[gentoo-nfp] nomination

[gentoo-nfp] nomination

[Brad Cowan]

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Hi,

  I'd like to be considered in the voting for a trustee position.  A
particular interest would be in the form of funding and the possibility
of grants based on recommendations of a "steering committee" if that
model gets approved.

Thanks,

-- 
Brad Cowan <bcowan@gentoo.org>
Developer,
Gentoo Linux    http://www.gentoo.org/~bcowan

Public Key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xB1F16A56
Key fingerprint = C408 75B9 E68D 26E2 EAAE  20CF 4D5E 293D B1F1 6A56

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Re: [gentoo-nfp] nomination

[Paul de Vrieze]

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On Sunday 08 May 2005 17:36, Brad Cowan wrote:
> Hi,
>
>   I'd like to be considered in the voting for a trustee position.  A
> particular interest would be in the form of funding and the possibility
> of grants based on recommendations of a "steering committee" if that
> model gets approved.

What do you mean by grants? Maybe I should add that the foundation by no means 
is rich, and financially most if not allmost all money not spend on legal 
fees should be saved for future legal fees and a reserve.

Paul

-- 
Paul de Vrieze
Gentoo Developer
Mail: pauldv@gentoo.org
Homepage: http://www.devrieze.net

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Re: [gentoo-nfp] nomination, [gentoo-nfp]

[Brad Cowan]

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On Sun, 2005-05-08 at 19:02 +0200, Paul de Vrieze wrote:
> On Sunday 08 May 2005 17:36, Brad Cowan wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> >   I'd like to be considered in the voting for a trustee position.  A
> > particular interest would be in the form of funding and the possibility
> > of grants based on recommendations of a "steering committee" if that
> > model gets approved.
> 
> What do you mean by grants? Maybe I should add that the foundation by no means 
> is rich, and financially most if not allmost all money not spend on legal 
> fees should be saved for future legal fees and a reserve.
> 
> Paul
> 

  Yes, I understand the current budget situation, these are longer term
goals.  I'm interested in ways to increase our funding to go above and
beyond self sufficient. Spending all our funds on general expenses and
saving all the excess for legal expenses and a reserve for possibly more
legal defense leaves no room for things like research and development or
overall improvements.  I know these last two things depend on the having
more funding coming in than going out, which is what we should be
striving for in my honest opinion. Just because we're a non-profit
doesn't mean all our funds need to be for legal issues or our focus as
trustees needs to be towards legalities does it? 

  As for the grants, I'm not talking about huge sums of money here. For
example the trustees decide that they would like to start a $500 overall
improvement grant (could even be $10...the amount is trivial), they
would then ask the steering committee to decide which area needed the
most improvement and would write up a set of criteria or goals they
would like to see accomplished with this grant. The trustees would then
enact this grant based on the recommendations of the steering committee.
The steering committee would then judge which party should receive the
grant based on all criteria being met and the best model that represents
their goals. This separates the trustees from making the actual
developmental decisions or goals that the steering committee should be
making, but still allowing for contributions towards the overall well
being of the distro.  

  Anyway I'm just scribbling random thoughts, thanks for listening. 

-- 
Brad Cowan <bcowan@gentoo.org>
Developer,
Gentoo Linux    http://www.gentoo.org/~bcowan

Public Key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xB1F16A56
Key fingerprint = C408 75B9 E68D 26E2 EAAE  20CF 4D5E 293D B1F1 6A56

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Re: [gentoo-nfp], [gentoo-nfp]

[Donnie Berkholz]

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Brad Cowan wrote:
>   Yes, I understand the current budget situation, these are longer term
> goals.  I'm interested in ways to increase our funding to go above and
> beyond self sufficient. Spending all our funds on general expenses and
> saving all the excess for legal expenses and a reserve for possibly more
> legal defense leaves no room for things like research and development or
> overall improvements.  I know these last two things depend on the having
> more funding coming in than going out, which is what we should be
> striving for in my honest opinion.

This is the type of grant I thought you were talking about. I'd be
interested in searching and applying for external grants to give Gentoo
funding. Then we could use some of that funding to give out Brad's
flavor of grant.

The only source that comes to mind offhand is LinuxFund. Here's a couple
of related links, since the site seems to be down:

http://wiki.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/LinuxFund
http://lwn.net/2001/0614/a/linuxfund.php3

Most of the funded projects are individual programs rather than
distributions, but I don't see any obvious reason why we couldn't apply.
Alternately, we could go for the LUG-style route mentioned above and
stick an ad on our site for LinuxFund credit cards, from which we would
benefit. I'm sure this could be discussed with them.

Does anyone know of other sources that might help with funding?

Thanks,
Donnie
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[gentoo-nfp] Grants and funding (was: Re: <blank>)

[Corey Shields]

Donnie Berkholz wrote:

>Does anyone know of other sources that might help with funding?
>  
>
We've had some ideas[1], and there is a contact who is great with 
writing grants (the type of grant that Donnie talked about) who is 
willing to help the Foundation, he's just waiting for us to get to the 
point of being able to accept such grants.  In other words, completing 
the 501(c) status.

There are governmental grants that could be applied for, as well as 
vendor grants (IBM is pretty famous for giving grants as tax writeoffs 
with the stipulation that the grant money be spent in a certain quarter, 
thus helping their income in the same token).

As for the kind of grants that Brad mentioned, we've tossed such an idea 
around (similarly) as well but call them "bounties".  The framework for 
such a beast would need to be carefully laid so that everything remains 
legal and we don't end up in trouble with the IRS.  With that 
accomplished, I think bounties are a great idea if the money is there.

To be honest, the current Board is quite new to having money, as we've 
only had funds on hand in the past couple of months[2] and we've been 
around for almost a year.  Nobody is jumping at the bit to spend it all, 
but on the other hand I've heard comments that people give the money 
with the intention for it to be spent and help Gentoo.  It'll be a fine 
balance between money that should be saved for possible legal expenses 
and other suprises like hardware failures, and money that should go out 
(and how much goes to whom).  We have had only one request for funding 
come in (for a hardware upgrade), and the need is going to be fulfilled 
by hardware already within Gentoo's reach.  I know that money will be 
requested around the time of LWE as well to help with PR type stuff.

Anyway, I probably got off track there.  In my mind, funding for Gentoo 
is half of the job of the Foundation, and why I was so excited to see 
the paypal link get off the ground.  Once the IRS NFP filing is complete 
it will open up the doors for things such as grants.

Cheers!

-C

[1] - http://www.gentoo.org/foundation/en/funds.xml
[2] - http://www.gentoo.org/foundation/en/2005q1.xml


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Re: [gentoo-nfp] Grants and funding, [gentoo-nfp]

[Corey Shields]

Corey Shields wrote:

> To be honest, the current Board is quite new to having money, as we've 
> only had funds on hand in the past couple of months[2] and we've been 
> around for almost a year.  Nobody is jumping at the bit to spend it 
> all, but on the other hand I've heard comments that people give the 
> money with the intention for it to be spent and help Gentoo.  It'll be 
> a fine balance between money that should be saved for possible legal 
> expenses and other suprises like hardware failures, and money that 
> should go out (and how much goes to whom).  We have had only one 
> request for funding come in (for a hardware upgrade), and the need is 
> going to be fulfilled by hardware already within Gentoo's reach.  I 
> know that money will be requested around the time of LWE as well to 
> help with PR type stuff.


I should clarify, there have been other bills (legal stuff), so the 
statement of "only one request for funding" was from outside of the 
Foundation.

For an example of what I mean by "legal stuff", we recently approved 
$100 to be spent on the Gentoo trademark renewal (which would also put 
the trademark under the Foundation's name rather than Gentoo 
Technologies).  The Legal counsel we have is pro bono, however, we have 
to pay any application fees once something leaves their hands.

Cheers,

-C
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Re: [gentoo-nfp] Grants and funding, [gentoo-nfp]

[Donnie Berkholz]

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Corey Shields wrote:
> We've had some ideas[1], and there is a contact who is great with
> writing grants (the type of grant that Donnie talked about) who is
> willing to help the Foundation, he's just waiting for us to get to the
> point of being able to accept such grants.  In other words, completing
> the 501(c) status.
> 
> There are governmental grants that could be applied for, as well as
> vendor grants (IBM is pretty famous for giving grants as tax writeoffs
> with the stipulation that the grant money be spent in a certain quarter,
> thus helping their income in the same token).

Great, this is some of the info I was looking for. The ideas on that
page about grants are pretty generic, not really mentioning any specifics.

Thanks,
Donnie
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[gentoo-nfp] nomination

[Kurt Lieber]

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I would like to be considered for the upcoming election as well.  I've been
less active in Gentoo recently due to some real life issues and, in fact, I
delayed sending this in because I wanted to ensure I would have the time
and ability to focus on this if elected to do so.  My life is settling back
down and I look forward to becoming more involved (again) with Gentoo in
the future.

As a trustee, I hope to continue to help Gentoo stay true to its roots,
while recognizing that it needs to change in order to meet the needs of our
users.  I think I also have quite a bit of business experience that can be
useful when forming strategic partnerships (as with Genesi) and similar
tasks.

--kurt

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[gentoo-nfp] nomination

[Michael Imhof]

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Hi all,

as many ppl before me I'd like to nominate myself for the board of trustees.

My preferred areas are:
- improve relations to users (especially in Europe) and to
  other groups or distributions
- preparation of presence at fairs and other events,
  creating information material, managing presentations
  about Gentoo
- spread the word about Gentoo  ;-)
- and last but not least an official Gentoo-store, in
  cooperation with the German `Friends of Gentoo e.V.' (for
  the European community)

About mayself i have to tell the following:
- Gentoo Developer for a while now
- projects:
  - Cluster herd (Manager)
  - Events (LinuxTag, Fosdem, LWE Frankfurt,
	IRL dev-meetings, User-meetings)
- founder and still a board member of the German NFP
  `Friends of Gentoo e.V.'
- 27 years old
- girlfriend (think about the time you saved!)
- university student in Computer Science



Regards
Michael

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Re: [gentoo-nfp] nomination

[Aron Griffis]

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You're added to http://dev.gentoo.org/~slarti/misc/nominees.html

Regards,
Aron

--
Aron Griffis
Gentoo Linux Developer


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[gentoo-nfp] Nomination

[Kumba]

Alright, after much poking and prodding by various lobbying firms and special 
interests groups and some thought given to it during a quick game of 
Electroplankton, I've decided to cast my hat into the ring and run for a 
foundation trustee position.

Quick rundown of the things I do in Gentoo include:

   - Help manage the Gentoo/MIPS port as the MIPS Team Lead
   - Provide a visible Gentoo presence (along with others) in
     the linux-mips IRC channel (which has mostly debian people)
   - Chip in on random Gentoo/SPARC related discussions
   - Chip in on base-system, toolchain, and gcc-porting
     oddities at random.
   - Idle constantly in several Gentoo IRC channels
   - Developed 'crossdev', the forerunner to the portage
     cross-toolchain toolkit.
   - Trained four new MIPS devs, and currently in the process
     of mentoring a 5th one.

My preferred goals for running for a foundation position are mainly for giving 
the alt-arch groups (primarily sparc and mips, but others too) a voice in 
things, as we often find ourselves overlooked or compared to inefficient 
x86-based systems.

Some quick things about me:

   - Been a developer for 2 years
   - Residing in an insignificant region outside the DC
     Metro area, which I might add, is ranked #3 in worst
     traffic in the nation, and I drive in it.
   - Owner of many SGI systems (Octane, 2 O2's, Indy,
     Indigo2 R10K, Indigo2 R8K).


So vote for me today, and I guarantee I'll make your teeth up to 25% whiter!



--Kumba

-- 
"Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands 
do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."  --Elrond
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Re: [gentoo-nfp] Nomination

[Aron Griffis]

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Added to the list.

Regards,
Aron

--
Aron Griffis
Gentoo Linux Developer


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[gentoo-nfp] nomination

[George]

Although he has already said no I hope to convince him to say yes by 
nominating him again:

Daniel Robbins

Also, I missed out on nominating dsd (Daniel Drake) last time and would 
like to nominate him now.

George
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Re: [gentoo-nfp] nomination

[Daniel Drake]

George wrote:
> Also, I missed out on nominating dsd (Daniel Drake) last time and would 
> like to nominate him now.

Thanks for the nomination but I decline: Not really interested in doing 
more of this kind of work, and I have too much on my plate already.

Daniel

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[gentoo-nfp] nomination

[Daniel Robbins]

On 2/1/08, George <cokehabit@gmail.com> wrote:
> Although he has already said no I hope to convince him to say yes by
> nominating him again:
>
> Daniel Robbins

Hey George,

One of the reasons I wanted to come back in the manner I initially
suggested is because I have limited time. To work as a trustee,
particularly to do what I would hope to do, would require a very large
investment of time to work within the structure that currently exists.

I don't have the amount of free time required to do that, so I would
either need to choose to have a stressful and overly busy life and
succeed with improving Gentoo or to be disciplined about not investing
too much time in the project but then not getting much done as a
trustee, in which case you would probably be disappointed in me as a
trustee. Coming back to Gentoo as a trustee as it currently operates,
for me at least, would basically be a 40-hour-a-week full-time job.

One of the benefits of moving away from a purely democratic model is
that having people who can simply make decisions is *way* more
efficient in terms of time. Yes, people can always disagree and leave
the project if you don't get them on board with your ideas, but that's
life. I don't see Linus taking polls and reading tea leaves because he
worries that he might alienate some Linux developers by a decision
that he makes. Competent people won't make decisions in a vacuum and
will consult with the appropriate subject matter experts first. Often,
the "experts" are the users and other members of the community.

If the structure stays pretty much the way it is, I think there might
be some need to have a full-time and competitively paid President or
Chief Architect position so some skilled and experienced person could
actually devote their efforts full-time to improving Gentoo. I am
aware that this is out of the realm of possibility right now, so that
leaves the option of streamlining the efficiency and effectiveness of
the organization to better match up with peoples' real-world time
commitments as volunteers.

That may involve scaling back ambitious plans in terms of joining
various other NFP entities and simply running the Foundation as it
currently exists, filing paperwork on time (which is not hard), etc.
The time wasted on investigating SPI and other entities far exceeds
the time that is required to actually run the Foundation as it exists.
I realize that this leaves some aspects of the Foundation's goals
unrealized. I think as long as this is communicated to the community
clearly, then this is OK for the time being. First things first. Get a
track record of getting the critical things taken care of - things
like getting a registered agent for the existing organization so that
the Foundation has a valid mailing address when its charter is
renewed, ensuring that the NM records are up-to-date and reflect
reality, etc. There is more than enough money to get an experienced NM
lawyer to help that can take care of this quite easily.

For the project, steps need to be taken to reduce bureaucracy without
harming the quality o the Portage tree, to improve efficiency and
streamline decision-making mechanisms and reduced centralized decision
making when possible.

Anyway, I'm getting off-topic. So I hope that gives you some more
insight into why I chose to decline the nomination. My initial offer
is what I determined I could personally handle while balancing other
commitments. (Note that I'm not secretly hinting that my initial offer
is still available, it isn't.)

Today, actually, I was planning to unsubscribe from -nfp due to other
commitments, which will probably happen in a few minutes.

-Daniel
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