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Do you offer your UG as a service provider?

chrisbryant's Photo
Posted Mar 13 2010 06:13 AM
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I got myself into a bit of a sticky situation at the beginning of our UCLA JUG life. Because I had pitched the JUG to both the campus CIO and the medical center CIO as a Java technology resource as well, after a couple months we actually started getting queries from both sides regarding the creation of small projects to achieve various goals. We'd almost become a free resource, like an open source collective. This became an unwieldy proposition (were we a JUG or a service provider - we couldn't be both) and I had to eventually lay down the law - we couldn't take requests. Has anyone else been in this situation? What did you do in response to the requests, and if you said "yes" how did you find a balance? Thanks and cheers.
Christian Bryant,
UCLA JUG Founder
IT Project Manager

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  adfm's Photo
Posted Mar 24 2010 02:59 PM

If you are part of an informal group that is getting requests to perform work for hire, then you should consider formalizing into an entity that can handle such requests. I'm not a lawyer, but it would seem to me that you'd benefit from becoming legit. Whether it's a for-profit LLC or something like a non-profit 501(c), seek professional advice and research your options.