Squeak Board Member Responsibilities (was: [Newbies] Squeak Foundation Election 2008 coming up!)

 
Hi Richard,

I'd be happy to summarize the responsibilities of the Squeak Foundation
board members.  The board members are elected by the community to help the
community address issues.  The issues depend on what the community wants
done but more specifically what the elected board members are capable of
accomplishing, given their abilities some but mostly because of limited time
to devote to projects.

There are no requirements for any activity or participation, nor are there
currently any ways to remove board members, or even to replace board members
that resign.  We elect new members yearly.

We are in the process of making a legal entity for the board.  When that
happens, the board will be bound by more formal rules relating to
not-for-profit entities.  But the ultimate responsibilities for that will be
the Software Freedom Foundation Conservancy who will have the ultimate say,
which protects board members.  At that time I believe we do have a way to
replace board members that resign.

We are also in the process of re-licensing Squeak, with the help of
Viewpoints Research Institute www.vpri.org .  The board and the community
are participating in that to help accomplish this task.  If you received an
agreement from VPRI and haven't sent it in please take a moment and do it!!

We are also in the process of figuring out if a Technical Board should be
formed that would have more responsibilities to lead the development of
Squeak and be the final arbitrator of where we go technically, but this was
only suggested by some current board members but hasn't happened yet.  

The current board meets on a monthly basis by IRC (so no travel required).
They communicate also by a private email list.  There was talk about
allowing prior board members continued access to that list with no voting
rights for advice (a board member emeritus status), but I'm not sure if that
suggestion was ever followed up on.  The previous board would post the notes
of the meetings.  This one did not or did not do it very often.

There are some other responsibilities to keep the community running,
servers, administrators, fund raising, groups responsible for code like
network, VM, kernel ... and a number of volunteers that help keep things
going.  Those groups are semi-autonomous, because they are volunteers and
because many of those groups existed before there was a board.  I would
think that they would consult with and heed the advice of the board if
something warranted it.  Mostly they keep going because they kept going in
the past and because of some very talented, hard working and dedicated
individuals.

Now some disclaimers; I am not a lawyer, nor am I a board member, so take
all this with a gain of salt.  If I misstated anything I'm sure others will
correct me, and if I left anything out please feel free to add to this
summary of responsibilities.  I just did this off the top of my head.

Don't for get to register with squeak people
http://people.squeakfoundation.org get certified and VOTE!!  If you are
planning to run for the board please announce your candidacy to squeak-dev
by Feb 22, 2008.  If you need to have your password changed on squeak people
email: [hidden email] .  

Happy Squeaking!  

Ron Teitelbaum
Squeak Elections Team Member