[Translators-l] How should I translate "the Board"?
mathieu stumpf guntz
psychoslave at culture-libre.org
Fri Jan 27 09:30:49 UTC 2017
Thank you Philippe for this interesting and more extensive overview of
this point.
Don't we have a list or a portal where we could also gather feedback
from expert on this legal field?
Le 26/01/2017 à 22:14, Philippe Verdy a écrit :
> I don't think that this internal name has any legal binding, only the
> name of the WMF as a whole is legally bound (plus additional
> translations if they have been registered by the WMF as reserved
> brands). The generic legal term is independant of the existence of the
> WMF itself and would apply to other organizations. Locally, it may
> still have translations even if it works according to a legal
> definition. So it does not matter for example if we have
> "foundations", "associations" for non-profit organizations (but
> generally to benefit from tax-exemptions and accept donations, those
> organizations need some legal accounting and will be incorportated in
> the US
>
> In Europe this is not necessary, associations work as non-profit and
> may accept donations and benefit from tax-exmpotion provided they have
> a reliable accounting, and most of them will have their accounting
> certified by an external auditor, generally a commerical company or
> certified professional; there are a few other requirements for
> tax-exemptions: tracability, social reponsabilities if they emply
> people, annual meeting, an elected "bureau", but membership is
> generally accessible to everyone, including corporates, and membership
> fees are payed depending on status of members but notamlly do not give
> excessive voting rights to corporates; if these corporate members have
> a majority of votes or someone controls more than 50% of votes, it can
> no longer be an association and the organization will have to become a
> corporation/company and the association dissolved.
>
> "Foundations" in US are much more relaxed because only one member may
> have the full power on it and may provide almost all its working
> budget, other members only have a consultative right. These would be
> coprorations in Europe and would not be eligible to provide
> tax-emptions to donators, unless these donators are gourped in a
> separate affiliate where members have some decision and auditing power.
>
> Anyway US is still not officially not a single-language country
> (English is not really an official language, it is just used "de
> facto" and many places in US accept other languages, notably French,
> Spanish, or native Amerindian languages in some areas). So various
> federal laws are effectively written origiannly in other languages
> (Spanish and French) and were translated only later (but in case of
> interpretation conflicts, the original versions are still binding and
> prevail). That's why so many contracts, and acts in US are explicitly
> stating the language in which it is origianally written, and
> explicitly assign a competent court in one specific state. The local
> jurisprudence has extablished the equivalences of terms on a case by
> case basis by interpreting the acts and contracts and just see if they
> were "fair", i.e. not abusive, and clear enough for all contractors
> when they were adopted/registered.
>
> English is just used "de facto" at the federal level, but member
> states may have other official or working languages, and federal laws
> are not directly applicable in states without adoption by them (and
> states can still veto some laws voted at federal level, or change
> "legal terms"). Effectively the WMF is not really bound to US law but
> to the laws of the US state where it is registered and other states
> where it has some operations. What is then important is its act of
> incorporation in that state, whose language is significant and
> prevails in case to conflicts with other languages used and recognized
> in the same state.
>
> But legal terms is one thing: for general communication, in documents
> that are not contractual or mandated by authorities or applicable
> laws, the WMF may still accept to have translations of its internal
> bodies and use them, because it will help better explain its
> activities to the world and to contributors. These internal boeies
> anyway are not trademarks and cannot be reserved for exclusive use by
> the WMF.
>
> 2017-01-26 21:14 GMT+01:00 Gregory Varnum <greg.varnum at gmail.com
> <mailto:greg.varnum at gmail.com>>:
>
> I will also share - from Affiliations Committee experience - that
> many affiliates use “Board of Directors” based language - but are
> still making an effort to in general mimic basic WMF nonprofit
> legal values (although not exact Board selection process, to be fair).
>
> -greg
>
>
> > On Jan 26, 2017, at 3:12 PM, Gregory Varnum
> <greg.varnum at gmail.com <mailto:greg.varnum at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >
> > I too am not a lawyer, however, having been involved with a lot
> of nonprofit governance, I think that for these purposes, in other
> languages, yes - "Board of Trustees” and “Board of Directors” are
> basically interchangeable. The selection of words is usually a
> stylistic or homage based reason more than a legal distinction.
> That is not always the case, and when available, I recommend using
> “Board of Trustees” - but if there’s a language issue presented by
> this, I think "Board of Directors" is a reasonable substitute to
> base a translation on. Again, I say that not being with Legal and
> not as an official WMF recommendation, just my own personal two
> cents. :)
> >
> > -greg
> >
> >
> >> On Jan 26, 2017, at 3:07 PM, Guillaume Paumier
> <gpaumier at wikimedia.org <mailto:gpaumier at wikimedia.org>> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> 2017-01-26 9:38 GMT-08:00 Lena Traer <ltraer at wikimedia.org
> <mailto:ltraer at wikimedia.org>>:
> >>>
> >>> Would you say that the Board of Trustees at WMF has the same
> role as the
> >>> traditional Board of Directors? If that is the case, "Conseil
> >>> d'administration" likely is most appropriate translation.
> >>>
> >>> In Russian, the "board" is also translated as "council".
> However, "Board of
> >>> Directors" and "Board of Trustees" translate slightly
> differently. I think
> >>> non-profit organizations are likely to use "Board of Trustees"
> whereas
> >>> for-profit corporations use "Board of Directors".
> >>
> >> I'm not very familiar with the legal intricacies of the different
> >> kinds of Boards. To be completely accurate, the best term would
> >> probably be the English one ("Board of Trustees"), simply
> because it
> >> has an official definition in a specific geography and doesn't
> have an
> >> exact equivalent in other locales. But for the reasons given by
> >> Matthieu, it's generally better to try and find the closest
> >> approximation.
> >>
> >> In France, both non-profit organizations and for-profit
> organizations
> >> can have a "Conseil d'administration". It's also the French phrase
> >> we've been using on the Foundation's website since 2004
> (although the
> >> page hasn't been kept up-to-date with changes in Board members
> >> recently):
> https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Conseil_d%27administration
> <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Conseil_d%27administration>
> >>
> >> Hope this helps :)
> >>
> >> --
> >> Guillaume Paumier
> >>
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