Candidacy FSFE Fellowship Representative

[Repentinus]

Dear Joe,

On 04/16/2016 11:15 AM, Joe Awni wrote:
> I write to notify you of my candidacy for fellowship representative. I
> had some messages blocked and delayed so there is a kind-of lengthy
> meta-discussion before the announcement of candidacy. Feel Free to skip
> the meta-discussion.

It is admirable that you wish to represent your fellow Fellows in FSFE's
General Assembly. However, adequate representation requires intent to
represent the Fellows and the FSFE, sufficient knowledge of the
organization and its rules, and respect for the organization. As your
e-mail has made it very clear that you lack at least one of those
qualities, please allow me to give you a few pointers.

First, FSFE, like any other organization, has a written constitution
that we have to follow. You can find the constitution at
<https://fsfe.org/about/legal/constitution.en.html> and if you ever wish
to successfully run for the Fellowship representative seat, I suggest
you read through it. If you do that, you will soon find out that
"Fellowship seats" (3) 4. requires candidates to notify the Fellowship
coordinator at least two months before the election date. As an
organization we are bound by law to follow our own constitution and
could not accept your candidacy even if we wanted to.

Similarly, our constitution specifies the voting method to be used and
the period potential candidates must have been Fellows for before they
are permitted to run for the seats. Once again, it would be illegal for
us to make any exceptions in this regard.

> For more than a decade i use exclusively Free Software. Last year, i
> built a website on 100% Free Software stack: http://cryptobiz.directory
> (FSF approval pending). This year, i enjoyed traveling across Europe to
> computer conferences (FOSDEM [where i saw RMS], 32C3) to promote Free
> Software in innovative ways. Personally, i think the future of Free
> Software depends on our ability to connect with young software
> developers. With that in mind, i organized the GNUBurger.
> 
> GNUBurgers are made from a GPLv3 instruction set :
> https://foodhackingbase.org/wiki/Recipe:Mildenburger and usually have
> the GPLv3 logo toasted into the bun.
> 
> I'm hoping to earn your endorsement and vote to continue to representing
> the Free Software community with my pledge that if elected i will make
> freely available GNUBurgers to all software developers who wish. And,
> will attend as many events as possible.

This is all very nice, but the purpose of the Fellowship elections is to
provide the Fellowship with confidence that FSFE is spending its
resources in a sustainable way on our constitutional purposes, to enable
the Fellowship a say about the activities we prioritize, and to provide
active Fellows with an opportunity to lead in the fight for the
advancement of Free Software. While this is my personal conviction, you
might find that if you do decide to stand for election next year, you
are unlikely to be elected if your agenda would be the promotion of
personal projects.


Sincerely yours,
-- 
Heiki Lõhmus
Coordinator Translations
Free Software Foundation Europe
mailto:repentinus at fsfe.org
xmpp:repentinus at jabber.fsfe.org
http://blogs.fsfe.org/repentinus/

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