Seeing that I’m on the board of a FOSS related group (Linux Australia), I naturally take an interest in how similar organisations do things.

So it’s been interesting watching what GNOME Foundation has been doing. I haven’t been watching that closely, but planet GNOME helps :)

jdub blogs about his choices in the upcoming vote on GNOME Foundation board stuff. He does have a good point here, as do others indicating they’ll vote the other way.

Jeff is totally right that it’s not the board that should be the great doers – they should represent and get the admin stuff done (or delegate it to appropriate parties – such as accountants).

I think we’ve gotten better with LA stuff by educating members on this issue. People are learning that you shouldn’t vote for the person who’s had the most cvs commits to $project. You should vote for the person who can make sure the organisation can continue but is also approachable and will bring views to the rest of the board (i.e. represent).

One idea is to maybe have an advisory committee. This can be larger and represent all interested parties. The (smaller) board could then go to them for advice on what the larger group thinks.

I do think that 11 sounds big – but just reducing numbers won’t necessarily fix any problems.

Good luck guys – you are living in interesting times!