Re: Question to GNOME Foundation Board candidates

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Tue, 2015-05-19 at 08:41 +0800, Max wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> First, thanks to all candidates for volunteering to the Foundation Board.
> Max come from GNOME.Asia team and thanks GNOME and board support Asia.
>
> I have 2 questions to all candidates
>
> 1)  How many hours per week do you expect you will be able to dedicate to
> working on the board on a regular basis?

Honestly, I don't think board members should have to spend more than 5
hours in a typical week. They all have jobs and families and lives and
all the other things they do for GNOME. Certainly there will be weeks
that are more demanding. Stuff comes up. But if people have to spend 10
or more hours each week, something is broken.

I say this as a former board member, and as somebody who spent the last
two years doing a *lot* of time as a board member in another volunteer
organization (not software-related). It's not sustainable, and you will
burn people out.

As it stands, though, without an Executive Director, one (or both) of
two things must be happening: (1) board members are spending more time
than they should doing things an ED should be doing, and/or (2) things
an ED should be doing just aren't being done.

> 2)  What's your plan and view with GNOME in Asia? How do you think
> about grow GNOME in Asia?( ecosystem / contribute / sponsor /
> volunteer ...  )

Asia is certainly a growing market, and that makes it a good opportunity
for GNOME and for free software. Historically, we haven't had a strong
contributor base in most of Asia, aside from India. I would like that to
change. But I don't have specific plans on how to make that change. The
best I can do is offer to support the work of people like you who are
aware of the issues and already working to address them.

--
Shaun