Group: Ipernity Members Association Project

No, you haven’t overlooked anything. But 'Team-Ipernity' only exists as the owner (Christophe Ruelle). Unfortunately he doesn’t help a lot. Therefore, I will try - as a Co-Founder within the IMA - to answer your question to the best of my knowledge.

Christophe agrees to hand over the platform to IMA. (This is known so far.) The crowdfunding initiated by William Sutherland was successful and has exceeded the planned 25.000 $. (This is known as well)

IMA is ready to take control, but is still waiting for important figures and documents which Christophe has to put together. We need those to make sure that the continuation of IPERNITY is generally realistic.

Enterprises which are for sale usually provide this kind of information in a “Due Diligence” process. This allows the potential buyer to review numbers, processes and procedures. (In large companies, this can be offices full of files). Unfortunately, this is not the case here. We as IMA had to and still have to ask for everything quite laboriously, resp. request copies of receipts being sent to us. Unfortunately, this lasts longer than we like. The bottleneck is the current owner, not IMA! On the other hand, Christophe is quite co-operative. You may recognize, that he allows the platform to stay online, although dates must be pushed out over and over again. (In the end, this does cost his money, not that of the IMA.) At the moment all we can do as IMA is waiting. We are definitely not happy with this cliff hanger. What keeps us going is our steadfast optimism and the firm wishes to keep this special platform alive!

The next benchmark is a planned Skype conference between William Sutherland and Christophe Ruelle on Monday / Tuesday (03rd/04th of April). If Christophe delivers all requested data and supporting documents, things may happen quite fast. Although we seven 'founders’ (alphabetically: Bernhard Westrup (Austria), Don Sutherland (USA), Eric Desjour (France), Lutz Petersen (Germany), Sami Serola (Finland), Sara Shrives (Great Britain) and William Sutherland (USA)) live around the whole globe within different time zones, nevertheless our internal communication works quite well.

I have chosen the alphabetical order, by the way, because there is no rank order, or could not be one. Still no plenary assembly with elections has taken place! Possibly even quite different names can stand afterwards for those who (want to) take over responsibility. Presently we are only a Peer-Group! What will be afterwards, will be decided by the members of the plenary assembly - all those who join the IMA obligingly - i.e. not only by mouse click joining the IPERNITY group, but quite specifically with their annual subscription.

We will suggest details, as soon as the matters with Christophe Ruelle have been settled. Before that it would be a waste of resources, since some of us are still in their full working life! We do this in our spare time without compensation! We have no staff, working for us. We also have no PR department which could maintain a FAQ and would be able to post daily topical news. (I have been working sometimes within a large corporation in such a department. I am completely aware of what you miss here! Therefore, we only can ask for your patience, understanding and forbearance! We do our best! For example, I am typing this just in the renunciation of a common evening with my wife - who luckily has high understanding for my engagement. And, too, it isn't the work of minutes. If a statement should be clear and crisp, it needs it’s time.)

If 'Due Diligence' should prove that the continuation of IPERNITY is economically senseless, the platform will be switched off and the crowdfunding will be canceled. And that was it then. Therefore, it makes sense to back up your content with HTTrack on your own equipment - if it is important to you. (It works quite well as long as you set the correct options. Afterwards you can view your content offline even if the Ipernity servers (in the Amazon cloud) have been switched off.)

If 'Due Diligence' proves, however, that IPERNITY has a realistic chance to survive, the technical and economic transition from IPERNITY S.A. to IMA shall be carried out as the next step. This includes some legal formalities, and can't happen simply by handshake. Since both involved parties are interested in a quick and smooth transition, it should (hopefully) not take too much time.

We as a Peer-Group of the IMA still believe - considering all known data - that Ipernity has a fair chance to survive. (Otherwise I would not be typing here anymore, but enjoy a nice evening instead)

As soon as legal contracts are done, IMA must take on responsibility. The 'Peer Group' will subsequently grow by joining of new members. This may need a deadline (30 days?). A plenary assembly must be called, the board must be elected. The functions which were fixed in the officially approved bylaws must be set up and taken on. For that it needs volunteers who are willing to take over responsibility. So please raise your hands! Self-administration also means joint responsibility.

Moreover it needs to be agreed how existing memberships will be treated or honored. From the legal point of view, Christophe Ruelle cannot do much without getting into legal problems. It is similar within the IMA (not only the small Peer-Group, but also within the whole member's group.) We are working on a solution or a reasonable proposal for this tricky problem.

And something else, which is not much related to the entire process: My personal wish would be, that we would be able to transfer the current content of all active members without any loss into the new IPERNITY (this will be one topic of the discussion between William and Christophe). Moreover during these decisive dayswe should not stop to keep Ipernity lifely and interesting. Adhering to the motto: "It is not important whether a glass is half-filled or it is half-empty. It is only important that there are still enough full bottles!"

Having said that I would be glad, if all optimists rummage increasingly their personal archives during next days/weeks and - like myself - post daily two to three pictures, so that we may enjoy IPERNITY even during this cliffhanger. And afterwards anyway.

(Further inquiries are welcome. I can answer them, nevertheless - in view of my own appointment calendar - only from next Wednesday (5.April) on , since I am Monday / Tuesday in Köln/Troisdorf/Wermelskirchen to the foundation council meeting of "A Heart Laughs". This is my personal social engagement for those children who otherwise "fall through the cracks". And that is even more important to me - sorry - than our little luxury problem here!)

If you want to know more of it, or would like to do even something for those, who live in our proper world (quite really) near the abyss, and who would rub their eyes about our worries, looks simply at:
www.einherzlacht.org
www.gutalteheide.de

Thanks!
Bernhard Westrup
St.Johann in Tyrol
(Bergfex)
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Translation by Leon_Vienna and LutzP