janI wrote:
Could you please or someone else make a wiki page, that explains the setup,
and why we (as volunteers) have to report to a board !!
Hi Jan, there's plenty of documentation about that, but no need to
worry! You can find the basic information here:
http://apache.org/foundation/how-it-works.html#structure
But, in short, the Apache Foundation, as it is reasonable for an
organization of this size (even if volunteers-driven) has a Board, that
is responsible for overseeing the general functioning of the organization.
A fundamental difference between a company Board and the Apache Board is
that the Apache Board is not deciding on strategy or day-to-day
management of the project: Apache OpenOffice is fully self-managing and
all decisions are taken on this mailing list. Indeed you are an Apache
OpenOffice committer and never saw the Board interfering with our
discussions or decisions.
However, as a registered non-profit charity, the Apache Foundation has a
few legal obligations and the Board needs to stay informed about the
projects' activity, since it is ultimately accountable for that: so the
project (and this is one of my tasks) periodically has to write a short
report like the one you have seen and send it to the Board. In future
(from January 2013) this will happen every 3 months.
Regards,
Andrea.
