Details of the franchising program:

http://hashfast.org/14-30725.161.6.pdf

Now don't tell me that the bottleneck is the committee. It's Barber. It's raining here Barber, hope the same for London or wherever you are.

Points I would change of the program:

1) If I wanted to buy 5 boards, I need to be able to do so. I need to be able to have someone reputable (believe it or not, like HF) to produce the boards for me. I can't talk to a contract manufacturer for 5 boards. But I want them. And I want them cheap. Remember that a big crunch of the market buy only a few units.
2) If I wanted to invest into the franchasing program, but didn't want to see a single board or PSU or broken cooling system, I need to be able to do so. I hate the word "cloud", but that's what you have to offer. I put the money in, you care about everything else. "You" must be very trustworthy.
3) The PCBs have a long lead time. Order them now.
4) Is that pricing taking into account the v.3 board design?

The need for a trustworthy entity makes me think that you really need a trustee.