Why do we need a Drupal Association?

Creating the Drupal Association opens up a number of opportunities for the project. For example, donations may be given to the project through a central entity, rather than to individual community members. By handling administrative tasks, such as event management, this frees resources within the community to focus on improving the Drupal project. It also provides the opportunity for individuals and businesses to be formally recognized as supporters of the project.

How is the Drupal Association tied to the Drupal community?

Within the body of Permanent Members, there are individuals either appointed or elected to be "community ambassadors" -- these will be prominent members from within the community who have expertise and have worked in several areas of Drupal.

How does an Association differ from a Foundation?

In practice: not that much. In theory, it's just a semantic (and legal) difference. The Drupal Association has been incorporated in Belgium. In Belgium, an Association is a "not-for-profit organisation" in general, whereas a "foundation", while also being a non-profit, usually serves a more general, social goal (such as healthcare, or poverty).

According to Belgian law, the most important differences between an Association and a Foundation are: a) an Association is incorporated by several individuals, who agreed upon the goals of the Association after voting and discussion, whereas a Foundation can be incorporated by 1 person (or a small number of people), b) when incorporated, the founders must bring in initial assets (funds) in a Foundation. This is not the case for an Association, c) An Association has members. A Foundation can't have members, only a Board of Directors. This last fact is important, as the members of the Drupal Association form the
General Assembly, which elects the Board of Directors. In other
words, an Association allows for a far more democratic operating mode than a Foundation. Apart from this fact, Belgian law provides a lot of other rules that make an Association more democratic than a Foundation. An Association therefore reflects the way a real (or online) community of people works to a much higher extent than a Foundation.

Is Drupal a registered US 501(c)(3)?

No, as stated above, the Drupal Association has been incorporated in Belgium. We will explore ways of having sister / daughter organizations in different countries and what that means for different tax implications, but is not likely something we can tackle in the short term.

Are donations or memberships tax deductible?

Since (as above), the Drupal Association is incorporated only in Belgium, tax deduction status only applies to purchases in Belgium.

Where can I find one of those cool membership badges?

http://drupal.org/image/tid/109

Why does Dries, and not the Drupal Association, hold the domain name?

Dries has always retained access to the domain name, and has a proven track history of being responsible with its care.

Does the Drupal Association own the Drupal trademark?

No, the Drupal trademark belongs to Dries. However, further trademarks could be looked into by the Association, and the Association is working on protecting the trademark.

Does this mean I need "authorization" from the Association to setup a Drupal booth at an event, or distribute flyers, etc?

Generally, no. Let common sense be your guide here, but as long as you are sticking to fair use and doing work that benefits rather than harms the Drupal community as a whole, you should be fine. That said, contacting the Association (via the Communications/PR Officer) to let them know is a nice thing to do, and the Association could even possibly help with planning some of the bigger events.

Are there plans to incorporate in places other than Belgium?

Incorporation of daughter associations in other countries is always a possibility for the future; for example, to help with tax deductions. However, this is a decision the Drupal Association would need to make.

Are the members of the Board of Directors taking on additional work, or are they just doing the same thing they've always been doing?

While most members of the Board of Directors are performing roles closely linked to their existing duties within the Drupal community as a whole, the Association does represent additional responsibilities on top of their normal day-to-day efforts.

Are the Association members being paid to do their work?

No. All work being done for the Association by members is on a volunteer basis.

When are the Association members speaking on behalf of the Association?"

Drupal Association members rarely speak on behalf of the Association. If they do they will very clearly state the fact that it is on behalf of the Association. If someone attributes a statement to the Association which was not clearly stated as being on behalf of the Association then it is an error in reporting.

I'm upset at something that happened on a drupal.org site. Can I get help from the Association?

Drupal.org sites are managed and maintained by teams of dedicated volunteers who have responsibility for content and for creating and enforcing site policies. The Association entrusts day to day site decisions to these teams and avoids wading in.

Concerns about drupal.org can be addressed via the contact form at drupal.org. Concerns about groups.drupal.org can be addressed to one of the moderators listed at the groups site. If you are concerned about potential libel, please contact the Association directly via our contact page.

But what if...

The Drupal Association will vote on it. :)