Re: Question for candidates

[Jeff Fortin <nekohayo gmail com>]

Le dimanche 18 mai 2014 à 12:58 -0400, Dave Neary a écrit :

> 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


I think that expecting an ED candidate to have all of those
qualities/skills nailed down simultaneously would be a difficult
proposition to entertain. It's basically asking for a
20-years-experienced C*O to lift mountains at non-profit compensation
rates and very high risk.

Let's be honest: whoever that person might be, there's a heck of a
challenge in terms of fundraising; we're far from the situation we were
in back in 2009 or so. Karen et al have my respect for weathering the
very harsh times GNOME has gone through in recent years.

The board, too, requires diversity in the skillset of its members. It's
a team effort. I hope my skills and interest in biz/mkt/mngt/design/etc.
will be good complements to those of other board members.


So in my eyes, in our current circumstances, I would say these are what
are valuable traits: business acumen/experience growing a commercial
ecosystem; communication skill (I consider that to be a side-effect of
the previous item), admin/org experience.

Maybe cost in theory, but in practice, what I just described is kind of
a biz dev/salesperson... good luck finding an experimented person to
fill that role in a cost-constrained scenario!