Re: New challenge

["Bradley M. Kuhn" <bkuhn ebb org>]

Like most of us in the Free Software community, and like Karen herself, I
have a lot of roles in the community.

As a GNOME Foundation Member, I'm really grateful for Karen's work at GNOME
Foundation.  As the FSF Representative on the GNOME Advisory Board, I've been
particularly glad that Karen has invested so much effort to help GNOME focus
on software freedom.

But, my primary role for the last four years has been as Conservancy's
President and Executive Director, as well as various other Conservancy roles.
I've effectively been doing two full-time jobs at once.  This left me
overworked and desperate for someone who is a talented non-profit manager to
come to Conservancy to help me run Conservancy.

So, while I'm sad that Karen's leaving GNOME Foundation, I feel really glad
for Karen to be joining Conservancy's management team with me.  Specifically,
Karen's new position will allow me to focus on a lot of key tasks that
Conservancy desperately needs (see links from my quote in Conservancy's press
release at https://sfconservancy.org/news/2014/mar/31/karen-joins/ for
details), while still being sure that the work of Conservancy's Executive
Director is done by someone dedicated to software freedom and fully capable
to successfully run a Free Software non-profit organization.

Karen and I have talked at great length about making sure that GNOME
Foundation wouldn't be left in the lurch in this transition.  Conservancy has
agreed fully to make Karen's time available to continue working on OPW (and,
our hope is that Conservancy can get more involved in OPW with Karen's help)
and all of us at Conservancy are encouraging Karen to volunteer at GNOME
Foundation, including running for its Board of Directors elections.
(Conservancy even has an official policy that allows employees to use some of
their staff resources to volunteer at other non-profits.)

I personally served on the GNOME Foundation Hiring Committee that hired
Karen, and both I personally and Conservancy as a whole would be delighted to
help in any way we can as GNOME finds someone who can continue Karen's work
at GNOME Foundation and pick up where she left off.

   -- bkuhn