The GNOME Foundation is looking for help [LWN.net]

The GNOME Foundation has posted a call for help to keep operating at its current level in a hostile economy. "As the economy persists on this roller coaster of ups and downs, the Foundation is rolling with the punches and looking for ways to best serve our members. While we can look at this downturn as a time to tighten our belts, I would much rather look at this as an opportunity for the community to take a stake in the future of the Foundation and show that we are not exclusively reliant on corporate coffers to grow GNOME."

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The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted Apr 30, 2009 21:23 UTC (Thu) by ajross (guest, #4563) [Link] (13 responses)

FTA: without a significant influx of steady contributions we will be unable to keep an Executive Director on the payroll without cutting into the activities budget.

Not to sound too much like a troll, but an "Executive Director" is a non-technical (and thus, from the context of GNOME development, non-essential) position. Surely one of the most important roles, if not the only role, of such a person would be, well, fundraising, no? If Ms. Peters's position isn't even able to support itself, what use is it providing to GNOME?

Maybe someone here can clear up what exactly it is that the Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation does, and why it's worth supporting via charity? Honestly, I'd feel a lot better if this was a plea for development dollars.

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted Apr 30, 2009 22:21 UTC (Thu) by khc (guest, #45209) [Link]

I think the key phrase here is "without cutting into the activities budget". The way I read it is there isn't enough fund for Executive Director + full activities budget, so one of them has to be cut unless there's more money available.

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted Apr 30, 2009 23:02 UTC (Thu) by samuel679 (guest, #58355) [Link] (10 responses)

How much is the executive director paid? And are the foundation's accounts open for scrutiny? If public contributions are sought, surely this information should be open to the same public?

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted Apr 30, 2009 23:56 UTC (Thu) by pzb (guest, #656) [Link]

Of course it is public, then entire budget is linked to from the post. Also, the GNOME Foundation is a US non-profit, so its tax information is also available publicly and linked to from their home page.

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted May 1, 2009 0:54 UTC (Fri) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link] (8 responses)

Looks like their total expenses for 2007 were about $100,000. And about $23,500 of that went to "salaries". So it doesn't look like the Executive Director gets an exorbitant amount, even if he is the only paid employee.

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted May 1, 2009 2:59 UTC (Fri) by SEJeff (guest, #51588) [Link]

""" So it doesn't look like the Executive Director gets an exorbitant amount, even if he is the only paid employee. """

Last I was aware, Stormy Peters was a "she". :)

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted May 1, 2009 9:23 UTC (Fri) by sebas (guest, #51660) [Link] (6 responses)

Stormy got hired around GUADEC, I think so it's not her full salary --
hopefully not :)

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted May 1, 2009 9:33 UTC (Fri) by sebas (guest, #51660) [Link] (5 responses)

Spoke too soon, The 23.500 $ is from 2007, Stormy started her job in 2008.

The 2009 budget specifies for the salary of the executive director: Base
$96000 per year + expected %25 bonus to be paid out of funds above our
expected income. That's on top of 30K salary for administrative assistance
(if I understand the budget correctly) and a projected 30K salary for a
sysadmin.

Not a bad salary

Posted May 1, 2009 9:53 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link] (3 responses)

Hmmm... putting two and two together, $125k is a lot of money to pay someone for sending emails and meeting people. Especially if said person cannot raise the money to sustain her own position. In this tough economic climate I see some obvious cost-cutting measures ahead for GNOME...

Not a bad salary

Posted May 1, 2009 10:37 UTC (Fri) by dunlapg (guest, #57764) [Link] (2 responses)

I'm not familiar enough with the value of the post to say for sure that it *is* worth $125K. However, don't underestimate the value of "sending e-mails and meeting people". If the right person is sending the right e-mails and meeting the right people, then the impact can definitely be worth $125k.

Imagine a suit balking at hiring a senior kernel developer at $100k, when he'd seen code monkeys hired in at $35k? "Wow, $100k is a lot of money to pay someone for sitting at their computer and typing all day." Well, not if it's the right person doing the right typing it's not.

Don't discount it just because you don't understand it.

Even without bonus

Posted May 1, 2009 10:59 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link] (1 responses)

Without the bonus it is "only" $96k (see comments to the main article). The thing is, we know the position is not worth $96k because the person in it was not able to raise $96k to support herself (and do other stuff at the same time). Maybe it was worth it last year, but apparently not this year. So an obvious cost-cutting measure would be to at least cut the salary until conditions are better (and the position is worth it). Many executive types are doing just that. It does not seem out of place for a non-profit organization.

Anyway it's not my money and I'm not helping GNOME since I use XFCE. But if there was such thing as an "XFCE Foundation" (not a set of core classes but an organization) I would think the same.

Even without bonus

Posted May 1, 2009 14:04 UTC (Fri) by Frej (guest, #4165) [Link]

So XFCE has removed the dependency on gtk ;)

PS: You are perfectly free to donate nothing.

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted May 3, 2009 12:42 UTC (Sun) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link]

remember that that $98K probably includes taxes, insurance, etc take-home pay is probably close to half that.

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted May 1, 2009 8:40 UTC (Fri) by jjmarin (subscriber, #53201) [Link]

For those who doesn't know what the Executive Director of GNOME does, this link could be helpful:

http://www.stormyscorner.com/2009/01/what-do-i-do.html

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted Apr 30, 2009 23:40 UTC (Thu) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link]

"""
As the economy persists on this roller coaster of ups and downs...
"""

What a strange thing to say. I guess I somehow missed the ups. Although I *have* observed the haphazard variation in the magnitudes of the downs.

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted May 1, 2009 9:17 UTC (Fri) by janpla (guest, #11093) [Link] (2 responses)

Perhaps this is a time, then, for GNOME to be employ a little bit of introspection and consider being more open to the wishes of all its potiential users. I was a big fan once, but I got tired of the feeling that unless you wanted to have your desktop looking (and working) like a toy, you were simply not welcome.

Perhaps at this time it would be good to practise a bit more humility and a little less haughtyness?

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted May 1, 2009 14:18 UTC (Fri) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link] (1 responses)

...consider being more open to the wishes of all its potiential users

A big +1 on that sentiment. I have contributed money to open-source projects in the past, but never to GNOME because all of my inquiries, requests and suggestions have been met with hostility by GNOME developers.

Sorry. GNOME has lost my "heart and mind" years ago.

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted May 1, 2009 19:16 UTC (Fri) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link]

Sounds like Gnome is not for you, which is fine. I don't particularly *want* to see a bunch of users pushing to turn Gnome into KDE or XFce, or LXDE, or whatever. Let them use KDE or XFce, or LXDE, or whatever. As long as you are using Linux or another unix-like, preferably open-source, OS I'm happy, regardless of your taste in desktops. And it's not like Gnome lacks for users compared to the others.

FWIW, as a long-time Gnome user (pre-1.0) I've never been treated with hostility by anyone representing the Gnome community.

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted May 1, 2009 16:13 UTC (Fri) by jordanb (guest, #45668) [Link] (2 responses)

From what I've read here on LWN, Stormy has struck me as the type of individual who is "Leveraging Open Source Synergies for a Robustly Bolstered Resume of Personal Work Activity History" rather than being someone who's really committed to the ideals of Free Software.

I was a little sad when the GNOME Foundation chose her (to the extent that I care about GNOME) and I'm not sure it'd bother me at all if she was let go.

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted May 1, 2009 21:23 UTC (Fri) by amk (subscriber, #19) [Link] (1 responses)

But does she do useful work for the Foundation? If her position is terminated, perhaps no one at all will do those tasks. Is it better for the GNOME community if tasks go undone?

Things like reminding sponsors, preparing brochures, and doing fundraising are not very interesting to the average developer. (I'm a director of the Python Software Foundation, which is similarly creeping up to the point of requiring a full-time employee.)

The GNOME Foundation is looking for help

Posted May 3, 2009 12:00 UTC (Sun) by jospoortvliet (guest, #33164) [Link]

I can't speak for Gnome, but reading what Stormy does I can make a
comparison to how KDE handles this.

We do have an employee - but she is mostly working on administrative
things, supporting the Board of KDE e.V. (volunteers from the community)
to be able to focus on the things Stormy seems to be doing for Gnome. I'd
say that is much more community-fitting.

BTW Just administrative things is actually not true as Claudia has
exceeded assignment and expectations in many ways, but technically it's
what she was hired to do and what she is being paid for.