CLIR has responded favorably to Morgan's initial query about whether they might be willing to act as fiscal host. Morgan and Galen will work together on follow-up questions.
There was a discussion of Galen's meeting with an attorney, who outlined costs and process for what it would take to establish a nonprofit entity for Code4Lib. Some key points:
It would take between $5,000 and $10,000 in legal and filing fees to set up a tax-exempt nonprofit; money can be saved if Code4Lib members with relevant experience volunteer to help complete paperwork
The attorney suggested that the nonprofit be a membership organization. One variation would be having all members be automatically on the board, which would allow major decisions to be made by direct votes. The by-laws can be written to allow this while setting quorum requirements and officer responsibilities appropriately so that day-to-day work can proceed efficiently.
We are setting a deadline of mid-November for ourselves to make our report and recommendations to the greater Code4Lib community, with the notion that we would hold a Q&A session at the 2017 conference, followed by a community vote on next steps.
Action items
Morgan and Galen will collaborate on putting together questions to send to CLIR
Morgan will look into Open Repositories, which CLIR sponsors
Morgan will create document to start outlining the IG's report & recommendation; Beatrice volunteered to assist
Galen will secure time on the schedule at the 2017 conference