FSFE General Assembly Fellowship Representative Election

[Daniel Pocock]

On 10/04/17 16:16, Paul Boddie wrote:

> Now, reading the candidates' statements, only one of the candidates mentions 
> volunteering and really only in the context of more of it being required, 
> which doesn't necessarily make sense if volunteer activities end up not being 
> particularly efficient or productive. So, I wouldn't mind knowing what the 
> candidates want to do about making FSFE a venue for individual Fellows to be 
> able to make a difference, both in the organisation and beyond.
>

All the candidates, myself included, already do things on a voluntary
basis, either directly for FSFE or in the wider free software community.
 Some of us also bring experience and observations from other
volunteer-based non-profit organizations.  My own experience in that
area (outside the free software world) includes a rowing club, ham radio
clubs (including WICEN), student organizations of various sizes and even
a couple of political organizations.


> (In the context of this being an election to a board with only a couple of 
> Fellows present and the remainder being appointed [3], it might be interesting 
> to know what the candidates *can* do about the above. But maybe that is 
> another topic.)
> 

In my experience of being elected to positions in the past, there is
actually a lot that people can do even without being elected and anybody
who wants to influence the way the organization works doesn't actually
need to wait to see who is elected.  Sometimes people actually do more
for an organization or cause when they are "only" a volunteer, when they
join the board they do less and if they start receiving a salary then
they do even less, especially in student politics.  You can have
discussions about the organization through the mailing lists, IRC or at
events, these discussions don't need to be kept within the board meetings.

> Maybe there's nothing to discuss here at all, but I thought it still might be 
> worth asking about such things here, anyway.
> 

I don't know if there are any rules about discussing these things during
the voting period, but if not, these things are worth discussing and
hopefully they will be taken on board not just by the chosen candidate
but by the whole organization.

Regards,

Daniel