Hugo Roy, 2012-01-05 16:22+0100:
April works typically like a French 1901 association and many other associations. This is not exactly the same kind of association as FSFE (e.V.) also they are legally similar, I would like to point out the cultural difference here. For historical reasons, although FSFE was quite European at the beginning (including France), it has a lot of Germany's cultural aspects in the way the organisation works, that's more like other German associations I am aware of.
I can understand that, but I really doubt that the German law provides no way to have a viable assotiation with more than a handful of “members”, that term being understood as: people that pay a subscription and are able to vote for decisions or name a board of representatives to take decisions.
Being French myself, of course I mostly know French law associations, but I also subscribed to Debian France, which is an Alsace-Moselle law association. I think this is quite close to the German law, and as far as I know, I am a member of it, although I have never been sollicitated for an assembly yet.