2016 SPI board elections

[Joshua D. Drake]

On 07/16/2016 06:58 AM, Philippe Cloutier wrote:
> Greetings to all, and in particular to those I have not had the chance
> to collaborate with yet.
> Yesterday I became a SPI member, apparently thanks to Martin
> Zobel-Helas, just in time for the 2016 SPI board elections, in which I
> was able to vote.
>

Welcome!

> Joshua D. Drake
>
> Just one comment on a specific statement, Joshua's. It contains:
>> Getting business items in order such as proper insurance and
>> professional services.
>
> What this means is vague for me (I fail to see what "business items"
> means concretely).
>

Concretely, the corporation is not properly protected against potential 
hostile or negligent action. This protection usually comes in the form 
of Limited Liability and Director's an Officers insurance.

I would like us to have better, more streamlined access to member and 
project services. Why does it take us potentially weeks to fulfill a 
reimbursement request? It should be 72 hours tops. Part of this is 
technological, part of it is human. I want to fix that.

I also do not think that the corporation properly or efficiently 
communicates with projects or members. I would like to see us engaged 
with projects, not passively helping with they pop up. I would like to 
see an active volunteer pool from members to help us with FOSS projects. 
Everything from generating educational videos and tutorials to being 
present at conferences.

>
>     General
>
> Most statements say a lot more about what one has done than about what
> one intends to do. There's still one easy information about who
> candidates are which is usually missing : their age.
>

I am not sure that age is relevant but I am 43. I am more interested in 
a candidates willingness to participate, be effective and move the 
corporation forward versus whether they are 22 or 65.

> I ranked candidates based on what their statements said about their
> achievements, their goals, and my prior perception of them. Being a
> long-time Debian developer, my ranking surely shows some bias. I was
> hoping for commitments to transparency but did not read much on that.

I would argue that transparency is implied. We are a U.S. based 
non-profit and the rules are pretty clear. Every member is able to 
attend every board meeting, all of our resolutions and financial matters 
are public etc...

>
>   Issue tracking
>
> The desire to properly report this presumed issue brings me to a
> meta-issue: does SPI not have an issue tracking system?

We do for reimbursements. Usually any feedback of that kind would go 
through the -private list. However, I could certainly see opening up a 
tracking system for other items, especially member concerns as a whole. 
That is a good idea.

I hope my perspective helps!

Sincerely,

JD
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