Re: [gentoo-nfp] Gentoo NPO Business Model thoughts

[Marius Mauch]

On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:34:27 -0500
"William L. Thomson Jr." <wltjr@g.o> wrote:

>
> On Tue, 2007-12-11 at 14:41 +0100, Marius Mauch wrote:
> > On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:12:06 -0500
> > "William L. Thomson Jr." <wltjr@g.o> wrote:
> >
> > > Ok by no means is this complete, covering all details, etc and so
> > > on. It's just initial thoughts on a concept I have had for a few
> > > months now. I have brought it up to some on occasion, in person,
> > > irc, email, etc. I have receive mixed feedback. Hoping to open
> > > that up a bit more here.
> >
> > Well, our main problem currently is that apparently we don't have
> > enough people capable (due to lack of time, motivation or
> > experience) to manage such an organization, as it requires effort
> > on things that are no fun/not interesting and not rewarding. So how
> > do you solve that with your idea?
>
> While it's not guaranty or miracle solution. It's possible that we
> would attract more people, get more time from them, more motivation,
> and etc if those people are paid vs volunteer. Volunteering will
> always be done on the side, for the most part. Thus subject to being
> traded off when time/priorities change. For the non-fun and rewarding
> things, the $ is almost a requirement. That justifies the lack of
> fun, and provides a reward :)

Please lets not mix the Gentoo project and the Gentoo Foundation at
this point, they are two almost completely independent entities. In the
following I'll only talk about the Foundation part.
I understand that you have a goal in mind, however currently it's more
important how to get away from the current state, so lets focus on
that, not on how things eventually will be in a year.

To get away from the current state we need two things (Btw, the
attracting thing about the SFC is that they basically take care of
both): 
A plan for a new structure (that's what your idea is about), and
some people to get us there and manage the existing setup for the
remaining time (that's what my questions are about). 

Those people have to fit two requirements:
1) have to be trusted (or supervised, but then we need trusted
supervisors as well) as they are going to be responsible for all
assests of Gentoo
2) have to be capable of dealing with the paperwork involved, that
means time, commitment and preferably experience with such things

Note that it's not required for them to be involved with the new
structure in the end.

1) is generally assumed for existing foundation members, but those
lack 2), going by history at least

2) should be assumed of externally hired professionals, but for those
1) becomes an issue

And I think it's pointless to discuss a potential new structure if
there is nobody who'd get us there, while the SFC offers us a viable
short- and long-term alternative (btw, does anyone have a status update
on that?)

Understand that this is independent of the new structure of the
Foundation, which is why your answers didn't really address my
questions (maybe I should have been more explicit) as they assume the
new structure is already up and running. IOW I'm currently not
interested in the "how it will be" but in the "who gets us there", or
in business terms you plan to restructure the company but haven't
thought yet about who will perform that restructuring.

Marius

-- 
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