On 25 April 2014 15:53, Allan Day <allanp...@gmail.com> wrote: > Ekaterina Gerasimova <kittykat3...@gmail.com> wrote: > ... >>>> We also need to encourage the Board of Directors to post >>>> more about what they are doing. It's a shame that we the board doesn't >>>> have a public face like this. > > I hope I didn't sound unappreciative of the board - I know you do a > huge amount of work already!
You were completely spot on here, the board does need to get our collective backsides into gear and tell people what's going on. It's a bit of a problem that our work tends to bounce between nothing interesting going on to too much to do, not enough time to write with pretty much nothing in between. >>> People donate to the Foundation, they don't donate to individual GNOME >>> projects. So the newsletter should a GNOME Foundation newsletter. The >>> ones that should be communicating directly to donors should be the Board of >>> Directors. The newsletter will have to be a platform for Board members to >>> communicate directly to donors. >> >> Uhuh, and where do you propose that the board find the time to do >> this? Under normal conditions, on average, each board member does >> spend around 10 hours per week on board duties on top of their >> projects and paid work. It's already quite a hefty time commitment >> and, due to other issues, some of the board members are currently >> spending a second job worth of time on board work as well, which is >> likely to continue for the next month or so. Until a new employee is >> hired, the board also has to do a number of fundraising and >> administrative duties too, which is likely to push the average board >> member work up to 15 hours per week indefinitely. It's also worth >> keeping in mind that the board does not have anything to do with the >> technical direction of the Foundation, which is where most money is >> spent. >> >> It would probably be a better idea to delegate this to someone who is >> interested in working on it and let the board concentrate on getting >> back into shape and being able to provide all the relevant information >> in a timely manner (board minutes, account summaries). Ideally, the >> information which you want to be in the letters should be freely >> available anyway, which is what the board is currently working on >> doing better. Most of the Foundation money is spent on employees, >> followed by conferences and hackfests. I think event organisers will >> also be better placed than the board to provide information directly >> to whoever puts together a newsletter. > > Right - the board need to be focused on board stuff. I wonder if we > could work towards having someone extra attached to the board to > handle publicity and public relations? Not sure who that would be or > how it would work... That would be the engagement team, but the board can be a bit sucky at remembering to tell you (succeeded on one account and completely failed on another recently). I don't think this would be as much of an issue if minutes were published on time. > A. _______________________________________________ engagement-list mailing list engagement-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/engagement-list
