It is always a sad moment when an organization/community is being forced to initiate legal steps against a former leader to find justice.
Unfortunately, this is the situation between XOOPS Community and
Herko Coomans, our former Project Manager and Chairman of "Stichting XOOPS" in Netherlands, who is being sued by XOOPS in the
District Court of Zwolle-Lelystad in Netherlands for return of funds (around €15,000) that belong to XOOPS community and are currently held by "Stichting XOOPS". We are represented by
Dorhout Advocaten.
What can the XOOPS Community do? 1)
Sign today our on-line petition to the Court in Netherlands, and ask your XOOPS friends to do the same.
Quote:
I undersigned here, am informing the District Court of Zwolle-Lelystad, in Netherlands, that I am in full support of the XOOPS Council and
1) their decision to remove Mr. Herko Coomans from the Board of Directors of "Stichting XOOPS" and
2) their request to either appoint by the XOOPS Council new "Stichting XOOPS" Directors from within the XOOPS Community, or dissolve the "Stichting XOOPS" and transfer the XOOPS Funds to "XOOPS Foundation", a non-profit organization registered in Ohio, USA.
The current XOOPS Council and "XOOPS Foundation" have my full support as the representative of XOOPS Community and its interests.
Let's show that we as an Open Source community stand united in our outrage about Herko Coomans' refusal to resign from Stichting XOOPS and to return the money back to the XOOPS Community.
See here who has already signed the petition2) Sometimes broad public support helps people to realize that they are on the wrong track, so feel free to discuss it here and express your support for XOOPS! This is probably the first ever case of Open Source project funds being held by a former leader who refuses to give it back to the community, while at the same time engaging in what in our opinion is embezzlement! Other Open Source projects should learn about it, so they will be more careful how they set their Foundations to avoid situations like ours.
3) Of course, lawyers are very expensive, therefore we're asking the XOOPS Community to
support XOOPS financially via donations so we can create a
XOOPS Legal Fund and fight for justice for XOOPS.
As we've mentioned before, members of this Council were always for financial transparency and we are committed to keep it this way, and keep you posted about the legal process. In early January we'll publish our 2009 Financial Report. You can see our
2008 Financial Report here.
4) Also, based on this experience we're currently redesigning the organizational structure, so we never get into this kind of situation. We hope to present it for a public discussion and feedback in the next week or two.
It is definitely a bitter and very sad experience for us, as it is probably for all people who support Open Source, but we believe in XOOPS and we'll keep moving forward. With the great support from the our wonderful XOOPS community that we're getting, we know that XOOPS will succeed!
How did we get here?