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[eclipse.org-members-committers] An update on the Eclipse Foundation’s move to Europe
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Dear Eclipse Committers and Members,
In May
we
announced that the Eclipse Foundation is becoming a Belgian
international nonprofit association. I wanted to take this
opportunity to provide you with an update on the progress of the
transition, the next steps, and what it all means to our global
community of developers and diverse membership base.
Let’s start with where we are in the process. At time of writing,
all of the incorporation and related documents have been filed with
the Belgian authorities, and we are waiting for the Royal Decree
which will formally create our new entity, the Eclipse Foundation
AISBL. This normally takes on the order of sixty days and we expect
the process to be finalized by early-to-mid October.
In parallel, the Board of Directors of the Eclipse Foundation, Inc.
have approved a series of changes to the Bylaws and Membership
Agreement of the existing Delaware, USA-based entity and we will be
seeking the approval of the membership-at-large for those changes.
To our members and committers, please stay tuned for your voting
credentials in late August. In addition, some revisions have been
made to our IP Policy and Antitrust Policy to enable both our US and
Belgian entities to have exactly the same policies.
Once the new Belgian entity Eclipse Foundation AISBL is created and
the approvals are finalized to the Eclipse Foundation, Inc.’s Bylaws
and Membership Agreement, all members will be required to update
their Membership Agreement and related other agreements. You will be
asked to join Eclipse Foundation AISBL, and to resign your
membership in the existing US organization. At the same time, we
will be asking you to re-sign your Member Committer and Contribution
Agreement (MCCA) and any Working Group Participation Agreements.
So exactly what’s changing?
As part of moving to European-based governance, effective October
1st we will be restating our membership dues for both the
Belgian-based Eclipse Foundation AISBL and the existing Eclipse
Foundation, Inc. in euros while retaining the same numeric value. So
if you are currently paying $20,000, the dues in the new
organization will be 20.000€. We understand that due to currency
exchange rates this represents an increase in dues. To help
mitigate that, all members who renew between October 1, 2020 and
September 30, 2021 will have their euro-based membership fees
discounted by 10%. This modest increase is the first fee increase we
have had in almost 15 years, and we hope that members appreciate the
merit of stating all fees in euros as we complete this transition.
As part of the European transition, we are changing the name of the
Solutions Members membership level to Contributing Members. We feel
that this will better reflect the current, diverse group of
organizations who participate and contribute to the Eclipse
ecosystem in many ways, including, but not limited to, leading and
contributing to our open source projects, and offering products and
services based on Eclipse Foundation technologies.
Working Group Participation Agreements (WGPAs) will be updated to
reflect the change of the corporate domicile to Belgium, as will the
working group charters once approved by the respective Steering
Committees. There are no fee changes to any working group
participation associated with this transition, though some working
groups may decide to restate their fees in Euros at some point in
the future, similar to membership fees. As always, the budgets and
fees established for each working group are determined by the
Steering Committee of the working group.
For our committers, if you are an individual Committer Member you
will be asked to execute the new Belgian Membership Agreement. If
you have previously executed a committer agreement with the Eclipse
Foundation as an individual, then you will need to re-execute the
new version of the Individual Contributor Agreement.
For committers who are employees or consultants of a member company
who has a Member Committer and Contributor Agreement (MCCA), your
employer will be asked to execute the new MCCA, and no actions will
be required on your part.
Our new GitLab-based forge physically hosted in Europe is
operational and available as a choice for any projects that would
like to use it. As we expand our presence in Europe, we anticipate
new exciting opportunities for our global community members to
participate and contribute in new open source projects. More
announcements on this front will be coming soon.
What’s staying the same?
As far as day-to-day interactions with the Eclipse Foundation,
nothing will change for member organizations or committer members.
Our projects and working groups will continue to run as is, and the
recently modified IP Policy and Antitrust Policy of the Eclipse
Foundation AISBL are identical to those of the US organization.
Eclipse Foundation AISBL will become the steward of the Eclipse
Public License and govern our community’s license going forward. The
bulk of the Foundation’s operations will continue to be split
between Europe and Canada, and you can expect your engagement with
the staff of the Foundation to remain unchanged.
When is this all happening?
There are a lot of moving parts with this corporate restructuring,
and we ask in advance for both your patience and your active
engagement and support. Here are some upcoming key dates that
members and committers need to be aware of:
- August 31, 2020: Voting begins on approving the necessary
changes to the Eclipse Foundation, Inc. (EF-US) Bylaws and
Membership Agreement. Voting will go until September 29th. The
new EF-US Bylaws and Membership Agreement will go into effect as
soon as practicable after the completion of the membership vote.
- October 1, 2020: The new dues structure stated in euros will
go into effect. Renewals for existing members will receive a 10%
discount for the following twelve months.
- Soon after the Royal Decree which legally establishes the
Eclipse Foundation AISBL we will be contacting all of our
members and committers to update their agreements with the new
Belgian entity. This may include your membership agreement,
committer agreements, and working group participation agreements
as applicable.
How can I learn more?
We are scheduling two membership town hall meetings to explain the
details of the move and to provide details on the impact and
benefits to our members. These town halls will provide an
opportunity for you, as members, to ask any questions you have,
and to learn more about the timing and implementation of the move.
We invite all committers, members, their employees and
representatives, to join one or both of the town hall meetings.
The agenda for both meetings will be the same.
The town halls are scheduled for the following date and times, and
with the link to the meetings:
We invite all of you to add these dates to your calendars, and to
join us in the discussion.
I hope that this post has helped update you on the execution of
the transition and the way forward for the next exciting phase of
our community’s expansion. If you have questions or feedback, feel
free to reach out to me, or to our team at
eclipse-europe@xxxxxxxxxxx. Thank you for your continued support!