Hi Matthias, I am writing to you directly, with CC to the FSFE community, as this is the procedure for membership described[1] in the constitution of FSFE e.V.
I understand that previous Fellowship representatives have written to you privately on this basis and been granted FSFE e.V. membership beyond their two year term as a Fellowship representative. FSFE e.V.'s recent decision to remove[2] the Fellowship and Fellowship elections from the constitution creates a difficult situation for me. As a member of the Fellowship, elected by fellows, I have a responsibility to the Fellowship. As long as two or more people consider themselves fellows, the Fellowship still exists as an organization because that is the definition of a fellowship. Removing it from the constitution doesn't make it go away. FSFE e.V.'s meeting in 2017 recognized (item 15 in the minutes[3]) that contributors are not members and despite a split of the GA, it was resolved to bring them in as members, yet nothing has been done to implement this motion. The notice of meeting for 2018 (attached) suggests that out of 1,700 fellows, only one person has been proposed for FSFE e.V. membership and I feel this makes a mockery of the motion passed in 2017. Last year's decision and the lack of effort to implement it further emphasises the fact that fellows and volunteers are a separate group, not being members. You view us as a resource to be exploited rather than equal participants. As FSFE e.V. and the Fellowship are now separate bodies with no defined relationship, there is clearly a conflict of interest for somebody elected by one organization (the Fellowship) to be a member of another organization (FSFE e.V.). Therefore, I want to make it clear to everybody that where my obligations to the Fellowship are not aligned with obligations to the residual members of FSFE e.V., I will be putting my obligation to fellows first as that is the only responsible thing an elected representative can do. Some members of FSFE e.V. have expressed resentment about this situation but the fact is, fellows were promised representation and they need good representation now more than ever. For example, you previously wrote in a private GA discussion that my communications to fellows should be censored to ensure that communications maximize donations (your comment in February: "people might even stop to support us financially" if I write emails to the the people who I am mandated to represent). But that is nonsense: the role of a representative is not to maximize donations, my role is to ensure the money already given to you is being spent as well as possible. For trying to fulfil that role, you immediately set up an illegal conspiracy to stab me in the back, publishing an internal censorship policy for future communications and calling an extraordinary general meeting[4] on a Saturday while I was out in Kosovo doing real free software activities and voting on a motion tacked onto the end of the agenda to immediately terminate my membership without cause. It is never nice to write such strong words, but in a case like this, fellows deserve to know the ugly truth about FSFE Council's behaviour and as the elected representative I would be negligent if I didn't blow the lid on this. As the #MeToo movement has demonstrated, sometimes it is necessary to call out obnoxious behaviour to begin a process of reform. People are asking how FSFE e.V. can raise[5] almost EUR 650,000 in one year and spend barely EUR 37,000 on producing merchandise. The public pages about financial transparency don't give enough information to answer that. With well over half of the funds now coming from the corporate sector and the two most senior staff enjoying lengthy periods of paternity leave in 2018, people are also asking whether it is reasonable for volunteers to contribute their time and personal funds at all. There are many organizations in the free software world who we can contribute to and FSFE e.V. should not take us for granted. Personally, I feel that my highest responsibility is to those who elected me and gave me a mandate and I do not wish to be in a position that puts me above the rest of the wider FSFE community by accepting a "regular" membership of FSFE e.V. if other members of the Fellowship and volunteers are excluded from the same membership. In fact, I feel it would constitute an act of betrayal for someone elected to represent the community to suddenly transition to being a member of an elite, unelected group before their term as representative had even finished. Membership is critical for all members of our community because that gives everybody the right to attend the annual meeting, to propose motions for the agenda, to nominate for roles in council and to hold council responsible to the whole community. In other words, membership is the only basis for good governance. The constitution empowers you to grant all fellows and volunteers membership in passing (provisional membership) and forward them a copy of the invitation to the annual general meeting on 7 October (attached). Therefore, I am requesting that you exercise that power today. I am also requesting that you ensure all fellows and volunteers are provided (publicly) with full details about how they can attend the meeting and nominate for positions in the FSFE council as this is vital for transparency. If you do not accept this request, then at the end of my term as Fellowship representative I may defer any future contributions of time or funds to FSFE e.V until such time as membership and good governance is taken seriously. As president, you are ultimately responsible for circulating the motion[4] to summarily and illegally terminate my membership in May. Even though the motion did not pass, it has created a toxic situation of mistrust between the Fellowship representative (myself) and other GA members. Not only was it an extraordinarily unpleasant time for me personally to be the target of what was basically an act of abuse and bullying coordinated by the FSFE executive, but it is an insult to all contributors that you consider people to be disposable like this. As leader of an organization that relies heavily on the contribution of volunteers, you simply can't treat people with such contempt and expect the organization around you to be a healthy place. I am calling on you to resign now so that the annual meeting can vote on a new president and put this horrible incident behind us. Furthermore, as we both believe transparency is an important part of the free software philosophy, I kindly request that you discuss this application for membership publicly through the main FSFE community mailing list so all contributors to the organization can have their say. Regards, Daniel 1. https://fsfe.org/about/legal/constitution.en.html#https://fsfe.org/about/legal/constitution.en.html#SECTION00040000000000000000 2. https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/discussion/2018-July/012433.html 3. https://fsfe.org/about/legal/minutes/minutes-2017-10-15.en.pdf 4. https://fsfe.org/about/legal/minutes/minutes-2018-05-26.en.pdf 5. https://fsfe.org/about/funds/2016.en.html
20180824-GA-Invitation.pdf
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