Hi Dave On 2014-05-19 16:14, Dave Neary <dneary gnome org> wrote:
On 05/19/2014 04:31 AM, David King wrote:Right now (taking into account the poor financial situation that the Foundation is facing), I think that a candidate for the executive director position would be someone who has experience of raising funds for not-for-profit organisations. For GNOME, the board does not exert strong control over the project, but tries to steer it in the right direction by ensuring that funding is directed appropriately, making the executive director role particularly challenging.My follow-on question, then: raising money for what?
Initially, I think that much of the money raised by an executive director would go towards financially supporting the executive director role. If the Foundation's revenues continue to drop (as has been the case over the last few years), an executive director role would become untenable without increased funding from sponsors.
Once the executive director role is securely funded, I think that there would be more time to spend growing the Foundation, which is the more traditional role of the executive director. If there is an abundance of funding available, the board should work with the executive director and the Foundation to use the money effectively to further the Foundation's goals, such as by funding hackfests, outreach (possibly with a particular emphasis on local outreach, as this has come up as part of other discussions) and sponsoring contributions (such as with the accessibility and privacy campaigns).
I do not think that technical proficiency is an essential quality for an executive director, if by that you mean ability to code.I meant "understanding of the technology, ability to explain it, and ability to be articulate about what the GNOME project needs to do to stay relevant".
In that case, I think technical proficiency is of critical importance, as fundraising would be extremely difficult without an ability to explain on a technical and social level about the importance of sponsors' (and potential sponsors') support of GNOME. This is what I meant when I mentioned that an executive director would need to understand GNOME's position in the Free Software and wider communities in order to raise funds effectively, so thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify.
-- http://amigadave.com/
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