Re: Future plans

[Eric Baudais <baudais kkpsi org>]

On Fri, Feb 06, 2004 at 11:36:27PM +0100, Vincent Untz wrote:
> Le jeudi 05 février 2004, a 13:51, Eric Baudais a ecrit :
> > > As for 5, we definitely need to discuss with the board. Glynn is
> > > listening here and I'm sure he's eager to help us. Right now, here's
> > > what I'd like to discuss:
> > >   * one-year membership
> >
> > Excellent idea.  This 2 year membership renewal confuses a lot of the
> > membership.

Some of the membership have stated on foundation-list they wanted to
see a one year membership term.  I think this will make our job easier
and harder at the same time.  It is easier because everyone is
renewing at the same time and we can make more internal guidelines on
how to start the membership renewal process.  It is harder because we
will be swamped with renewal applications as well as a lot of new
membership applications too.  Hopefully increasing the committee's
size will help in going through the membership applications.  The task
will be large and as we've seen over the recent holidays people are
very impatient.

> > >   * all renewals on the same date (=> it will ease our work because we
> > >     won't need to track every renewal)
> >
> > Another good idea to help people get into a habit of sending in their
> > renewal around the same time every year.
> >
> > >   * what is the exact status of the committee? This is not clear for me:
> > >     we have an official role, but how are the members of the committee
> > >     chosen? How does it work? I don't want to add bureaucracy, but we
> > >     need some clear rules.
> >
> > I would like to see some guidelines from the board about the role of
> > the membership committee.  Maybe adding terms 
>
> Totally agree for the terms.
> What about this: people are in the committee for two years, and every
> year half the committee is renewed to ensure there's a continuation.

That sounds like a good idea.  I like it because we aren't forcing the
entire committee to resign.  People who want to continue to work on
the committee can do so.  However we are allowing a place for new
members.  I also think an upper limit should be placed on the
membership committee.  I think this upper limit should be around 10
people.  We should also try to have at least 4 people on the committee
at the same time.

Another guideline should be concerning internal decisions we make,
such as proprosals to the board and applications committee members
bring to the committee as a whole.  I think there should be a 75%
agreement before a decision will be published.  This allows for
discussion before we make decisions and it will require everyone
participate, if only to give their agreement.

> > >   * recently, I've seen people asking for membership because they want a
> > >     gnome.org e-mail address. This is not good.
> >
> > I think we need to better define what the role of the foundation is
> > and how to be a good member.

I think the next two tie together well.  I think there is a need for
some sort of education program for the foundation membership on being
a good member.  This might have something to do with my fraternal
associations, but I don't think a lot of people actually know what the
foundation does and what we expect from the membership.  I think we
should present a paper at GUADEC to start this off.  I would be
willing to write a document outlining my ideas and do some more
research into this.

I believe once people know what we expect we will not have so many of
these requests in applications and possibly more people might run for
the board and more people vote.

> > >   * how can we make more people vote?
> >
> > More people have to understand the role of the foundation and care
> > about the direction it is taking.  I think we need more communication
> > from the board on their projects and Tim and Leslie on how the
> > foundation is spreading the GNOME love across the world.  Tim's year
> > end summary was great and I would like to see monthly reports sent the
> > foundation list on the work they are doing.
> >
> > I need to elaborate on some more of the above points.  I'm hurrying
> > because I need to get back to work and want you European folks to see
> > this today.
>
> Thanks for your feedback on those points. I hope you'll have time to
> elaborate a bit on this :-)

I ran out of time again on the education part.  Oh well, life can be
full of disappointments.  I would like to hear from the other members,
mainly Andy and Ghee about what they think.

Eric Baudais

--
They give you illusion that has the appearance of truth.  I give you
truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.
                                             --Tennessee Williams