After two years on the board, my term has come to an end.
I’ve been involved in the .NET Foundation in one capacity or another for around 4 and a half years now. Throughout I have been an active member in the Membership committee, who review applications, try to figure out how to make the membership offerings beneficial and drive initiatives to improve the experience for members of the foundation. I’ve also been included in some nomination committees, helping the process for board elections. Two years ago, I was encouraged to put myself forward for the Board of Directors, and much to my surprise, I was elected.
Now that my term has come to an end, I want to reflect a bit on my time on the board.
Some of the challenges
I first want to explore some of what makes volunteering for the .NET Foundation particularly challenging; to the point where it detracts from the enjoyment of being involved in the organisation.
The perception vs the reality
A lot of people think that the .NET Foundation is Microsoft run or that Microsoft are some unseen puppet master behind the .NET Foundation. This is not even close to reality. There is one member of the Board of the Directors who is a Microsoft representative, but they have no extra power than the other board members and don’t particularly push for anything strongly. .
The board, the committees, everything that has an impact on the foundation and how it is run, is done by volunteers. These volunteers aren’t working for or representing Microsoft in any particular way. Yes, a number of people are Microsoft MVPs, and volunteering for the foundation can be put forward as part of your MVP contributions, but this isn’t for any planned influence or bias. It just so happens the Venn diagram of the people who are likely to be Microsoft MVPs and those who are likely to volunteer for the .NET Foundation has a high degree of overlap.
Microsoft are important to the foundation in the respects that they helped the Foundation get started with advice and that they are one of the sponsors of the foundation. I am not going to ignore the history and facts there. However, a lot of people appear to have this assumption that the .NET Foundation is just a form of marketing for Microsoft and that is certainly not the intent.
The vocal minority
As mentioned, the .NET Foundation is driven by volunteers at all levels. The work done for the foundation by the board and by the committees is not done for any compensation or financial gain. People are spending their own time and resources trying to make the .NET Foundation successful.
I make this statement as my perception is this is often forgotten. It is easy to forget when there’s not a lot of exposure of visibility about this.
The downsides to many volunteer run organisations is that change takes time, there’s often a degree of disorganisation and, without concerted effort, the transparency for what the organisation is doing and what it is trying to achieve is often lacking. Let’s be honest, when work is being done without compensation it’s not unlikely that it will not be at the top of peoples priority list. When a persons day job gets difficult, when personal concerns come up, or when other things are preoccupying your time, the work you are doing on a purely voluntary basis may be neglected to a degree. I know I have been guilty of this in the last couple of years. Unless it is a driving passion, sometimes it won’t be the most important thing you’ll be concerned with.
Personally, this feeling increases when you become the outlet for others frustrations. This leads to an inescapable Catch-22. Members of the Foundation will get frustrated at what they see as minimal progress or communication coming from the foundation; or people who aren’t part of the foundation are concerned about what they’ve heard about the foundation. This frustration gets pent up, or when expressed online isn’t expressed in a constructive way. Those who are volunteering for the foundation (particularly Board members) are often the focus of these frustrations. Part of the issue being, though these volunteers are trying hard with their efforts to keep the Foundation running and improving the experience of it, communication about what is being done or how the foundation runs never seems to meet the need. After a while, the complaints make the effort feel like a thankless task. The motivation to do the work being done decreases. The cycle continues.
I’m not saying this is the case for all those who volunteer for the Foundation or that are members of the Board. This was certainly my experience though. As such, when I got asked if I wanted to run for re-election at the end of my term I knew my answer was no. I was tired and it was time for someone with fresh enthusiasm to take my place. It had reached a point where I felt I was constantly at battle and there was no way to satisfy the vocal minority. It wasn’t worth my energy anymore.
If you want to see change, volunteer for the committees
I’m all for people being empowered to take control of their own destinies. What I would say to those who are frustrated with the .NET Foundation or have concerns over a perceived influence from Microsoft is don’t complain; take action. Join the committees, drive the change you want to see. Don’t rely on others to influence the change you are passionate about: drive it yourself!
All of the committees are eager for volunteers, and each committee has a member of the board attending. It’s the easiest way to influence change in the .NET Foundation, or to get information on why certain changes aren’t possible if that is the case.
Ambiguity of purpose
The ambiguity of purpose and goals is something the Foundation has tried to tackle numerous times in the last couple of years, and I think despite many efforts it’s still unclear. Is it only for projects, maintainers and contributors? The majority of the Board historically have said no; but I’m not sure this aligns with some peoples views of the foundation. Is the Foundation for a wider .NET community, supporting projects, maintainers and contributors but also speakers, students, and all those included in the .NET community? Some, including myself would say yes, but how does that differentiate the .NET Foundation from other similar communities?
The .NET Foundation does do great work, and helps host some good events but until there is clear agreement on the purpose of the .NET Foundation I think there is always going to be challenge around showing progress towards aims, being able to support people as they expect to be supported making it clear why people should be engaged and want to be involved in driving it forward.
Timezones
During my time on the Board something I have enjoyed is working with a diverse range of people, but one aspect of this diversity causes challenge - where everyone is located.
This has become more of an issue in the past 12 months as there are members in America, Europe, Australia and the UK. Trying to find a time for the board to meet that suited everyone was near impossible. Trying to tackle the work asynchronously was not always practical. As the Foundation grows, this challenge will increase; but the benefits of having more cultures, communities and locations being represented and included in the board far outweighs the issues with this challenge.
What I hoped to achieve
The main things I wanted to achieve during my time on the board was removing the membership fee, improving transparency and introducing a “Champions” programme.
The first I did achieve with the help of the previous Board member Bill Wagner. We both wanted to have the $100 fee for membership removed as it did not provide a significant financial gain for the .NET Foundation and was a barrier to entry for a number of people. We were both passionate about the .NET Foundation being an accessible community. The fee was removed and the membership of the foundation has grown significantly since then.
For increasing transparency, I vastly underestimated how much effort this would require. The Membership Committee, of which I have been Chair for the last 2 years do publicly publish the meetings and agendas for all their meetings. They are available for anyone interested but maybe they are not shared widely enough. Nicole has done amazing work with the Newsletters and other means of communication. This is all her work and I take no credit for any of that. There have been improvements, but there is arguably a lot of work required to improve this area further.
The final point, the membership committee has made some great initial steps towards. The DNF Champions programme has the aims to recognise and provide support and benefits to individuals who do voluntary work that benefits the .NET Foundation. Similar in respects to the Microsoft MVP Program. This work is being picked up by those joining the Board and I have full faith that it will happen in the next year.
What’s next
I’m going to have a bit of a break to start with. I am going on honeymoon soon and need to step away from the Foundation so that I can return refreshed. When I am ready I’ll go back to being a member of the .NET Foundation Membership Committee. I am very fond of the people who are involved and I like what we are trying to achieve in that committee.
What’s good?
As a member of the Board of Directors I learned a lot. I gained experiences which have them helped me in my day job including contract assessment and negotiation. I understand and have experience of managing budgets to a greater degree than I had before.
Personally though, what I benefited from the most was working with some brilliant individuals. Working with such passionate, smart and experienced people over the last few years has been a true pleasure and I hope to get the opportunity to do so again.
Would I recommend it?
Would I recommend being a silent member of the .NET Foundation? Not really. Would I recommend being a member if you are looking to be involved in committees and eventually running for the board? Definitely. For me, the amount you are engaged in .NET Foundation is paid back in kind. I enjoy being part of this community and everyone who voices their opinion and ideas is listened to and considered respectfully. It’s full of brilliant people and this is why I plan to be involved still, but in a different capacity.
This post may come across as quite negative, but I have no regrets around being a member of the .NET Foundation, it’s committees and my time on the Board. Though it is a lot of work and for the reasons explored, the experience can be waring, as a whole I think it’s worthwhile and for the most part I’ve enjoyed my time.
Final note.
I want to thank everyone who voted for me back when I was appointed to be a member of the Board. Thank you to all those I’ve worked with in the past 2 years and for your support. This time has meant a lot to me. Thank you to those leaving the board (Joe, Iris and Rich) for all the hard work you’ve put in.
For everyone else, thank you for your patience. I didn’t achieve all I hoped, but that is fine. Turns out the post was more challenging than I anticipated!
To those joining the board; good luck! I hope you enjoy the experience! Never hesitate to reach out if I can help.
Keep up the great efforts
