Hi all,
I hope we'll get an answer from the GA to this lists. Armijn points to
very serious issues, that concern me.
Regards,
Christian Imhorst
Am 27.03.2019 22:13 schrieb fsferesignati...@tuta.io:
fsfegate 2.0
"now the negative far outweighs the positive (because there is very
little positive left
in my opinion)"
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [Legal Team] leaving FSFE's legal team
From: Armijn Hemel - Tjaldur Software Governance Solutions
<arm...@tjaldur.nl>
To: le...@lists.fsfe.org <le...@lists.fsfe.org>
CC: g...@lists.fsfe.org
hello all,
I have decided to leave FSFE's legal team after almost 12 years. This
was not an easy decision to make and it has actually been on my mind
for
many many months.
My frustration with FSFE has been growing for the last number of
years.
When the new leadership team came on board it was to be expected that
some things would change but unfortunately it was not the change I had
hoped for. While there are many things that have contributed to my
decision there are a few core issues that are central. I am going to
explain these and hope that FSFE's leadership will (finally) listen
and
take action.
* Decreased engagement of the legal team
Where before the legal team would be consulted for its opinion prior
to
decisions regarding the legal strategy of FSFE or other issues
affecting
the legal team it now seems that the legal team is merely informed of
the decisions made by FSFE's management. This has had profound effects
on the motivation of the legal team. While before there used to be a
flurry of activity this is no longer the case, and there are very few
conversations about real legal issues or discussions about legal
questions, and so on.
* Decreased visibility in the outside world regarding legal issues and
policy, no vision and forgetting about core goals
In the years prior to current management there was quite a bit of work
being done to collaborate with Brussels and international business
communities. This seems to have completely fallen to the side. Instead
FSFE seems to focus much more on short term goals like campaigns,
which
will create a bit of press for a short time before moving on to the
next
campaign. While campaigns are good they are short term and have
limited
value without long term follow up. This part is missing.
There is no long term vision ("what do we want to achieve with FSFE in
the next 5 years?"), there are no ties being forged in the political
arena (apart from fringe parties like the Pirate Party or the Green
Party, which contributes to being ignored by others), and core goals
seem to be forgotten. Instead of working towards strengthening free
software's position in Europe and shaping how free software is
perceived
(both I would consider core goals) the focus has shifted to goals like
gender diversity. While these goals are worthy they seem to have
replaced (instead of augmented) FSFE's original objective and I don't
think this is the right way forward.
* No knowledge being institutionalized
Knowledge about people, events, and political sensitivities, etc. is
not
institutionalized. Several times when talking to the president and
legal
coordinator about topics I became aware that we had already discussed
these matters before. However the information was treated as new to
the
other party. Looking through my notes and e-mail archives later, and
talking to other people on the legal team, I confirmed that these
topics
had indeed been covered already (one example was NIPA from Korea).
Additionally, the executive team and staff seem to be unwilling to
learn about the people and organizations active in the field (who is
who, what are their goals and motivations, where is their place in the
hierarchy and so on), despite being nudged repeatedly to be aware and
engaged by several people including me. Without this information it is
very difficult to operate effectively.
* Bad organizational management
FSFE feels like it is reverting back to being run like a student
union,
whereas in the past people tried to make it more professional. FSFE's
management makes very basic and unnecessary mistakes unworthy of an
organization trying to have global influence. This is hurting FSFE.
Even though this has been addressed a few times (by some, including
myself) nothing seems to be done to rectify these mistakes. A few
cases
that I am aware of:
- everyone taking leave at the same time (post-FOSDEM), meaning the
office grinds to a halt
- stakeholders not being alerted to key people being absent
- e-mails from potential sponsors getting stuck in mailinglist queues
for a long time because everyone is on leave at the same time
- e-mails about legal cases (France) getting stuck in a mailinglist
queue for a long time because there is no monitoring
- virtual machines not up and running because of lack of monitoring
and so on. I do not want to discuss these cases individually, but what
is clear is that there is a pattern: the organizational infrastructure
is fragile, there are no fall backs in place and where they are in
place
they are not working.
* No improvements/personal attacks
None of the issues mentioned above are new (and if they are, then QED)
and have been mentioned before. What I have noticed when issues are
mentioned is that either one of these three things happens:
- they fall on deaf ears
- they are acknowledged and then ignored
- FSFE gets very defensive, or launches personal attacks. The most
glaring case was when the vice-president recently came barging in and
arrogantly threw insults left and right without understanding any of
the
background of the situation, and launched a vicious personal attack on
two of the previous legal coordinators.
All these things combined have tipped the scales and now the negative
far outweighs the positive (because there is very little positive left
in my opinion). I no longer feel that FSFE is the right place for me,
or that it is advancing free software in Europe (especially the legal
field) and it is better to focus my energy somewhere else where I can
have a more positive impact.
Have I been perfect myself? Of course I haven't and I am very aware of
where and when I screwed up. But the difference is that I try to learn
from it and prevent the mistakes from happening again.
As the next step I will unsubscribe from the mailing list (I will stay
on the legal network).
Good luck FSFE, as you will need it.
armijn
--
Armijn Hemel, MSc
Tjaldur Software Governance Solutions
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