Bank Accounts
For 2024, Ricardiam will maintain the following bank accounts:
Principal Accounts
Principal accounts are to be used only for receiving funds and for making distributions and payments authorized by the Ricardiam CFO, subject to Depublica Directors, Registered Project, and License Pool Managing Member supervision as set forth in this Policy.
No spending cards will be linked to Principal Accounts EXCEPT for bookkeeper cards under the supervision of the Ricardiam CFO.
Until further notice the Principal Accounts are: WikiWe, Ricardiam, Krono.Works, and Eggseed Press.
Establishment of further Principal Accounts is at the discretion of the CFO.
Cardholder Accounts
The CFO may establish one or more Cardholder Accounts to be linked to spending cards for members not under CFO supervision, subject to the most current Wikipoints Cardholder Agreement specified in the WikiWe Model Agreement .
Each Cardholder Account shall be linked to a license pool for which a Principal Account is established and shall be funded by at least one sponsor. Establishment of each Cardholder Account is at the discretion of the CFO, subject to the Depublica Directors. As of the beginning of 2024, the CFO has established one Krono.Works Cardholder Account.
Each Cardholder Account must have a Supervisor who takes sole responsibility for managing spending from the Cardholder Account, including but limited to selecting who may receive spending cards and what limits shall be applied to each card. The Supervisor shall communicate their management decisions to all members of the linked license pool, and to the CFO who shall implement the Supervisor’s management decisions.
Sponsors
Sponsors may direct funds into Principal Accounts or into Cardholder Accounts with or without making a pledge.
All sponsorship payments are treated as long-term contingent liabilities of the license pool to which they relate, subject to the most current version of the Sponsorship Earnings Share Agreement (SESA) .
Sponsorships may initiated by submitting a Sponsorship Application to the CFO, followed by making the relevant Sponsorship Pledge at the time of authorizing automatic transfers of the pledged amount.
Sponsors who pledge not less than a minimum threshold amount set by the CFO per account for each calendar year may participate in governance of their contribution as specified below.
The CFO shall set the minimum threshold amount annually to be not greater than 5% of the prior calendar year’s total sponsorships for all license pools. For 2024 the minimum threshold amount is 20 per month).
Cardholder Account Governance By Sponsors
Pledged Sponsors above the minimum threshold per account may participate in appointment of the Supervisor for the Cardholder Account(s) to which their sponsorship is directed. Appointment shall be by annual election with voting shares in proportion to the amount of each sponsorship pledge. The CFO shall conduct the election annually.
If the Sponsor is a License Pool or other collective entity, its voting shares for Supervisor’s appointment may be exercised by the entity’s duly appointed representative.
Sponsors and Supervisors shall negotiate and form mutually acceptable pledges and register their pledges with the CFO.
Sponsorship of Expenses
Any Sponsor above the minimum threshold amount may direct their contribution to a designated expense. The CFO shall pay any designated expenses that further the business activities of Depublica or its license pools and that are fully funded by Sponsor contributions or other duly authorized source.
Acceptable methods for registering sponsorships of certain expenses are at the discretion of the CFO, and will be further developed during 2024.
Registered Projects
A “Project” is a written agreement between license pool members for the purpose of generating income to share. Projects may be registered with the CFO by informing the CFO of the license pool to which funds are to be directed and particulars of how the funds are to be distributed or expended, subject to Recardiam’s 10% share. The CFO shall issue a tracking number to qualified Registered Projects to be used in all invoicing and payments.
Each Project must pay for any expenses that are incurred specifically on its behalf, unless sponsored by another.
A Project may allocate a certain share of income to a sponsorship of designated expenses or to one or more Cardholder Accounts. When acting as a sponsor, the Project shall be treated as a collective entity.
Acceptable methods for registering Projects are at the discretion of the CFO.
Principal Account Governance
The CFO shall pay sponsored expenses, expenses designated by Registered Projects, and expenses authorized by the Managing Member of the license pool for each Principal Account. However, the CFO shall not incur debt (other than sponsorships) to pay any expense, or pay expenses from unauthorized sources. Thus, the CFO shall not pay unfunded expenses.
The Managing Member of the license pool for each Principal Account shall supervise spending or distribution of any funds in the Principal Account that are not allocated by a Sponsor or Registered Project. The CFO shall implement disbursement of such excess funds as specified by duly authorized Managing Members.
CFO Supervision
The CFO shall object to and hold in suspense any disbursements believed to incur an unreasonable risk of civil or criminal liability, unreasonable tax liability, or that are otherwise contrary to the business and social interests of the license pool, until settlement per the most recent version of the ADR Memorandum.