beep beep...
That was my reason originally for suggesting incorporation into some kind of non-profit company:
1) If money is collected, and servers bought/rented, my understanding is that it is normal to pay for 6/12 months in advance.
Now, if we just ran everything on the lines of "gentlemen's agreement," the upshot is that if clans don't pay up, the people in whose names the servers are rented are personally liable for any/all costs. Do you want to have to pay out of your own pocket if there is some kind of cock-up?
If however the servers are bought by some kind of company, well, each clan could be a "shareholder" in this company, or, if we set up a non-profit company limtied by guarantee, they could be members. Upshot is that each clan would put up a token sum as their share/guarantee sum, so that if things go tits up, the company is simply wound up and people lose a tiny little guarantee sum, and no-one is personally liable.
Under current EU/UK legislation, you can have a company with only 1 director. The point here is that annual accounts (and other required "wanky paperwork") are allowed to be *very* simple for such companies, along the lines of:
Income: £100.00
Outgoings: £100.00
Balance: £0.00
So, one idea might be: Small company, with Phear as director, and each clan as a shareholder. Or whatever.
The point I am trying to make is this:
This may all sound unnecessary and complicated, but once you think about it, there are only really 2 sensible options:
a) Continue with the league as it is - "free" and open to all.
b) Do things "properly" and have some official body to run/govern/own the hardware.
Any kind of "half-way-house" situation is only going to leave the league admins and/or clan leaders open to personal financial or other liability if things go sour and some asshole decides to sue.
To take an extreme example, suppose someone hands over their money, still gets crap connections, and decides to sue, saying that the admins simply got another few crappy free servers from their mates at a hosting company, and that the money collected for "better servers" simply went to "The Phear and Co. Benevolent Pension Slush Fund." Laugh all you may, but it can't be discounted as a *possibility*.
Its a sad fact that whenever money becomes involved, trouble and strife are not far behind...
That was my reason originally for suggesting incorporation into some kind of non-profit company:
1) If money is collected, and servers bought/rented, my understanding is that it is normal to pay for 6/12 months in advance.
Now, if we just ran everything on the lines of "gentlemen's agreement," the upshot is that if clans don't pay up, the people in whose names the servers are rented are personally liable for any/all costs. Do you want to have to pay out of your own pocket if there is some kind of cock-up?
If however the servers are bought by some kind of company, well, each clan could be a "shareholder" in this company, or, if we set up a non-profit company limtied by guarantee, they could be members. Upshot is that each clan would put up a token sum as their share/guarantee sum, so that if things go tits up, the company is simply wound up and people lose a tiny little guarantee sum, and no-one is personally liable.
Under current EU/UK legislation, you can have a company with only 1 director. The point here is that annual accounts (and other required "wanky paperwork") are allowed to be *very* simple for such companies, along the lines of:
Income: £100.00
Outgoings: £100.00
Balance: £0.00
So, one idea might be: Small company, with Phear as director, and each clan as a shareholder. Or whatever.
The point I am trying to make is this:
This may all sound unnecessary and complicated, but once you think about it, there are only really 2 sensible options:
a) Continue with the league as it is - "free" and open to all.
b) Do things "properly" and have some official body to run/govern/own the hardware.
Any kind of "half-way-house" situation is only going to leave the league admins and/or clan leaders open to personal financial or other liability if things go sour and some asshole decides to sue.
To take an extreme example, suppose someone hands over their money, still gets crap connections, and decides to sue, saying that the admins simply got another few crappy free servers from their mates at a hosting company, and that the money collected for "better servers" simply went to "The Phear and Co. Benevolent Pension Slush Fund." Laugh all you may, but it can't be discounted as a *possibility*.
Its a sad fact that whenever money becomes involved, trouble and strife are not far behind...
![:]](/images/smilies/block-head.gif "Blockhead :]")
) Of whatever. The idea is that a player from a clan would be able to login under his/her nickname and make a payment to UTA and get x of the UTA currency. This would mean everyone which pays would be on the same playing field - US, Germany, UK etc - we all use the same money.
