Trustee Elections 2006 Have Commenced

The elections have started. They will end on the 21st of October at midnight UTC. For the next two weeks I hope all the eligible members of the foundation will cast their votes. For eligiblenon-dev voters, the best way to do that is to email the election officials:

• codergeek42
• fmccor
• gustavoz
• nattfodd

It’s best to make sure they all get your email.

I won’t be making any campaign promises. Actually, I won’t be campaigning at all. Instead, I’d like to highlight the strengths of each of the nominees:

Renat is a budding law student. He has a knack for legalese: he wants to pour over documents and contracts and make sure Gentoo’s interests are well taken care of legally, with respect to copyrights, licenses, intellectual properties (no conspiracy theories, please, copyrights signify intellectual property in my eyes), etc. He has Gentoo’s best interests at heart. Grant, I don’t even need to say much about. If you don’t know about him and what he does, you’ve been living in a rock since about 1998. Grant is probably Gentoo’s patriarch figure in the sense that he has the wisdom, the insight, the cool-headedness that it takes to be the lead of a large project such as this. Grant has never been mentioned as the lead, but spiritually, he definitely is: he advised every council, and he’s always been on the board of trustees. He doesn’t fight, he gets along with everyone, and he’s fair. Paul was one of the architects of the original metatructure project under Gentoo Linux. He was also named to Gentoo’s initial board, and re-voted last time. Now that he has more time, I think he’s in a position to serve Gentoo Foundation well. He has the insight and smarts to see the forest and the trees: he can very fairly evaluate things on technical merit and other merits — he sees the big picture very well. Mike is a hidden hero. Mike has basically saved lives, without credit, for a long long time. Mine, especially. Through Gentoo’s many many metamorphoses over the years, Mike and I have ridden them, but he more gracefully than I. Some of those changes damned near killed me, and he saved my life in those. Mike cares so deeply about Gentoo that I can not even begin to express it. He is pragmatic and practical, and yet so very human about his approach to Gentoo (and the changes within). Chris has already been doing the duties of his trustee-ship for a while now: he actively protects Gentoo’s intellectual properties, by spotting those who infringe upon it, and then stopping them. He’s not a bully and mean, but he’s firm and approaches people well. He also cares very deeply about Gentoo (and despite the fact that he and I have had very recent disagreements, please have no disillusions about my very great respect and admiration for him). Stuart has a dream: he wants to gather Gentoo developers at conferences and conventions. In Gentoo, we’ve always talked about this sort of thing, but nobody has ever taken it on. This is a slightly controversial subject for some people, but I believe Stuart has some very strong points for this idea. I think it would be great to meet a lot of the Gentoo developers (and users!!) in person. I could go broke at such a thing, though, for the sheer number of beers that I’ve promised people over the years :)

well that’s it, ladies and gentlement, those are your trustees. My own strengths are that I am sometimes funny, sometimes serious, and I do care tremendously about this Gentoo, as though it is my own child. I can’t promise what I’ll do this year (except for put Renat, hopefully, in the driver’s seat for the legal stuff and help him organise and put it all away).

Now please, go vote your conscience.