On Mon, 28 Feb 2000, Pat Reynolds wrote: +++++ [CLIP] +++++ > There are other ways around this. The exact way around depends on the > laws of the country, but it usually operates like this: the organization > which is not allowed to trade owns an organization which is allowed to > trade. This trading organization has a constitution which means that > all profits are donated to the non-trading organization. An example of > such an arrangement which may be known to colleagues in France is the > National Trust which cannot, under British charity law trade, but has a > successful chain of shops in their properties and at other sites. > National Trust Trading (I think that's its name) uses the National > Trusts' logo, and donates all profits to the National Trust. > It think UNESCO (also France based) must do something similar, since it > sells Christmas Cards. ========================================= UNESCO is a UN agency and operates outside French national law. However, over 20 years ago ICOM set up the ICOM Foundation as a tax-exempt body legally domiciled in Switzerland through which quasi-commercial operations as well as tax-deductible donations could be routed. There would be nothing to stop the ICOM Foundation becoming the legal publisher of a new ICOM News with commercial advertising, and to supply copies to the ICOM Secretariat for distribution to ICOM members. However, when this sort of idea has been considered previously advertising specialists were not optimistic about the marketability of advertising in ICOM News. The "market" was previously considered to be too thinly spread over well over 100 countries around the world, nor was there evidence of the professional services purchasing power or spending authority of the average ICOM member on the sort of goods and services that might be advertised. Patrick Boylan - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Change ICOM-L subscription options and search the archives at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html