Tag: lists

GUADEC 2016 — Day 2

A dinner tradition in our house is to share three great things from our day.  Being at GUADEC is making it hard to remember to do this, so I thought I would list them here.

Jonathan’s talk

Jonathan presenting on asynchronous internet
Jonathan attempting to come up with a name for spotty/asynchronous/fluctuating internet

Not surprisingly, the kids loved Jonathan’s talk the most. It was a fascinating look into asynchronous internet and how much of the world do not live in areas with the infrastructure necessary to have a constant and fast internet connection.

Annual General Meeting

Board of Directors: Jim Hall (missing), Shaun McCance, Allan Day, Alexandre Franke, Cosimo Cecchi, Nuritzi Sanchez, and Meg Ford
The new GNOME Foundation Board of Directors

The Board met for lunch to make sure we were all on the same page with regards to how the AGM would go. The kässespaetzle was just a bonus.

I love the AGM. It’s always great to see the presentations showing off how much has been done in the past year. The official presentation of the new Board of Directors and their offices lets the general membership the ability to match faces to the names they see and humanizes them.

At the end of the question and answer section, the Board proudly presented the annual Thank You Pants to Alex Larsson. (For those following along, purchasing these pants was my super secret mission from Day 1.) Although only the Board knew who the recipient was ahead of time, it was obvious through the prolonged standing ovation that the general membership approved of the choice.

Women’s Dinner

The annual GNOME Women’s Dinner took place tonight and was planned by Marina and Moira Schuler.  Much thanks to both of them! There were twelve women plus one youngster at dinner and we enjoyed wonderful food and conversation. It is always such an encouraging and supportive atmosphere. My daughter basked in it and came out of the evening convinced she can give a lightning talk herself. As her mom, I find this terrifying and yet am so proud of her for wanting to put herself out there. Maybe my referring to her as part of the far future yesterday was a bit premature!

 

Could I possibly ask the Board for help?

The GNOME Foundation exists to further the mission of the GNOME project.  The Board of Directors are elected by the Membership to carry out the necessary tasks.  I have had the opportunity to work with more than a few GNOME Boards, and while each year is different, there are many traits the Board Directors have in common.  The Directors are:

  • passionate about GNOME
  • happy to help
  • volunteers

Amongst the things they are not include:

  • omnipotent
  • infallible
  • mind readers

The Directors really want to help the GNOME Foundation members in their efforts to improve GNOME.  It is, after all, a big part of why they volunteer their time on the Board.  If you have an idea of something you can do to improve GNOME but could use some help, please contact them!  They may sit behind the imposing-sounding board-list@gnome.org email address, but they are very approachable.

GNOME Foundation Board of Directors at GUADEC Gothenberg
Every one of them are eager to help!

Previously approved requests have included money for release parties, marketing materials, or hackfests; letters of recommendation or other paperwork; and help finding the right person to help with your problem.  If you have an issue that the Board can help with, please let them know.  They can’t help you if they don’t know about it!