Further define GNOME Foundation Staff's role
Now that we have expanded the foundation to seven employees, a historic number, and have added employees that will be working directly alongside the community on the actual project itself (technology, engagement, etc), the board should help further define the staff's role within the community. This will help reduce friction between community members and staff, especially during this time of transition as we expand. It will hopefully help set up staff members for success.
@kat and I were chatting about this, and in order to help scope this issue and create action, here are some of the things that we think this task might address:
Some questions to think about:
-
Do staff members represent the Foundation? Will they represent the Foundation and its goals, or are they to be treated like any other community member that is helping to support the project? Are there situations when this shifts, and if so, when/how? This helps answer a power dynamic question between staff and community members. Here are some more questions to think about when defining this:
- Do staff members serve as liaisons for the Foundation?
- Can staff members take over from volunteers without the volunteers' agreement?
- If a staff member says they want something to happen, is that the final word?
- Are staff members just there to help volunteers "Get Shit Done" more effectively?
-
Escalation and feedback.
- What happens if community members have issues with staff? Should they report this to Neil, to the board?
- How do we create an appropriate escalation process for staff? The board should make sure that we create a trusting relationship with them so that staff feel comfortable reporting anything necessary.
- How does the board ensure that we get good feedback on how the ED and staff are doing? Should we create polls for the community, and for staff?
-
Onboarding
- Can we add something about what staff do and how to reach them on the gnome.org/foundation page? We should also introduce staff to groups they'll regularly be working with and outline explicit things that the staff members will be expected to do and things that they should not be doing, if relevant.