[gentoo-trustees] store and foundation..

[Corey Shields]

<disclaimer> I scratched the first draft of this, as I don't want to 
sound like I'm coming off trying to hurt feelings or anything..  not my 
intent </disclaimer>

I see a few problems with this whole situation.  First of all, I was 
shocked to hear that Daniel is using the store as his full time 
employment (back in June we were told he found a job).  In his best 
interest, finding a job should be a top priority, even if the store 
takes a back seat.  I don't feel that the Gentoo store could provide 
enough income for a family (let alone the fact that the store is hosted 
and run on hardware/bandwidth that is University owned, I don't know how 
they would feel about that).  On top of that, I don't feel that the 
Gentoo store -should- be used as primary income for a family, it places 
too much stress on the operator and too much tension between the store 
and the Foundation.  Anyway, we've been here before, Daniel needs to do 
what is best for his family.

Daniel is taking "financial risks" to keep the store going because sales 
are dropping.  On the other hand he wants to provide more to the 
foundation.  Those two points pull in different directions, and it just 
doesn't seem right.  I would need to see a budget plan to feel more 
comfortable about this, because past experience has said otherwise.

There seems to be a lot of distance between the Store and the 
Foundation.  Personally, I feel like there is a lack of information on 
our end as to what the store is doing (financially, offerings, you name 
it).  For instance, this is the first time I have heard of the DVD 
offerings, and we hear about the store helping out whenever there is 
another legal bill popping up, and we've been able to get a gig of ram 
for the CVS server.   I guess the biggest part of the problem is that 
there are expectations of the Store helping out the Foundation, and the 
Foundation hardly sees that, so it seems like the expectation of help is 
not being met.  Is that really the case?  Probably not.  We all know 
there have been legal fees with the NFP filing.  But we don't know how 
much that was, or how long it took the store to make the money for them.

What I would like to see, in order to try and shorten the distance 
between the Store and the Foundation, is more open communication about 
the financial dealings of the store.  ie: budgets, expense and income 
reports, etc on a regular (monthly?) basis..  Personally, I'd feel less 
distant from the store if I knew what the income was last month, how 
much of that came to the foundation and how (was it legal fees?  server 
ram? or did it go to our bank account?).  If I feel less distant from 
the store, and more of a part of it, then I'm more likely to go out of 
my way to support it.  Daniel, would this be possible?

As for the "support" that the foundation shows the store through the 
website ads, that's petty.  We could argue all day who gets more support 
and who gives more support, and it almost becomes a matter of personal 
opinion (for me, I don't look for a graphic ad for the store, I go to 
the link at the top of the page that says "Store".  we don't provide 
that to any other sponsor, etc..).  Why don't we cut out the text under 
the ads, which would bring them all closer to the top?  In most cases 
the text says what the ad does anyway.  I don't mind GWN, Forum 
announcements, etc of new offerings from the store..   Kurt?

The point in my mind is that if I knew that the foundation was 
benefitting $xxxx a month from the store, and I could see that, then 
I'll be the first to jump on there and promote it when sales start to 
slip, because that is our job to help fund Gentoo.

Anyway, the bank account should be setup soon, let's get some money in 
there, a new paypal link, and start a new slate with some more open 
communications between the Store and Foundation.

Cheers,
-C

-- 
Corey Shields
Gentoo Linux Infrastructure Team and Devrel Team
Gentoo Foundation Board of Trustees
http://www.gentoo.org/~cshields


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