Re: Question for candidates

[Ekaterina Gerasimova <kittykat3756 gmail com>]

Hi Dave,

On 18 May 2014 17:58, Dave Neary <dneary gnome org> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> For me, the defining thing the next board will do is hire a successor to
> Karen Sandler as executive director of the foundation.
>
> So my question to all of you is: what are the main characteristics you
> will be looking for in the next executive director?
>
> when looking for a profile, there are a number of dials to twiddle:
> * Technical proficiency & reputation in the community, including free
> software cultural alignment
> * Strategy experience - the ability to formulate and communicate a
> direction for GNOME
> * Administrative and organizational experience
> * Business acumen and experience growing a commercial ecosystem
> * Communication/marketing/evangelism experience
> * Cost
>
> Of these, which do you feel are the most important for GNOME right now,
> and why? Are there other criteria which you think are important that I
> didn't list?

In recent years, the executive director has been our highest expense
which is partially covered by adboard fees and also by individual
donations. You will be able to see this more clearly on the 990 tax
return form for the 2013 financial year once it becomes available, as
the 2013 tax return also lists "compensation" such as reimbursements
for travel, which previous tax returns did not. I think that the
Foundation should not have to rely on personal donations to cover the
cost of an executive director, so it is very important that we are
confident that any candidate can do a good job at fundraising. To be
an effective fundraiser, the applicant would also need to be aligned
with GNOME's goals and interests and have some technical overview of
the project so that they are able to talk to potential sponsors about
the project but also to be able to do some organisational tasks.
Growing our income would also involve exploring potential new sources
which will include promoting GNOME at events.

I realise that it is very unlikely that a candidate who excels in all
areas will come along and the Foundation is unlikely to be able to
offer a wage which will be on a par with similar positions in larger
projects, so one of the options that I want the board to investigate
is to tie in the executive director's wage and travel budget with
adboard fees in such a way that the executive director will only be
compensated up to a maximum of what the Foundation receives in adboard
fees. This would free up some of the donations to be spent on
sponsoring the Foundation members to attend events and do outreach.

It has also become more difficult to find GUADEC and GNOME.Asia
sponsorship in recent years, so it is important that an executive
director is able to work towards acquiring more long term partners in
the future.

It is also vital that any employee that the Foundation was to hire
would be able to do some administrative work as well. This is
something that I have been helping Rosanna with over the last couple
of months, but it's not sustainable for me to keep doing this in the
long term.

Hiring a new employee is a complex task, which the board members in
general do not have much experience with. As a result, I have proposed
that the board should draw on the experience of our community and form
a committee to handle of people who are involved with GNOME and have
overseen hiring processes before. This will also provide continuity
between the current board and the next board as it is unlikely that
the Foundation will be able to hire someone before the changeover.

> Thanks!
> Dave.
> --
> Dave Neary, Lyon, France
> Email: dneary gnome org
> Jabber: nearyd gmail com
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