Thank you for your answers.
Now I understand that "become a supporter" is better than "join the fellowship"
because it is less confusing since (full) members have a vote and supporting
("members") and volunteer ("members") don't... but that is just the legal
aspect of the problem which can easily be avoided by making it clear that there
are different levels of being part of the FSFE movement with different rights.
I would like to emphasize the emotional aspect of this issue which I think is
at least as important (but probably more important).
Terms like "fellow" and "associate member" generates the feeling that if
someone become one, then they become part of the team/movement/whatever and are
allowed think and communicate that "We are doing this or that." when FSFE do
something great, say the PMPC campaign, or that "We should do this or that
better", say recruiting supporters. ;-)
The same goes to volunteers I think they also should feel to be some kind of
"members" (part of the team) and not just outside supporters who give you their
time instead of their money.
I think along this line you could make the supporter/volunteer status more
inviting compelling and improve the requiting. For this Florian's suggestion
"Join FSFE as a Supporter/Volunteer" is good because that shows you consider
Supporters and Volunteers as "being inside the circle" (part of the team).
This may sound as a minor thing but I think it is not. In your "business model"
supporters and volunteers are important assets so it is worth making these
statuses really compelling (and making them feel that they are (at least in a
loose sense) part of FSFE is something compelling, I think).
Also I think it would be a good idea to put a nice recruiting banner to the top
of the site in the end (last couple of months) of every year. These kind of
banners show that you value (both one time and recurrent) supporters and think
they are important (which is also compelling because people not just like to be
part of something great but also like to feel important).
Sorry for the long email but I do root for Free Software and all the supporting
movements. So I would really like to help you to get more supporters to get
more resources to fight for Free Software and I think this is an important
point that you seem to miss.
Best,
Gergely
Ps.: By the way, I do would like to write "we" when referring to FSFE instead
of "you" but currently I don't feel authorized to do so. :-(
_______________________________________________
Discussion mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
