Re: GNOME Foundation and CEO Goals

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Og:

> >    The bonuses both reflect pie in the sky,
> > you are probably never going to get this done items to more mundane items
> > which none the less, contribute to the growth of the foundation.
>
> I just felt that goals such as:
>
>       $500 - Improving relations with the advisory board, starting
>              regular 1-on-1 meetings with them, etc.
>       $250 - Improving relations with the community (keynotes, blogs)
>       $500 - Working with the board.
>     $1,000 - For being the eyes&  ears of GNOME.  The quarterly report,
>              advisory board relations&  meetings.
>
> would be things that are not in the "pie in the sky" category and
> should be assumed something any CEO would do for a company. Not saying
> that the practice of awarding bonuses to CEOs is not something
> companies do, but am questioning some of the goals themselves.

While many of Stormy's goals are "pie in the sky", it is also reasonable
for some amount of Stormy's bonus to be tied simply for doing a good
job.  Whether something is "pie in the sky" is somewhat subjective, but
improving communication within the GNOME community is definitely an
area where Stormy has gone above-and-beyond over the past year.

Before Stormy was hired, the GNOME Foundation had not been doing an
effective job communicating both with the larger Foundation community
or with the GNOME Advisory Board.  So, the board asked Stormy to work to
address these problems, and felt that making improvements in these
areas was important enough to warrant a small percentage of her bonus.

Most, if not all, of the communication vehicles now used to ensure that
the wider public is aware of what is going on (such as the quarterly
report) were Stormy's suggestions.  She organized, executed, and
followed through on making them happen.

The work Stormy has done to improve the relationships with the GNOME
Advisory Board have been particularly significant.  She has dedicated a
lot of time to ensure that each advisory board member is talking with
the GNOME Foundation directly, and has worked hard to ensure that
issues raised by Advisory Board members are responded to and addressed
quickly.  Because of this work, the GNOME Foundation has been able to
take advantage of numerous opportunities that otherwise would have
never materialized.

Overall, Stormy only achieved 58% of her total possible bonus.
Considering the great work she has done over the past year, I think
this is not overmuch.  In fact, had the economy not limited the board's
ability to make funds available, I am sure that her bonus would have
been higher.

Moving forward, the board does agree that we do need to change focus
and ensure that bonuses in the future are clearly tied to those things
that are most important to the GNOME community.  Now that many of the
communication improvements have become more routine, it would make
sense to raise the bar and ensure that future bonuses are tied to more
aggressive goals.  Likewise, now that the GNOME Foundation is in better
financial state, it makes sense to refocus the bonus so less is tied to
fund raising.  Perhaps, going forward, the bonus should be more tied to
community building.

I think there is more value in suggesting ways that the CEO goals should
be refocused.  However, there has been little discussion about that so
far.  How would you suggest improving the goals and metrics to ensure
that concerns that you have are better addressed moving forward?

Brian