Re: Membership drive

[Luis Villa <luis villa gmail com>]

On 7/21/05, Dave Neary <dneary free fr> wrote:
> I don't know who the best people to talk to about this are, but it would
> be great to have a membership drive for the foundation in September or
> October.

Not to be a pain in the ass, Dave, but...

Given that the membership is charged with making important decisions
about the direction of the foundation and the stewardship of the
foundation's resources, I'm fairly skeptical about any move to
increase membership for the sake of increased membership. So, why are
we seeking to increase the number of members, exactly?

The rest of your email seems to assume 'more members' == 'good', and
I'm not sure I follow that, given that much of the current membership
is apathetic and uninvolved[1] and increasing the numbers doesn't
actually solve that. I'd prefer we figure out why we have membership
(besides the obvious legal/voting reasons), what we offer the
membership, and what the membership offers 'us' (the community, the
foundation, etc.), then talk about having a membership drive if it is
still appropriate.[2]

[1] I mean, as members- obviously they are active as hackers, as
translators, bug people, whatever.

[2] And yes, I'm pulling a GNOME here, but given the important legal
and structural role of the membership, it seems reasonable.
> Can we move away from the "can I be in your club" model to the "come
> join us" model, where existing members can invite people to join, rather
> than the person needing to ask?

Luis