Election comments

[John Goerzen]

On Sat, Jul 15, 2006 at 05:54:57PM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote:
> Hi,

AJ, thank you for these eloquent remarks.  You've made a lot of good
points, and I wish I had realized some of them back during the Java
debate.

I think SPI is one of the least understood gifts Debian has given to the
community, and I share your hope that it is useful not just to Debian
but to a widening set of Free Software projects.  And I think Debian
also reaps benefits from this -- there's a technical relationship
between Debian and most (all?) of the SPI member projects as well.

> amount of work involved in that shouldn't be underestimated, and I don't
> think the opportunity to give both Jimmy and Branden a break from those
> responsibilities by passing them on to someone as clearly motivated as
> Josh should be missed.

Well said.

> This is the point that I'd been intending to endorse John Goerzen's
> re-election to the board, but unfortunately he's decided to not run
> this year. So instead I'd like to thank John for the years of service
> he's given to SPI to date, as a board member, as SPI Vice-President and
> as SPI President, and encourage the board to follow John's example of
> willingness both to take on controversial issues, to do so in public
> where SPI's membership can follow what's going on, and to keep working
> to find resolutions for the problems they encounter. Thanks, John.

Thank you very much for those kind words.  It means a lot to hear that
from you, and it is truly appreciated.

I have enjoyed being involved with SPI, and I don't intend to stop that.
Mako summed up a lot of my thoughts on the matter quite well.  My wife
and I are also expecting our first baby in three months, and we're
renovating an old farmhouse, so I was concerned about the amount of time
I'd have for SPI.

Plus, there's some fatigue after being president of SPI.  I'm sure you
can identify with that already ;-)

And I said this very briefly at the last meeting, but I should say it
again more publically:

THANKS so much to all of you that have supported me as president these
past couple of years, with your comments, suggestions, criticisms, and
volunteering to help.  There is no training for that job, and I am
especially grateful for everyone's patience.

There are a number of fine candidates for the board, and I have every
faith that the next board and officers of SPI will accomplish much.

And AJ, thanks also for being so involved in SPI and giving it a lot of
thought.

-- John