Re: Some perspective on the relative importance of the board.

[Nat Friedman <nat nat org>]

On Sat, 2005-10-29 at 11:22 +1300, John Williams wrote:
> > > Boards of non-profits:
> > > -give legitimacy to the organization
> > > -provide an overall direction for the organization
> > > -liaise with other organizations
> > > -HELP RAISE MONEY
> 
> This is all good, and right on the mark, except for one thing.  The
> GNOME Foundation (and GNOME itself) is only accidentally a non-profit
> making organisation.  They key point in the problems that we face is not
> that we are non-profit oriented it is:  (ta-daaaaaaaah!)
> 
> 
> A loose collaborative effort of volunteers, or at best weakly connected
> network organisation.

That's the GNOME project.   The foundation is an entity we created to
help the project out in various ways.

Nat


> 
> 
> All our problems stem from this.  All our strengths stem from this.  We
> need to stop applying standard business logic to the organisation of
> ourselves.  In particular, this relates to the planning function.  The
> point, of course, is that we can (almost) never tell someone to do
> something.  We have ask, cajole, wheedle, persuade, inspire and respect
> ourselves into getting things done.  (As an aside, this is way cool in
> my book.)
> 
> We do, however, need to start/increase applying standard business logic
> to the relationship between ourselves and our customers (or
> "stakeholders", if you really want to go all the way).  That is the
> function of the board, as outlined originally: to be the interface
> between GNOME and the rest of the world.  
> 
> And probably not much more than that?
> 
> Oh well, that's enough abstract academia for Saturday morning.  Back to
> the coffee!
> 
> Ciao,
> 
> John
>