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

[Mike Kestner <mkestner ameritech net>]

Bart Decrem wrote:

> So I think it makes sense to move slowly as we add structure to GNOME.  

Followed by some very sensible slow moving stuff, and then...

> Still, it's always nice to have some money available.  

I like the foundation as a receiver of donations.  I am becoming more
convinced that it should never solicit funds without a substantial and
immediate need.  In fact, it might still be best for such solicitations
to be performed outside the context of the foundation itself.

> nice things such as buy computers for hackers who need them, 

This has been thrown around several times and I think it is a silly
idea.  

> staff booths at tradeshows, 

Ummm, anyone following the IBM Developer solutions thread on
gnome-hackers...paid vacation, Las Vegas, Wayne Newton, Sexy Showgirls,
no takers.  So perhaps paying people to staff the booth would make it
more appealing?  Let's leave the evangelism to the folks that distribute
Gnome, or even better, have the board encourage evangelism by our
advisory board members.

> buy servers if we need to pay, 

VA and sourceforge, oops, not supposed to talk about that here. ;-)

> pay bills when we have a press conference 

To announce what? 

> etc.  

I'm assuming the etc... reasons aren't more substantial than the
specified ones above.  Since receptionist isn't on the list, I'm
assuming you're rightfully delaying that step until the foundation is
running a while and an informed decision can be made on the need.

> And I think there's nothing wrong with asking corporate
> members of the advisory board to pay a membership fee, 
> if they can afford to do so.

Yes, but the better question is "Is there anything right with asking?" 
The advisory board's role is one of showing support for Gnome.  The
advisory board (BTW, can we refer to them as a panel or something, so
there's a cleaner shorthand distinction between the companies and the
hacker board?) should have no influence over the operation of the
foundation, other than that influence they gain via their personnel and
hacking/documenting activities.  Since I've seen no substantial need
presented for fund raising, I think it would be more meaningful for this
"honor" to be bestowed upon companies by the foundation for their
contributions to the project, not for a contribution to the foundation's
bank account.

I'd rather see companies working for inclusion than buying it.  I'm
sensing a desire to compromise here from many of us, but $10K is not a
compromise, it's an average.  $10K is still about $10K too high for my
taste. 

Mike