Re: Election Boycott

[Bill Haneman <Bill Haneman Sun COM>]

Hi Adrian:


I agree with most of what you said, but not this:
>         
>         First, I believe that this issue is central to the purpose of
>         the foundation. The foundation was formed *because* the one
>         thing that the GNOME project could not do, without the
>         foundation, was raise and spend funds to further the goals of
>         the project. 

Local user groups and projects, local GUADEC committees, etc. etc. are
certainly free to raise and spend funds to further GNOME.  These groups
may not be able to avail of non-profit tax status, which is a strength
which the Foundation has, of course.  Among the things which the
Foundation can do with unique effectiveness: it can represent GNOME
"officially", which is sometimes very important (for instance, with
respect to usage of the GNOME name and logo, in certain kinds of press
releases, and in markets with more "brand consciousness").

Financial transparency is important in such a heavily volunteer-based
project, but I think we (the Board) also need to communicate more
clearly about why we spend money where we do, and about the
Board-specific tasks which need to be done.

- Bill