>> list of members has to be sent to another organization or the
>>> government.
>>>
>>> Also the use of Google Docs for the registration seems a little bit
>>> nonchalant.
>>>
>>> These are just some thoughts..otherwise keep up the good work.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Tommy N - putting in two euro cents
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Abbenay mailing list
>>> Abbenay at eval.nu
>>> http://eval.nu/mailman/listinfo/abbenay_eval.nu
>>>
>>
>>
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