Re: Membership dues [ was: Re: Advisory Board Letter ]

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs eazel com>]

Rusty Conover <rconover@zootweb.com> writes:

> On Wed, 02 Aug 2000 18:14:27 Bart Decrem wrote:
> 
> The work will probably get done just as it always had on a volunteer basis.  If
> the work ever fails to get done a call would go out for a volunteer and one
> would emerge from the proverbial woodwork.

I don't believe that. A lot of scutwork has happened _only_ because
someone getting paid to do so has stepped up to the plate. I don't
know if that is better or worse than asking for money from companies
and spending it ourselves to get such stuff taken care of.
 
> I don't really have the answer to this since different companies have different
> interests.  For instance my employer (Zoot Enterprises) is mostly interested in
> a stable, full-featured and useful application development platform and does
> not care right now about corporate partners, media affairs or conferences since
> what we are doing with GNOME does not hinge on those aspects (yet). 

I hope this does not come off the wrong way, but if your company is
not planning to contribute to GNOME or help promote it, maybe it
shouldn't be on the advisory board.

> With the board being a reasonable cross section of the GNOME community at large
> (hopefully) the interests of the majority of the community will be represented
> and focused on.  But to mandate that the foundation pay at least one full-time
> employee to focus on the aspects you listed would be unreasonable unless it was
> determined by the board that someone should do that.

We don't _have_ to do that. I think we ought to separate the questions
of whether to have an executive director and whether to charge
corporations a fee to be on the advisory board. If we don't do the
latter, note that it won't even be _possible_ to do the former if we
decide later we want to.
 
 - Maciej