An open Q&A with the KDE e.V. board

The yearly KDE gathering Akademy is more than just a two-day conference. The core talk days are followed by several days of workshops and are preceded by the annual general assembly meeting of KDE e.V., the non-profit organization that represents the KDE community. The organization is led by an elected, five-member board of directors, and that board held an "Ask us anything" session on the first day of Akademy 2014. Attendees asked questions about the KDE e.V. board, its inner workings, and its priorities.

Three board positions were up for election this year, which were filled in a vote at the general assembly the day before the session. Marta Rybczyńska was elected as treasurer, Aleix Pol was elected as a new member, and Lydia Pintscher was re-elected to her seat, and was then chosen by the board to be the president. Joining these three for the question-and-answer session was board member Albert Astals Cid; the fifth board member, Pradeepto Bhattacharya, was not present.

A new president and new leadership

The first question was directed at Pintscher, congratulating her on her election as president and asking if, as president, she had any sort of special powers. Pintscher answered that all of the board members have equal power to sign contracts on behalf of KDE, access KDE's financial accounts, sign contributor licensing agreements, and to represent both KDE e.V. and the KDE project. Pintscher said that "those are some powers, and they come with responsibilities," but that she wouldn't call them extraordinary.

The next question was whether or not the new board has had a chance to talk about the first things they want to do. Pintscher responded that they have not yet had a chance to do so, but added that there are several challenges ahead, such as improvements to fundraising, better accounting processes, and things like that. Rybczyńska continued, explaining that accounting is currently done in a "manual way," and consequently it takes a lot of effort to do correctly. She said the board will be moving to an online accounting system, and hopes it will save a lot of time and reduce complications. The new system will let the board have "more or less" real-time access to KDE e.V.'s current financial situation, which will make things easier to handle. Astals added that one of the first things the new board did was to try to find another date on which to meet in person, and that they had settled on some time in December. He elaborated that the board will still have daily conference calls and will still work in the meantime; it will just have a longer board meeting then.

The next question was about the paid position of KDE e.V. executive director; the executive director is independent of the board, and the role is currently unfilled. An audience member asked when the recruitment process for filling that job would begin. Cornelius Schumacher, the outgoing board president, responded from the audience that he assumes it will require another month or two to take care of the rest of the process. The scope and the requirements for the position have already been decided upon, and there is a group of people working on the process. Unfortunately, he said, not everyone involved could be present at Akademy, so the work will have to be done online.

The audience was suddenly without ideas for a moment but, after taking a short and lighthearted break, someone asked for more details on the inner workings of the board—specifically, who handles requests for travel support. Pintscher answered that the board does it together, as the requests are delivered to the board mailing list. At least three people have to agree on accepting a request, she said, with no one objecting. Once that happens, one of them sends the "okay" to requester. Rybczyńska added that in the second part of the process, after the board receives the bill for the travel, one of the board members checks to ensure that the bill is within the budget.

Workload handling

The next question was a hypothetical: if someone wants to prepare a batch of KDE-branded t-shirts and sell them at events, can the e.V. pre-pay for them, and is that something that the board decides? Pintscher answered that the person can ask, but that this sort of activity is something the board tries to avoid doing. The question then arose, in response, whether or not the board was even the correct place to ask. Pintscher admitted that it is probably not the right place for such a question, but that there is, currently, no alternative. It would be nice, she said, if the board could get help from outside, perhaps even employees, to handle those questions.

On a related note, the next question was how the e.V. board decides if it should send KDE people to a particular event. Astals explained that this is not currently a problem, as there are not "so many requests," and the requests that it gets are "very obvious," like sending someone to Qt Developer Days.

An audience member then commented that the board has had a lot of work since Claudia Rauch—who had worked as the business manager of KDE e.V.—left her position in March. The audience member asked how other members of the organization could help, and how the board is handling the delegation of tasks. Pintscher answered that they have several ways of dealing with the workload. One is asking a large group, such as as the e.V. membership or the KDE community mailing list, if there is someone who can help. If that doesn't work, the board tries to think of people who have done similar tasks before and approaches them directly, which, she added, is a more successful approach most of the time. In the next stage, if the task is crucial, someone on the board will have to do it, or else it will get deferred or just not get done.

Pintscher agreed that the board needs more help. Astals confirmed that it is good to recruit people who have done similar work before—but added that for some stuff, they cannot get outside help, such as financial matters. Pintscher also added that delegating itself takes time, and that factor is something to keep in mind as well.

Community questions

The next question was for Pintscher in particular: she has been working for the Wikimedia Foundation for a long time now, so has she learned anything there that can be used to improve KDE e.V.? Pintscher replied that there are many such things, some of which she is already bringing in. The biggest difference, in her eyes, is the amount of money and paid personnel that Wikimedia has; more than 350 people are being paid to work on the Wikipedia software and its sister programs. But, she said, the large size also creates some problems, and she had considered whether it isn't better to be "smaller and cozy." But she concluded that there are drawbacks and benefits to both situations.

A follow-up question was whether KDE e.V. would have the same issues if it grew to that size. Pintscher said that she thinks some issues could be avoided, but some are inherent in growth and in the friction between a large paid staff and volunteers.

The question then arose about whether the relatively new community mailing list is a success: specifically, has enough traffic been moved from the board's closed mailing list to the open one, and is that migration still a goal? Pintscher confirmed it is still a goal, and that she felt they have moved several important topics there, but she added that the community list is even more important as a central place to discuss topics that are not development related but affect everyone. Rybczyńska noted that most people active on the community mailing list are also e.V. board members, which would be nice to change.

In a follow-up question, someone asked if KDE working groups should post reports to the community list, which they are not doing currently. Pintscher agreed that it was a good idea and the board will try to encourage it. Quarterly reports for the e.V. were also mentioned, and Pintscher asked for volunteers to help with them, as they are behind schedule. Someone then suggested that "help wanted" requests should be made in the web discussion forums, which have many more users than the mailing list. Pintscher said that the board hasn't tried the forums yet, and that maybe it should.

The blueberry pancake

The discussion then returned to Claudia's departure as business manager; an audience member made a memorable and well-received comparison to a blueberry pancake, where the 200-odd KDE e.V. members are the pancake and the board is a blueberry on top. The question was, is the blueberry enough people to organize everyone else? Or should a "syrup" (another management layer) be created?

Pol replied that the analogy isn't strictly true, because the various working groups serve as a way to address these organizational concerns. But the questioner disagreed, saying that the working groups are just "a little bit of syrup." Pol replied with a counter-question: why aren't there more working groups, then, and why aren't more people joining them? Astals also mentioned the importance of working groups, adding that the board knows that all 200 KDE e.V. members aren't going to contribute simultaneously, but that isn't the problem. The e.V. needs all of those people to be there, he said, and to have 50 different people working every month, so that it can get ideas from everyone over time.

Continuing the debate, the same audience member replied that if "these people are not in the organization to do work to support its aims, they shouldn't be in there." He suggested that the community should come up with a way to enable these people to contribute, adding that other projects' boards are more proactive about getting volunteers to contribute. The e.V. board does not do that, which he considers a cultural problem. Pintscher agreed completely, adding that the current system is not sustainable. She admitted there should be "more syrup and more blueberries".

The discussion then moved on to the lack of a management structure. The e.V. organization is not free software, an audience member noted, so it can have management. Delegation had been called a hard job for the board, they continued, so that means it is necessary to add one more layer of delegation. Pintscher responded that the board really needs to think about this and find ways to solve the current issues. She said she doesn't know if the solution is another layer of management or something else, but she acknowledged that board members need to work on the problem in the coming weeks and months.

The board members were then asked about their own management experience, and it was suggested that if their skills are lacking, they should take management courses. Astals mentioned that during the last board meeting, the board had a fundraising expert on hand for a day, and that it was helpful. He agreed that it might be a good idea to do a management workshop.

At that point, the session was brought to an abrupt halt when the allocated time was exceeded. Although not all audience questions were answered, the talk seemed to have been productive for both the board, which received various suggestions and gained a valuable insight into what KDE e.V. members think is important, and for the audience, which had an opportunity to learn more about inner workings of the board and its priorities over the coming year.