Arc Riley for Board 2022

Experience

I've been a heavy user and advocate of XMPP since 2004.

I've served as director for dozens of 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations and helped with fund raising, outreach, volunteer engagement, and building a positive public image.

This would be my 6th non-consecutive term serving on the XSF Board of Directors.

Why I Run

The XSF has a long history of being eurocentric which largely reflects both where we've been most successful and our organization's membership, while we have little presence in the USA and especially around the west coast tech centers. I have worked extensively with several west-coast tech corps over the past 20 years, currently work for one of these large tech corps (Amazon AWS), and have the flexibility to attend board meetings as part of my weekly schedule.

The XSF is a global organization and I believe it should have a board composition that reflects that.

What I Do

In my five previous terms on the board I represented the XSF at numerous tech conferences and meetups. I've given talks ranging from WebRTC to IoT promoting the use of federated XMPP services as an alternative to walled garden proprietary solutions.

And I bring my experience with USA 501(c)(3) non-profit regulations which the XSF must legally follow to retain our tax exempt status.

Hope for 2023

The XSF Board largely fell apart over the last year. This isn't a single person's fault, we made several attempts to restart the routine but they've all only lasted for a single meeting. Very often we have scheduled meetings without agenda items prepared, even though we have several big issues that need to get addressed. We're all coming back from covid isolation and getting involved in activities again, this is completely understandable.

I'm looking forward to some new blood and reengaged energy to get us going again. We have many big issues that need to be addressed. I would like to see regular meetings, but driven by agenda items posted on a wiki at least a week in advance. Many of these issues could be discussed over the email list so the formal meetings can be shorter, or perhaps not even require a formal meeting.