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

[William L. Thomson Jr.]

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 :)

Now the one MAJOR thing that $ doesn't solve is experience or skill set.
Thus I would like to continue to see volunteer contribution, and
recruitment. Might go so far as to say, employees become such by
volunteering. That might work for most positions and etc, but surely
some would likely have to be hired directly. No volunteer time or etc.

So direct hiring, much less pay rates are some touchy areas. Likely need
some in depth discussion on those areas.

> Hire someone externally (paid or unpaid)? Requires a lot of trust, or
> how do you ensure checks and balances?

There would be normal business structure there, supervisors, managers,
etc. All feeding either the council or foundation. Which would provide
the checks and balances per say. In theory. Then again we could also
form some sort of external board or etc if need be. But much of what an
external board would do. I see the foundation members being more than
capable, and likely up their alley.

> Pay someone internally to do the work?

Most everything I am thinking about is internal stuff, with the
exception of hiring. Some of that might be external.

>  Assumes somebody in the
> project is capable to do it and would do it for money (how much?), not
> sure if we can rely on that.

Project managers, supervisors, managers, etc work for normal business
models. I see no reason why it would not work in our hybrid model
either.

> Assume someone capable likes your idea so much more than the existing
> setup that he's doing that job voluntarily? Very unlikely ...

I think we have seen many take the lead in many subprojects in areas. I
don't really see that being as much of a problem. One thing we don't
currently see much if is delegation. Which is likely due to one
volunteer not wanting to boss other volunteers around. Which is fine,
but for productivity and organization, delegation is some what a
requirement.

Sometimes I am asked to do routine tasks or things delegated by others.
Which is great, most times I am happy to do it. But it's pretty rare,
compared to how things would be if people were directly assigned tasks
and had some requirements there.

> The answer to that question is critical for *any* plan regarding the
> future of the foundation, so I'll save my other comments regarding your
> idea until we get that figured out.

Yes, and given that any of the various high level topics need further in
depth discussion. Likely end up breaking up this thread per the various
high level topics and etc. Otherwise likely to get pretty unweildy all
in one thread :)

-- 
William L. Thomson Jr.
Gentoo/Java