Hi Karen On 2014-05-20 12:27, Karen Sandler <karen gnome org> wrote:
On 2014-05-20 11:30, David King wrote:Indeed, and there is no reason that the immediate feedback cannot be gained from Karen as an adviser if she is invited to board meetings. I do not think that a board composed of some members who are able to devote time to taking on many action items and some who are not able to take on many is a good balance, and certainly not the best balance. Karen, how much time would you have available to dedicate to board matters above and beyond your existing volunteering commitments? You mentioned elsewhere that you have been spending 5 hours per week on your volunteering efforts for GNOME. Would you be able to dedicate time above that to board duties, or would your board duties negatively impact your existing efforts?I'm not sure Dave, it's a tough question. To be honest, if I'm not a board member I probably won't regularly join the board meetings. For reference, I was not invited to board meetings when I was just pro bono counsel to GNOME (from my SFLC days) and I'm unaware of any pro bono counsel being regularly invited to the meetings. While it's possible to join it's not really part of that role. I try to give the maximum amount of time I have free to GNOME (much to the annoyance of my family, it's actually some weeks been much more than 5 hours since I left as ED but I wanted to give a more conservative view of my time commitments). The volunteer work that I've been doing is in part driven by the momentum I've had as ED and being a part of the board meetings in the past. I would expect that to diminish if I'm not on the board. On helping to collect invoices and asking for sponsorship (I've done both for GNOME even in the last 2 weeks), it will be much easier if I am a board member, as I'd have the authority to represent the org. As I said in an earlier email, being on the board is a lot of work - I want to make myself available to serve, but am happy to leave it to others if the membership so chooses. I think I'd be an asset to the Foundation in this position which is why I've chosen to run. It's also hard for everyone to make promises about availability going forward. I've seen a lot of people promise to do a lot during the elections period and then fail to step up over the course of the term. I've avoided other boards in the past (I've been asked to serve on a lot of them) but I am making an exception this time as GNOME is special :) The current board has been really great, and very active. I've been glad to work with them. If elected, I will indeed have to readjust my priorities and overall commitments. And it might mean that I miss a marketing meeting in favor of a board meeting if I am very busy that week. I think that's probably true for every board member though.
Thank you very much for the detailed response. I do not feel that my concerns have been completely addressed, but I think that everyone reading will be able to clearly understand your position.
-- http://amigadave.com/
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