[OSGeo-Discuss] Elections 2017: roles and positions

[María Arias de Reyna]

On Tue, Oct 17, 2017 at 8:03 AM, Gert-Jan van der Weijden - Stichting
OSGeo.nl <gert-jan at osgeo.nl> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> One of the questions asked to our nominees to write down in their Manifesto
> is "which role you wish to fulfil in the Board".
>
> Apparently  a though question, since not answered by some candidates.
>
> Only Vicky hinted towards wanting to be an officer (Chair of the Board,
> President, Secretary, Treasurer [1]); she stated in her response "I don't
> want to handle money, which I interpret as not wanting to be treasurer).
>
>
>
> However, when reading more about the Officers in our Bylaws [1] two things
> struck me:
>
> 1.  "Chair of the Board" and "President" are two different positions.
>
> That makes sense: they require different skills. The Chair  must be able to
> keep the Board on track, whereas the President has more of an outreach role,
> making sure the community members are feeling comfortable, making sure "the
> guy in the back" is also reached.
>
> 2. An Officer does not have to be member Director (=Board Member) > OK, I
> should have know this, with Jachym being secretary while not being member of
> the Board of Directors.
>
>
>
> Although these elections are about membership, I'd like to ask the
> candidates if they have a preference for a certain officer position?

I think I already answered the question by saying what I want to
achieve. The "title" that comes with it is not a big deal to me. At
least on the rest of the organizations I am/have been part of, in the
end the board acts more like a do-acry than anything else. In some
organizations I have been more active than in others where I had a
higher position. Sometimes you have more free time you can invest in
pushing further the organization, sometimes you just have to let
others do the hard work, no matter what your position is.

Should I take care of the money? I doubt it as I am not specially good
at paperwork. But somebody has to do it so if there is no better
candidate, sure, I can do it.
Should I take care of paperwork? Again, somebody has to do it so even
if I am not good at that, I can do it.

And the same with other positions. I think this is more a decision to
be made when we see who is there. Why would I say I want a specific
position so when we are there I find somebody else who could do the
work better than me (and want to). My interest is not in having a good
bureaucracy, is having things done. If it is me or somebody else, who
cares? If in the end I do the "work" related to another position, does
it matter, as long as it is being done?