Re: Board of Directors Elections 2014 - Candidacy - Karen Sandler

[Marina Zhurakhinskaya <marinaz redhat com>]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "David King" <amigadave amigadave com>
> To: "Marina Zhurakhinskaya" <marinaz redhat com>
> Cc: "Zeeshan Ali (Khattak)" <zeeshanak gnome org>, "Foundation-List" <foundation-list gnome org>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 10:13:20 AM
> Subject: Re: Board of Directors Elections 2014 - Candidacy - Karen Sandler
>
> Hi Marina
>
> On 2014-05-20 09:51, Marina Zhurakhinskaya <marinaz redhat com> wrote:
> > > > You are a very busy person with many responsibilities, if you get
> > > > elected to the Board do you feel confident that you can spend the
> > > > necessary time on Board work?
> > >
> > > While I think you do a lot for Free Software and your passion and work
> > > inspires many, I'm afraid I do share Oliver's concern here.
> >
> > It's not just the time commitment we are looking for in the board members,
> > but also experience. Karen has a tremendous amount of experience in free
> > software non-profit space. In the last two months, she has been very
> > generous with her time as a volunteer for GNOME.
>
> It is great that Karen has experience in Free Software not-for-profits.
> However, if she cannot give a similar level of time commitment that
> other candidates can provide, that should count negatively against her
> candidacy, as the Foundation will not benefit as much from her expertise
> as it would if she were less busy. If other board members have to take
> on more work because one member has less time, that increases their
> workload unfairly.

In my view, having immediate feedback and ideas from someone with lots of experience during the board 
meetings is very valuable, and can't be substituted with occasional consulting. The board and the Foundation 
benefit from a diversity of skills and experiences of the board members. As both Karen and I mentioned, she 
has been dedicating her time volunteering on critical matters. Being on the board provides the best view into 
what these matters are, which she is able to help us with. I think the composition of the board and the 
skills and time commitments people can offer need to be considered together to create the best balance.

> If Karen does not have the time to commit to the hours expected of a
> board member, it might be a better for her to be consulted as an
> adviser, which would hopefully have fewer time constraints. As she is
> currently the GNOME Foundation's pro bono legal counsel, this should be
> an easy role for her to transition towards.
>
> --
> http://amigadave.com/