Member/Board Interactivity (was: Re: [Members] DRAFT airlie)

[Egbert Eich]

Now this is the complete answer.

Matthew Rubenstein writes:
 > 	These issues indicate a broader process problem limiting the current
 > Foundation operations. X.org has members, a board/chief, sponsors, and a
 > budget. None of them are being used to their maximum capacity (or near
 > it). The solution of course is the board planning more Foundation
 > activities for members (and associates), then spending budget on those
 > activities. Which in turn will help the Foundation raise even more
 > money, on the strength of productive activities rather than the
 > potential of the organization.

The Board would not be able to plan those activeties nor should it.
The Board should encourage people from within the community to take
charge and organize events while the Board is offering support.
This can be financial support but it may also act as a door opener
or a contact establisher.

In the past the argument for attending industry events was to 
be able meet decision makers there to increase our sponsorship.
While I'm still in doubt that it is likely to be able to talk
to these decision makers without prior appointment I always felt
that spending sponsored money to get more money is an end in
itself.
Instead we should identify worthwhile opportunities to spend
money find out how much funs we need and determine from there
how much more we need.
Without that I feel it is very hard to convince exisiting or
prospective sponsors to fund us.

But let me say: I'd be alarmed by the notion that spending 
money will solve the problems of this organization.
Free and oepn source projects live from the activeties of
its contributors. 
The funds should aid those contributors, provide basic things
like decend hosting equipment, purchase documentation (anyone
still need some VESA specs?) etc. With more funds we can organize 
events which will allow our contributors to cooperate better 
and do outreach to other projects and events ourside of X.Org.

But volunteers are something money can't buy - that's where
the focus of this organization should be. If there is money
available you quickly have consumers for it lurking trying
to sell services we don't need.

 > 
 > 	This election will pick a new leader of the foundation. Practically
 > everyone involved is "part-time", with even secondary responsibilities
 > in other work, so delegating "production" work to members, coordinated
 > and led by the board and its leader, is the only way to manage the
 > community. As the new leader, how will you get the community to
 > contribute proposals for which activities the board should decide to
 > spend money on? A better cycle of member proposals and board decisions
 > will not only better use the time and money budgeted. It will also
 > invigorate the membership, and attract new/better members.

Matthew, there may be a misconception. There is no 'leader' of 
the Board. There is the postion of the secretary who is assigned 
the duty for the responsibility over the records of the 
organization.
But to answer your question in a somewhat different context: 
what should the Board do to get the community to contribute 
proposals?

* Improve communication: The board was unapporachable for a long time,
  the Members mailing list was unavailable. This has changed now and
  we should make continued use of the available channels - beyond this
  preelection discussion.

* The Board should not be afraid to ask for help: The current Board
  tried to organize and handle a lot of things itself. Sometimes
  it looked like an event planning workgroup, sometimes it discussed
  how to design logos and banners.
  The community could help on most of these things. Maybe we should
  establish working groups which people with interest to help can
  join and offer their help.
  Again note that this lives from the support of volunteer contributors. 
  The Board cannot mandate or force these Working Groups. It can make
  sure they exist and that people who would like to help are able to
  do that.
  But it is importand to encourage the people to take on responsibility
  and not wait for the Board to endorse everything or for the Board to 
  move and throw money at a problem.

* Budget + Spending Policy
  If we are to spend money we should set up a budget.
  We got this for this year - doing this wasn't easy as there
  was very little to go by. Looking back at it there are certainly
  a lot of things I would do differently today - but this is
  a learning experience.
  We already have some ideas: we know a number of events which 
  are worthwhile sponsoring and larger events which require
  a lot of funding should be known well in advance.

  The budget gives us a pretty good idea how much money we need
  to earmark specifically and how much we have to 'play' (ie 
  explore opportunities to spend it on).

  Once we have a better knowledge how much we want to spend on 
  activeties we already know about we can better estimate on what 
  to do with the rest.
  With this budget we should solicite the members (not only the 
  Members because a lot of contributors don't bother to become 
  Members) for additional ideas.

 > 
 > 	Do you agree? How would you lead the board to get this show on the
 > road?
 > 

There are two things the Board should do:
1. It should advertise that funds are available.
2. Solicite the community about ideas.

However such ideas and initiatives *must* come from our 
community. The Board should not predetermine any direction 
as this will create the feeling that decisions have already 
been made and input is not appreciated.

However there is an important consequence: not the Board
makes the decision if a certain activety is worthwhile,
the community does. In a sense the Board should be tasteless
here and take a passive role. Instead it would:
1. Make sure a consensus is reached.
2. Determine if funds are available.
3. The spending is justified according to spending policies
   By-Laws, laws and regulations.
4. Make sure all agreed on procedures are followed and all
   dues are paid as agreed.
This doesn't mean that Board Members should not come up with
ideas of their own: they should however do so as contributors
- not as Board Members.

Cheers,
	Egbert.