who has time for the GA? (was: terminating memberships responsibly)

[Nikos Roussos]

> This brings me back to the original question then: democracy.  Annual
> elections and allowing all the community to participate can provide
> regular renewal.  When somebody doesn't have the time any more, either
> they don't run for re-election or the community will help them depart by
> voting for an alternative candidate.  Changing the tools and arbitrarily
> expelling people are a crazy alternative to something as easy to
> understand as democracy.

I understand that this may be your expectation, but this hardly true for any non-profit organization out there. You have a very specific view on how FSFE should operate democratically, but that doesn't mean that this is the only way, or even that democracy is the only way to run an organization.

I have been (and still am) member/supporter of various non-profit organizations and none of these apply the kind of democracy you envision. Rightfully so, in my opinion. As an example, I'm a member of EFF but there is no democratic way for me to be elected in the Board of Directors, or participate in their private strategic meetings. Same applies for FSF (US).

So in practice, what you do, is that you set your personal expectations as an objective high bar of how FSFE should operate and then you criticize the fact that the organization fails to meet your standards. Maybe you should consider the possibility that the organization doesn't want to or should meet these standards.

FSFE applies democratic practices, in the sense that votes do happen on important issues (like constitution changes). *But* with a mix of meritocracy, applied in the way people get to have voting rights by contributing to the mission. And that's pretty much the same for most of the non-profit organizations I know.

~nikos