Becoming an official entity

Getting legal stuff sorted out is much more a means to improve performance or ease the work.

As a local group you may want to use the KDE logo. That's fine, or course, but there are a couple of issues involved with using the trademark. Usually, local groups create a slight variation of the KDE logo. For examples see kde.org.uk and kde.nl. It's a good idea to ask the KDE e.V. who holds the trademark for authorization to use the trademark before you're going public with the logo.

At some point, it's useful to give your local group a legal status. That eases handling of money, can involve tax advantages and might make things more transparent regarding sponsors. Sponsors would probably be more declined to donate if they can transfer the money to an account owned by KDE $somecountry rather than a private individual.The legal conditions and choices involved with that are highly dependant on local legislation. Often, the best idea is to get legal advice as to the way your local organisation is set up. A couple of things may be thought through in advance.

• What is the actual purpose of your regional group?
• Get a group of people together with long-term commitment, you'll want some longevity. Some commitment as to time is certainly a good thing aswell
• How will you involve the community? Do you want to elect the board of your regional organisation, what mechanisms do you want to put in place in case a board member is not behaving well, or just dropping off?
• What is the regional scope? Is that only a specific country? In some cases it might make sense to choose for an area with the same language (often, regional communities are built around a translation team). What criteria do you want to handle, what does make sense here?