6:04 p.m.
Hello,
following the statement by KDE e.V. on the recent events at the FSF:
https://ev.kde.org/2021/03/24/on-the-reappointment-of-rms-fsf/
where they point out the transparency of their government structure,
I was curious how the FSF is actually organised.
I thought it was obvious as for non-profits in France ("association loi
1901"), and Germany ("eingetragener Verein") that the board of directors
would be elected by all members of the organisation; in these two countries
this is required by law. Is it related to the fact that the FSF is an
"inc."?
When we created Guix Europe, our aim was to be as open, transparent and
participatory as possible: our financial accounts as well as our decisions
are documented publicly.
For the FSF, I found their bylaws at:
https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/fsf-amended-bylaws-current.pdf
It turns out that the organisation is run by the "voting members", and
this quality is passed on from generation to generation, more like a
family business than a non-profit.
Now my question: Is the list of voting members publicly known? If yes,
I would be grateful for a source.
Andreas
10:50 p.m.
Hi Andreas,
On Sat, 2021-03-27 at 19:04 +0100, Andreas Enge wrote:
For the FSF, I found their bylaws at:
https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/fsf-amended-bylaws-current.pdf
It turns out that the organisation is run by the "voting members", and
this quality is passed on from generation to generation, more like a
family business than a non-profit.
Now my question: Is the list of voting members publicly known? If yes,
I would be grateful for a source.
It isn't. You have to ask the FSF. Last time I asked the list was:
Gerald Sussman, Kat Walsh, Geoffrey Knauth, Henry Poole, Richard
Stallman, Hal Abelson, Mako Hill and Alexandre Oliva.
As far as I know since then Odile Bénassy joined the board.
Mako Hill resigned:
https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/the-free-software-foundation-and-richard-st...
As did Alexandre Oliva:
https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/blogs/lxo/2021-01-10-resignation
And Kat Walsh just resigned last week:
https://nitter.cc/i/status/1374955150054289412
I don't know whether any of them retained their voting membership.
Cheers,
Mark
12:13 p.m.
Hej Mark,
Am Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 12:50:00AM +0200 schrieb Mark Wielaard:
> Now my question: Is the list of voting members publicly known?
If yes,
> I would be grateful for a source.
It isn't. You have to ask the FSF. Last time I asked the list was:
Gerald Sussman, Kat Walsh, Geoffrey Knauth, Henry Poole, Richard
Stallman, Hal Abelson, Mako Hill and Alexandre Oliva.
As far as I know since then Odile Bénassy joined the board.
exactly, are you sure you are not mixing up the board of directors and
the voting members? Both are separate bodies of the FSF (but the persons
fillin the roles can overlap). So you are saying that in practice both
are more or less the same?
Mako Hill resigned:
https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/the-free-software-foundation-and-richard-st...
As did Alexandre Oliva:
https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/blogs/lxo/2021-01-10-resignation
And Kat Walsh just resigned last week:
https://nitter.cc/i/status/1374955150054289412
Thanks for the update!
Andreas
7:13 p.m.
Hi Andreas,
On Mon, 2021-03-29 at 14:13 +0200, Andreas Enge wrote:
Am Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 12:50:00AM +0200 schrieb Mark Wielaard:
> > Now my question: Is the list of voting members publicly known? If yes,
> > I would be grateful for a source.
>
> It isn't. You have to ask the FSF. Last time I asked the list was:
> Gerald Sussman, Kat Walsh, Geoffrey Knauth, Henry Poole, Richard
> Stallman, Hal Abelson, Mako Hill and Alexandre Oliva.
> As far as I know since then Odile Bénassy joined the board.
exactly, are you sure you are not mixing up the board of directors and
the voting members? Both are separate bodies of the FSF (but the persons
fillin the roles can overlap). So you are saying that in practice both
are more or less the same?
That is my understanding, the voting members are a slightly larger set
of people, because they include some, but not all former board members.
Sadly I haven't been able to get the current list of voting members
which the FSF currently doesn't want to make public, but this might
change in the future.
I believe the main issue is that they never told anybody that RMS
himself had only stepped down as board member, but kept being a voting
member, who then simply voted for himself to be on the board again.
The other issue is of course the timing, secrecy and not wanting to
provide any statement on when or why this happened and wasn't shared
before LibrePlanet.
> Mako Hill resigned:
> https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/the-free-software-foundation-and-richard-st...
> As did Alexandre Oliva:
> https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/blogs/lxo/2021-01-10-resignation
> And Kat Walsh just resigned last week:
> https://nitter.cc/i/status/1374955150054289412
Since then the board did add Ian Kelling as both a board and voting
member:
https://www.fsf.org/news/welcoming-ian-kelling-to-staff-seat-on-fsfs-boar...
And I forgot that Odile Bénassy joined the board last year:
https://www.fsf.org/news/geoffrey-knauth-elected-free-software-foundation...
I assume that also makes her a voting member.
As far as I understand Mako Hill and Kat Walsh are both no longer on
the board and also no longer voting members. But Alexandre Oliva is
still a voting member (at least on the GCC mailinglist he demanded more
"proof" so they as voting members could take appropriate action:
https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gcc/2021-March/235166.html
So it looks like, if all my assumptions are correct, the current voting
members are Gerald Sussman, Geoffrey Knauth, Henry Poole, Richard
Stallman, Hal Abelson, Alexandre Oliva, Odile Bénassy and Ian Kelling.
Cheers,
Mark
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