Dear Members, I have been honored to serve nearly two years as a Director of TDF and will be seeking another two year term.
I've been a volunteer for the project since late 2011, early 2012. I began my journey into the project as a relatively early member of the Quality Assurance team. There I found a home and colleagues who embraced me, showed me the ropes, and encouraged me to take on more responsibility within the project as time passed. Due to this encouragement and camaraderie, I see it as my responsibility to pass on the skills that I've learned, to encourage others to take on more responsibility, and to encourage an overall community feeling. In the early days of Quality Assurance I remember a number of very talented individuals largely working individually - today we have a thriving community, a busy chat, and a friendly environment for new comers with any background. Today, as a member of the BoD, much of my time goes to oversight of multiple projects (QA, Marketing, Documentation, Certification) but I still try to find time to work within QA and make sure that I'm giving my time where it is needed most. As a member of the Board I was quite involved in the Android tender which led to the release of the Android based editor, encouraged and was involved with hiring a Quality Assurance Contractor, involved in several other tenders, the new grant request available to members to request funds from the Foundation, and a list of other things. My main mission is to create an environment where contributors thrive. It's that simple. I believe in funding tools that are requested, in encouraging and actively participating in our community to ensure that new comers feel welcome, and in thinking about "how can we do better." I am unaffiliated, that is, I do not work for a company doing business on or around LibreOffice. In fact, I think I bring a unique perspective as I have no formal background in software at all, nor do I work in the industry. Instead, my background is in US Law, I will be taking the California BAR exam next July and will be a practicing attorney (crossing fingers) by August of next year. Given my background (both my location and my professional expertise) and my proven dedication over the years to building a strong community, I believe I am in a good position to continue representing the interest of you (our wonderful members). My goals moving forward: + Continue to help QA as much as feasible; + I would like to get more involved with Documentation, to help the process of building long term goals and listen for feedback about what tools would help move us forward; + Education - I'd like to see some movement in education, in particular in the United States, for getting fresh blood in the project. I've said this publicly before but I do believe that there is a big opportunity to build a community within higher ed in the US; + UX - I've been thrilled to see the UX/Design team make huge strides, I'll be reaching out to their team asking them how the BoD can continue what those "doers" have been doing over the past few months; + Blog/Transparency: This has been an ongoing issue with myself and unfortunately, I did not get there this year. I hope to write more blogs and help members approach the BoD with questions/concerns/etc... with regards to transparency and decision making generally. I'm happy to field questions if any of you have some. I can be contacted at this email or on IRC at #libreoffice-qa (jmadero). Warmest Regards, Joel Madero -- Joel Madero, Member of the Board of Directors GPG Key ID: 0x8FFB1B14 - EE32 6D0F 81FF 6FAC 5AD8 10E4 0141 27C6 8FFB 1B14 The Document Foundation, Kurfürstendamm 188, 10707 Berlin, DE Gemeinnützige rechtsfähige Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts Legal details: http://www.documentfoundation.org/imprint -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: board-discuss+unsubscr...@documentfoundation.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted