Hi,
one of the points that has been raised on the discussion list recently was the structure of the FSF Europe. Apparently there were still some misconceptions, so I would like to try to set them straight.
Although I don't know where this misinformation came from, some people seem to think the FSF Europe was non-democratic.
The FSF Europe is a democratic association, all positions are elected in two-year terms and there are democratic means to remove people from office should things go really wrong. The highest organ of the FSF Europe is the general assembly.
It is our fault that the constitutions aren't online yet, so you cannot see for yourself right now, but I wanted to let you know about this right now before the misconception spreads.
Albeit being democratic, the FSF Europe is not completely open just like the FSF isn't. There is a reason for this.
The FSF has always only spoken for itself and its understanding of Free Software. By being independant from the masses, it could maintain positions that were even unusual or too advanced for the community at the time.
Just remember the KDE situation a few years ago. The majority of the community did not consider it a problem that Qt was proprietary and were against trying to do anything about that. Had the FSF not been so insisting, we would not have GNOME today and Qt would most likely still be proprietary.
Also it is necessary to prevent a philosophic dilution of the FSF Europe, something that might easily happen if it were entirely open and people from the "Open Source bandwagon" decided to join. We have talked about this with Richard Stallman and he would not have admitted us as the acknowledged European sister organization hadn't we taken precautions against this.
The initial core team were people chosen in agreement with RMS to consist of people that he trusts to maintain what is the true free software spirit as he sees it.
Now new members are appointed by 3/4 election of the existing members only.
Being a member of the FSF Europe means that the public watches you _very_ carefully - which is as it should be. But it is also a big burden at some times. We cannot take just any job, we must always be careful what to say and we are personally bound to the FSF Europe to a very high extent.
This is how it ought to be, but it can only be maintained if the amount of members is kept small. Therefore we try to find 2-3 people From every country that have truly understood free software and the FSF and that are willing and capable to bear such a high responsibility and make this commitment.
At the same time we'd like to see everyone involved.
So we invented the "associated" status for organizations. The associate organizations are (theoretically) entirely open and can be joined by everyone.
Also they are very often older than the FSF Europe and have already been performing well in their areas as grassroot organizations like APRIL in France. Through association with the FSF Europe these organizations can be linked with each other and work together for our common goals on the European level.
Members of the associate organizations can enter the <country>@fsfeurope.org mailing lists where we discuss the more confidential things that should not be made entirely public at the time.
By joining such an associate organization you can chose to become part of the more confidential loops immediately.
If you just "want to get some things done" and get involved in specific tasks like the web pages, you could do so directly via savannah.
If you have another idea how to help free software and the FSF Europe, please feel free to tell us about it and we'll be glad to support and work with you as much as we can.
Several people already do participate this way and we are glad about every single one of them.
For things that can be discussed in public we have the entirely open discussion list.
That way everyone can participate in the FSF Europe while getting practically as much (or as little) involved as (s)he wants.
Regards, Georg