Thu, 22 Nov 2007

Do you have what it takes to be a volunteer at a conference?

Speaking of tireless volunteers:

The amazing thing about Open Source is that there are so many ways to be involved. Unlike any other area of human endeavour, you are not limited by race, gender, or the requirements of joining a profession. The only barrier to entry is that you participate.

Like most things, Open Source is about people. And a great way to meet other people is by getting involved at conferences. Technical conferences always need people to help out, and so it’s a great way to be able to spend time with the local community and with the speakers who have come from near and far. And just think of all the free T-Shirts you’ll collect. Geek nirvana, really.

Two really amazing conferences are coming up. If you’re anywhere in Asia, you should be making plans to get down to Bangalore for India’s greatest Linux & Free Software event, foss.in. And whether you’re in Australia, New Zealand, or France you should be booking your flights to get to Melbourne for the eighth linux.conf.au. Both conferences are the wonderful experiences they are in no small part because of the energy and enthusiasm of the volunteers who help with everything from A/V to picking up speakers at the airport to helping get people registered to making sure a conference network is up and running [hackers get grumpy when they can’t get their email :)]. If you’ve got a little time, if you’re looking for a way to get involved, then consider signing up as a volunteer to help out.

The Call for Volunteers for foss.in/2007 is out, and time is running out to sign up, so act fast!

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I promised Atul that I wouldn’t subvert his volunteers this year. Last time around, the person who was supposed to to be monitoring the time and telling me to wind up was so enthralled by what I was saying (and now he’s a major contributor to the project that I was talking about; go figure) that they completely forgot to tell me to sit down. See? Me going overtime isn’t always my fault. Honest!

AfC

volunteering-at-events, posted by Andrew Cowie in /andrew/conferences/india at 08:47, 22 Nov 2007.

Many ways to contribute

The GNOME Foundation is presently going through it’s annual election cycle. I want to note my appreciation of the time and energy of all those who are running.

I’ve got something over 21 years cumulative experience as a Director, most of it in the not-for-profit organization space. Large NGOs are generally very professionally run, but one of the things I’ve observed quite often about the tiny associations that typically arise around local events and civic initiatives: there is a tendency for the Membership to expect the Board to do all the work.

This is likewise true of groups in the Open Source space. Such organizations usually don’t have full staff and the Board, which should be concerning itself with a governance role, ends up being called upon to act additionally as both Executive and Secretariat. Everyone else in the community contentedly sits back, expecting herculean efforts from the poor suckers who got elected. Every half baked idea has to be followed up and every last initiative to be successfully carried out. The inevitable result is burn-out of the very people who are your most passionate advocates.

Wide open spaces

Predictably, people have been attempting to force the various candidates into making solemn promises about all the many things they are going to do for GNOME in the coming year. Which is all a bit ridiculous: Hello! These people are unpaid volunteers!

Nevertheless, being candidates, most are replying with various exciting statements as to what they are going to achieve if elected Directors. Replying to one such platform, David Neary writes:

What has prevented you from doing/encouraging these things as an ordinary member? The marketing team is open to all, several members propose/organise local events… What makes you think you will be more able to do these things as a board member?

It’s a fine question; and as is the case with most of the organizations that exist only to provide a legal structure around a Free Software community (eg GNOME, The Perl Foundation, Linux Australia, etc), ultimately the organization and its Board matters little because it is those who write the code, package the software, do the promotional work, complete translations, who set the direction. And that’s not to mention the courage of the individual who convinces his or her peers and superiors that a particular piece of software should be used in their organization.

Promoting enthusiasm

I should make it clear that I do value the work of the Directors of these various umbrella organizations. I’ve been in their shoes. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it enjoyable work, but it can be rewarding. None the less, it takes a huge amount of effort to prepare financial statements and to maintain relationships with sponsors. Even just context switching in order to attend a conference call is a burden. It’s thankless toil that even in titularly transparent organizations largely goes on behind the scenes.

In early 2003, Linux Australia expressed that it’s purpose was to “facilitate the enthusiasm” of people in the Open Source community. Really, that’s what all such supporting organizations are about. The hard work of all the volunteers, be they at Board level, those carrying out marketing campaigns, the miracle workers making awesome posters and promotional material, the fun people manning booths at trade shows, and the tireless volunteers helping out at our premier conferences and events, are what make being a part of the Linux movement the amazing experience that it is.

AfC

many-ways, posted by Andrew Cowie in /andrew/boards/gnome-foundation at 04:48, 22 Nov 2007.

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