FSFE General Assembly Fellowship Representative Election

[Carsten Agger]

Hi all,


On 04/10/2017 04:16 PM, 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.
>
As one of the candidates, I'd like to add that I think volunteer work is
absolutely crucial to what the FSFE is and can be. The local groups or
Fellowship Groups can do very important work in their local communities,
and I think the FSFE and the General Assembly should support such work
in every way they can.

I might add that in my own experience as the founder of a group in
Aarhus, core FSFE people and especially then-vice president Matthias
Kirschner and then-president Karsten Gerloff were very supportive and
helpful. I also found the coordinator's meetings to be a very helpful
initiative, even though I was only able to attend the first one in
Berlin. The production of good folders, posters, stickers etc. is a good
example of something the FSFE can do which might easily be beyond the
means of a local group.

So I think that the FSFE should definitely be a venue for individuals to
make a difference. In some ways, it already is, as I observed. Since I'm
interested in using free software for the empowerment of local
communities (using the software *and* the underlying philosophy which
gave us the software), I'd be very interested in any ideas as to improve
it in this regard. The paying Fellows are very important for the FSFE as
a source of income, but there is a *huge* potential in Fellows
volunteering and doing good work for free software, and that might be
the most important aspect of the FSFE in the long run. Many people on
this list know this, of course, from their own volunteer work.

Best
Carsten