who has time for the GA?

[Bernhard E. Reiter]

Hello Daniel,

Am Donnerstag 30 August 2018 21:28:21 schrieb Daniel Pocock:
> There is a big difference: those other groups didn't promise people
> democracy, membership and representation.  FSFE did.

FSFE did not (as Harald and others have pointed out in detail),
it cannot, as it does not make sense (as we cannot have a "democracy" in a 
strict sense as we do not know what the "demos" are and we do not have a 
mandatory "membership" like states.)

> As an elected representative, would I be doing my job correctly if I
> didn't object to the sudden cancellation of the elections?

It wasn't sudden and it was okay to object, but the large majority of people
was not following your arguments. (As explained before, you were not "elected" 
from a "demos", but selected from a group of supporters for a temporary 
term.)

> This discussion about abolishing elections appeared in my inbox almost
> immediately after I was elected to the role.  Personally, it made me
> feel like I was not completely welcome in the GA from the outset and it
> also felt like the whole community and other candidates had been fooled
> by the process of nominations, campaigns and voting.

There seems to have been a number of misunderstandings, and I saw others 
explain the situation to you patiently, I've tried myself. Sorry it hasn't 
worked out and you are feeling badly. On the other hand you have started 
accusations and personal attacks even when the interpretations others were 
presenting to you were quite reasonable. Now we are reaching a point were 
personal missunderstandings and styles of working are dragged into the 
public, which I do not consider good for anybody.

> On more than one occasion, I've been told that I should be conscious
> about how much money people donate and my communications to fellows are
> subject to censorship.  It makes me feel like the whole image of
> elections and representation are not up to the basic standards that
> people would reasonably expect. 

In my understanding Nikos made an argument that he and many others reasonably 
do not expect this from all organisations that are similiar to FSFE.

> You suggest that I'm setting a "high bar" but for most people in this
> community, a democracy with censorship of the representatives doesn't
> even reach the low bar. 

(As a not-for-profit organisation that wants to convince others about Free 
Software, we cannot have a "democracy" in the strict sense, as we do not have 
a "demos" and no ... wait did I have to write this for the fourth time in a 
row? Why did I never see you responding to this argument? Could I expect an 
answer to this from someone who wants to understand how FSFE came to be and 
how a number of people feel about it?)

Regards,
Bernhard

-- 
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