Re: More questions for Board candidates
Karen Sandler ka...@gnome.org wrote: I have a few questions for the candidates too. I agree with what has been said by Jeff and Josh that it's important that people on the board have a diverse skillset, so I wouldn't expect all board members to answer yes on these, but I think it's good to know if at least a few people on the board have some background in these areas... Have you ever done any fundraising? It depends on what you mean by fundraising. I've worked on the Friends of GNOME through my participation in the Engagement Team, and have ideas in that area that I'd be interested in pursuing if I was elected. There have also been a small number of occasions where I've had to ask around for money, such as trying to get sponsors for events I've organised, or for initiatives I have been involved in. Are you comfortable asking sponsors for money? I think I could do this in the context of the board. That said, I'm not sure I'd be the best choice, as I probably wouldn't be as assertive as some others. Have you ever been in a manager role? I do informal project management as a part of my day-to-day work, but I've never formally managed employees or members of a team. That said, while I don't have direct experience, I do have some relevant experience, and this is something that I am interested in and I think I could be good at. Do you have any experience talking to reporters? Yes - I've given interviews, responded to press queries, and written press releases. Have you ever talked to a group of people about why software freedom is important? Yes - this is a subject that I've addressed in talks I've given, and it is also something that I have read and written about a fair bit. Allan ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: More questions for Board candidates
2015-05-21 23:25 GMT+02:00 Karen Sandler ka...@gnome.org: Have you ever done any fundraising? I took an active part on the GNOME vs Groupon's fundraising campaign the GNOME Foundation launched the past year. Are you comfortable asking sponsors for money? Yes as in making sure the sponsors do actually know why they should trust us and our mission and donate. We can do this is many ways and Jeff's initiative on the Sysadmin's brochure is one of these cases. In the eventuality the funds for the Sysadmin position will end the virtual sponsors should know what has been achieved, how and what have been the benefits of both the community and the representatives of the company / organization itself with their daily use of the GNOME Infrastructure. What I'm comfortable in - summarizing - is asking for money while providing a good rationale (and documentation, past achievements and results of the Board / other GNOME team) about why external entities should donate to our cause. Have you ever been in a manager role? No, but I've been coordinating the GNOME Infrastructure and the GNOME Foundation Membership Elections Committee since several years now hopefully providing a good service for the GNOME community and membership. Do you have any experience talking to reporters? Some, my personal background includes a degree in law which helped me a lot handling several legal matters we had to face during this term. On this side I was interviewed by the World Trademark Review online magazine [1]. Additionally - if that matters - I've been part of the press myself for several months as a technical freelance writer [2] writing about anything GNU / Linux and FOSS related. Additionally I took part writing / reviewing / co-writing some PRs for the GNOME Foundation back in the days. Have you ever talked to a group of people about why software freedom is important? I did in many occasions during conferences I participated in as a speaker. Talks there were technical but I always made sure to introduce my speech mentioning the fact the software / tool in question was completely Open Source and licensed under a free software-compliant license. [1] http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/Blog/detail.aspx?g=9df9d63a-417f-4a95-88b2-d781008a47f3 [2] http://www.oneopensource.it (italian website) -- Cheers, Andrea Debian Developer, Fedora / EPEL packager, GNOME Infrastructure Team Coordinator, GNOME Foundation Board of Directors Secretary, GNOME Foundation Membership Elections Committee Chairman Homepage: http://www.gnome.org/~av ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: More questions for Board candidates
Le jeudi 21 mai 2015 à 17:25 -0400, Karen Sandler a écrit : I have a few questions for the candidates too. I agree with what has been said by Jeff and Josh that it's important that people on the board have a diverse skillset, so I wouldn't expect all board members to answer yes on these, but I think it's good to know if at least a few people on the board have some background in these areas... Have you ever done any fundraising? Are you comfortable asking sponsors for money? Have you ever been in a manager role? Do you have any experience talking to reporters? Have you ever talked to a group of people about why software freedom is important? Short answer: [x] Yes to all Fundraising includes: preparing the campaign for Pitivi, shooting and editing videos for local non-profits (including the Québec equivalent of the FSF+EFF, and a professional symphonic orchestra run by a foundation), possibly some others I'm forgetting (besides everyday business advice, that is). I've also been talking to adboard members and possible sponsors for specific GNOME initiatives, over email/by phone/in person. Talking with reporters: dealt with them on a few occasions, from afar and up close. Co-wrote various press releases. Did press review work for a client where I would monitor what is being said about an entire industry—locally and worldwide—across a few hundred news sources and provide a digest everyday by 7 AM (remember when I had to excuse myself from one of the sessions at GUADEC last year? That was why…). Been in a TV newsroom twice, though not as the one being interviewed in front of the cameras. The rest is pretty much visible on my personal homepage :) ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: More questions for Board candidates
Hi Karen, Thanks for your questions! On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 2:25 PM, Karen Sandler ka...@gnome.org wrote: I have a few questions for the candidates too. I agree with what has been said by Jeff and Josh that it's important that people on the board have a diverse skillset, so I wouldn't expect all board members to answer yes on these, but I think it's good to know if at least a few people on the board have some background in these areas... Have you ever done any fundraising? Not really; I have only marginally been exposed to this aspect during my work so far. I have some small experience participating in the organization of local events from when I was in university. Are you comfortable asking sponsors for money? I believe I would feel comfortable doing this, despite not being something I have a lot of experience with. My level of comfort also would probably depend on the purpose of the sponsorship and how closely I can relate to it. Have you ever been in a manager role? That has never been my job title, though in more recent years I started taking on project/team lead responsibilities. Do you have any experience talking to reporters? Only very little, mostly related to some PR efforts I participated to in my work experience at Endless. Have you ever talked to a group of people about why software freedom is important? Yes. In addition to presenting to free software conferences like GUADEC, I have been involved in initiatives from local user groups in Italy, even though not in recent times. I pitched the importance of free software many times and to very different audiences, both in professional and personal settings. Cheers, Cosimo ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: More questions for Board candidates
Hi, On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 11:25 PM, Karen Sandler ka...@gnome.org wrote: Have you ever done any fundraising? Only a little, trying to get local sponsors for various local events. For GUADEC this turned into getting a small local company to pay for the pastries. I wouldn't say it's something I'm good at. Are you comfortable asking sponsors for money? Not really. Have you ever been in a manager role? Yes, both at work and in a volunteer environment. Do you have any experience talking to reporters? A little, mostly talking to local press when I was manning a booth at various events or when I was advertising an event I was organising. Have you ever talked to a group of people about why software freedom is important? Yes, I have had several occasions to do that, for instance with groups of students at the University where I have taught, or at some non-software related events where I was at the booth of my local LUG. This is also a topic I like to bring up when I meet new people and they ask me what I do for a living, which happens quite often. -- Alexandre Franke ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: More questions for Board candidates
Hi Karen, - Original Message - | I have a few questions for the candidates too. I agree with what has | been said by Jeff and Josh that it's important that people on the board | have a diverse skillset, so I wouldn't expect all board members to | answer yes on these, but I think it's good to know if at least a few | people on the board have some background in these areas... | | Have you ever done any fundraising? No | | Are you comfortable asking sponsors for money? I think it would be challenging for me, given that I never did it. | | Have you ever been in a manager role? No | | Do you have any experience talking to reporters? No | | Have you ever talked to a group of people about why software freedom is | important? Only socially, like I guess most of us sometime did :) | | karen | | | ___ | foundation-list mailing list | foundation-list@gnome.org | https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list | As you can see, I wouldn't be the best in this role on the board, although I like to learn and improve my skills and I would like to try this as well. Cheers, Carlos Soriano ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: More questions for Board candidates
Hi Karen, Thanks for your questions. Responses inline: Have you ever done any fundraising? Yes, although not on such a scale as I would expect a GNOME director will have to take on. More like a few small fundraisers for various charities and perhaps more recently, some of you may remember that I managed to raise funds to attend the GSoC summit in San Jose from Edinburgh. I had initially accepted that invitation with absolutely no idea whatsoever how I would be able finance any of it, but I never doubted for a second that things would fall to place - which they did :D I am fairly confident that the demands of fundraising for GNOME are not likely to be a big a learning curve, as long there is a strong team of motivated people involved. Overall, I am very keen to work with others to develop fundraising strategies, so we can better support the work of the GNOME community and I would be keen to do my bit to ensure we make measurable progress on this front. Are you comfortable asking sponsors for money? Absolutely. We at GNOME all work hard, collectively investing the skills and ideas which build this project into something which sponsors are desperate to be associated with. If elected, then I feel it would be my duty to work on behalf of those contributing members who form GNOME and I would feel very comfortable negotiating favourable terms on behalf of the community. Have you ever been in a manager role? I won't list out my CV ;-) but the short answer is: in various ways, yes… Mostly through charity, campaigns and advocacy volunteer work, but I also freelanced professionally in events before I came to Edinburgh which had me supervising others at times, as well as going through all the fun of having to be responsible for my own accounts. I could probably go on about this but I am reluctant to overdo it without further prompting. Just to say, I have a fair understanding of where my skills, abilities and interests lie. Please free to ask me to elaborate or clarify anything if you are particularly interested in finding out about, though! Do you have any experience talking to reporters? A little bit: I was interviewed by the BBC for news at 6 when Nicola Sturgeon was elected leader of the SNP and also recently quoted in the student newspaper regarding wellbeing at the College of Science and Engineering. Overall, I probably still need to polish up for this sort of thing but I am quite lucky in that I am able to access some relevant training, where I am. Have you ever talked to a group of people about why software freedom is important? Yes, a quite few times now. The most recent one was a presentation at EdLUG about GNOME accessibility. Again, I still feel like I need to practice but that last talk went pretty well by all accounts and people seemed to be really engaged, asking lots more questions than I had expected they might, which was very encouraging. Thanks again for these questions! Magdalen ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: More questions for Board candidates
Hi, On 05/21/2015 02:25 PM, Karen Sandler wrote: I have a few questions for the candidates too. I agree with what has been said by Jeff and Josh that it's important that people on the board have a diverse skillset, so I wouldn't expect all board members to answer yes on these, but I think it's good to know if at least a few people on the board have some background in these areas... Have you ever done any fundraising? Yes. I've been a technical resource during both fund-raising and acquisition stages of multiple start-ups. I've also done deep dives with potential investors. Determining what technology to focus on can be crucial to fund-raising. I do not have experience sourcing new income (with the exception of the Builder crowd-funding), however this is something I'm increasingly interested in. Are you comfortable asking sponsors for money? I am. I'm comfortable discovering the reasons it is in their best interest to do so. It's not always obvious how important our stack is to various current and potential sponsors. Have you ever been in a manager role? I have not, other than my time as a maintainer of various projects. While these are different roles, encouragement and fostering growth are key to the success of either. Do you have any experience talking to reporters? To a degree. My experience has been with ensuring they have the information necessary to write articles and less about press releases. Have you ever talked to a group of people about why software freedom is important? I regularly take part in both Free and Open Source software outreach in the San Francisco area. I've spoken to small (a couple people) and large (100+ people) and am comfortable with both. Thanks! -- Christian ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: More questions for Board candidates
On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 05:25:51PM -0400, Karen Sandler wrote: I have a few questions for the candidates too. I agree with what has been said by Jeff and Josh that it's important that people on the board have a diverse skillset, so I wouldn't expect all board members to answer yes on these, but I think it's good to know if at least a few people on the board have some background in these areas... Have you ever done any fundraising? Yes, in various aspects, including conference sponsorship and donations to organizations. Are you comfortable asking sponsors for money? Yes. The worst you can hear is no. (Well, if you're too annoying with an existing sponsor you can lose them, but reasonable and infrequent requests don't normally constitute too annoying.) Have you ever been in a manager role? I've never been a people-manager, but I've been in technical leadership roles and provided direction and support to large groups of people. More generally, I've been in roles where I need to think about people, business, and products, in addition to technology. (I currently have such a role.) Do you have any experience talking to reporters? Some. As part of addressing the Groupon issue, I helped work with the press to publicize GNOME's fundraising and legal campaign. I've also done small-scale press interviews/articles/etc, though only on the scale of LWN rather than CNN. :) Have you ever talked to a group of people about why software freedom is important? Yes. I've given presentations and speeches (both formal and informal), as well as various writings and emails, on topics including software patents, licensing, DRM, the DMCA, FOSS, and many other similar issues. I also generally make a point of saying Free Software, or at the very least FOSS, rather than just Open Source. - Josh Triplett ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
Re: More questions for Board candidates
On Thu, 2015-05-21 at 17:25 -0400, Karen Sandler wrote: I have a few questions for the candidates too. I agree with what has been said by Jeff and Josh that it's important that people on the board have a diverse skillset, so I wouldn't expect all board members to answer yes on these, but I think it's good to know if at least a few people on the board have some background in these areas... Have you ever done any fundraising? Yes. For the last year and a half, I was involved with a group trying to open a grocery cooperative in my neighborhood. We sold over a thousand shares to neighbors and raised a million dollars, making it the fastest growing co-op startup in the country. That work is still ongoing, though I've taken a more passive role lately. I'm very proud of the work we did. I also drum up sponsorship for the Open Help Conference every year. It's not a lot of money, comparatively, but it's a lot of work to make it happen and not drain my pocketbook. Are you comfortable asking sponsors for money? I'm more comfortable with it now than I was five years ago. Honestly, it's not my favorite thing to do. I'd rather do conference logistics and let somebody else track down money. But I can do it, and I do do it. Have you ever been in a manager role? I've been in a project lead role, where I've been responsible for telling people what to do. But I've never been in a role where I'm responsible for performance evaluations. Do you have any experience talking to reporters? A bit. I was interviewed a few times for the co-op, and participated in some press conferences. Have you ever talked to a group of people about why software freedom is important? I haven't done it in a formal setting, such as a presentation. But I've frequently talked to groups of friends or colleagues about why I care about free software, and why they should as well. -- Shaun ___ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
