Fast to lose non-profit status

Members of the Federation Against Software Theft (Fast) have hit out at efforts to turn the non-profit making organisation into a limited company.

Fast members will be asked by the board at a special meeting next month to vote on transferring the ownership of Fast to a company set up for the purpose. The vote will be decided by a simple majority.

Geoff Webster, chief executive at Fast, told Computer Reseller News (CRN): "The new company will be a profit making organisation that will have full-time paid executives on the board who will be able to run the company more efficiently under the auspices of Fast."

However, some members said that they have not been given enough information to make an informed choice. A number even claimed that they had received no notice of the special meeting, set for 8 February.

Alex Tatham, commercial director at Ideal Hardware, said that the first he had heard of the proposal was when he was contacted by CRN.

He expressed surprise at the move. "It seems like an extraordinary thing to do, and is not in the spirit of why [Ideal] signed up in the first place," he said.

Channel members pointed out that when they were told about the meeting earlier this month, no alternatives to the proposed transfer were suggested. "How can you vote on something without an alternative?" one member asked.

Another Fast member said: "There is a potential conflict with the channel. We do not want to vote for something that isn't clear because six months down the line a limited company is out of its members' control."

According to Webster, the new company will work with the channel, allowing existing Fast member resellers to have the same access to corporate subscribers which they currently enjoy.

The transfer will also improve the Federation's ability to carry out business in a more professional manner, he claimed.

Fast was set up as a non-profit making organisation in 1984 by the British Computer Society and has a wide range of members from different tiers of the IT industry, including distributors, vendors and resellers.

First published in Computer Reseller News