Re: GNOME Foundation Membership - Accepted

[Mike Newman <mike gtnorthern demon co uk>]

On Thu, 2002-10-24 at 10:05, Andy Tai wrote:

> We are pleased to inform you that you are now part of the GNOME
> Foundation Membership.  You are now eligible to become a candidate
> for election and to vote in the annual Board of Directors elections
> held each November. 

Thanks Andy, feels much better to be back with a vote :)

> In addition, the membership committee sincerely invites you to (re-)join 
> us to be part of the committee. Your experience and leadership were 
> greatly missed.  We hope to have you back to help us facing the tasks 
> ahead.  Thanks for your consideration.

I've really given this a lot of thought, and I want to make it clear
that working with all the new folks would be really great. Sadly
however, I can't rejoin.

Firstly, I resigned partly because I thought the board had placed the
committee in a difficult position. I'm not convinced they've worked very
hard to get you guys out of this position. I also find it slightly
uncomfortable working with what is ostensibly a board observer offering
opinions on who should/shouldn't be accepted.

Secondly, I think my presence would get in the way of people perceiving
the new committee as a new, clean slate. A lot of people appeared to
feel that the committee was somewhat personal in its decision making. I
don't believe this is true, but I do think the committee needs to
convince people that the decisions it makes are sound.

Finally, I don't feel able to return because I feel that the new
guidelines are not workable. It would be gross hypocrisy if I started
using them :) 

Lastly, I have this crazy idea I might stand for election :)

I wish the committee every success, if there is a question I can answer
about last year, I'll of course happily do so. I'd also recommend
Russell Steinthal as a resource as he wrote many of the scripts used to
generate, verify and count the ballots. You guys have taken a lot of
needless crap, which is partly my doing. I apologise and hope things are
a little smoother from now on.

Thanks again, and keep up the sterling work!

Regards

Mike