J Matthew Saunders
Sun, 01/06/2008 - 19:06 — matthews
What is your motivation for being a member of the Drupal Association?:
Drupal, and the open source community, represent my livelyhood. I personally and professionally benefit from the activities of the overall community. I am not a coder or a themer, but still have a great desire to contribute back to the community and believe that I have a skill set and depth of knowledge quite different many in the Drupal community. To date, that has been simply by writing about and evangelising Drupal. I want to do more.
What are the primary goals you would like to work on?:
1) In Barcelona I heard, at the Association meeting, that one of the goals and challenges was finding ways to fund projects. I would like to help the association formalise the process.
2) I have a strong background in non-profit management. Having worked in that industry for many years before coming to Drupal. I would like to strengthen the association through these experiences.
3) In Barcelona, I also heard that there is a desire to create a regionalised web of associated non-profits world wide. I would like to spearhead the creation of the US non-profit.
What strategy will you employ in order to accomplish said goals?:
1) The Association plans on funding projects. This is, at its core, grant making. I can bring the experience of managing a $430,000 grant program, having sat on many grant panels (the decision making body for giving grants), as a grant writer (I have written many grant applications), and as the designer of online grant making systems (I spearheaded development of grant-making systems for over 20 different entities). By working with the association, I will develop a frame work for a strong application and application process that focuses on best practices and improves efficiencies.
2) As a participant on the Board of Directors, I will be able to identify ways to improve the association's processes. I understand what it takes to run a nonprofit from the daily nuts and bolts to Board composition/participation. I have many years of experience in this arena.
3) Having worked for a Regional Arts Agency for eight years, I have a deep understanding of how the relationships between associated organizations and the central organization operate. This experience can help plan a sensible methodology for achieving this goal. I have experience in American non-profit composition and have experience navigating these bureaucracies. Using this knowledge will allow for the smooth composition of an American arm.
What yearly budget would you need in order to accomplish said goals?:
The budgetary needs would vary from year to year but would not be substantial.
What strengths/experience you have to help you accomplish the goals?:
First of all, I have a strong world view. I grew up in Canada from a British father and a Danish mother. I made the United States my home after attending graduate school in Virginia.
I hold a Bachelor's of Arts in Studio Art from Bishop's University (Quebec Canada), a Certificate of Arts Administration, focusing on nonprofit administration from the University of Ottawa (Ottawa, Canada), and a Master's of Fine Arts focusing on the Internet and non-profit administration from Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA USA).
I have worked for nonprofits in both Canada and the United States for over a decade. These experiences had me working as a Marketer, Technology Manager, Grant Writer, and Grant Maker.
I worked for the Western States Arts Federation as Senior Director of Technology for eight years. In that capacity I:
• Conceptualized, wrote specification, sold, and oversaw build of the highly successful online application system (ZAPPlication.org), a revolutionary jury system in the arts industry. ZAPP is currently used by over 100 art shows, 30,000 artists, and has processed over $6 million in transactions while continuing to grow at over 100% per year.
• Conceptualized the CultureGrants Online grants management system. Participated in sales to over 20 states (between $20k and $120k each), and continue to oversee builds, upgrades, and client management.
• Initiated and oversaw the implementation of a fully redundant, server cluster for WESTAF's online systems.
• Consultation with local and state arts agencies in the development of technology plans and Web Based grants programs
• Lead of Web 2.0 Team focused on Community Building through use of Drupal.
• Management of the online TourWest Grant Program, overseeing $430K of grant dispersals each cycle.
Currently at pingVision, I am Operations Manager. In this capacity I have to work with both our clients and our developers and themers. I need to understand what Drupal can do and work with the client's goals to develop implementation plans with the rest of our team.
I also am a moderator at the Tech Soup Emerging Technologies Forum, a manager of the Non-Profits in Second Life project, and its site maintainer.
In short, I understand the nonprofit world and I understand technology.
How long have you been using Drupal, and how'd you get your start?:
I came to Drupal about 18 months ago when I was tasked by my employer at the time to research Web 2.0 technologies. To that end, we brought together technologists from British Columbia in a think-tank atmosphere--and this meeting included two people from Bryght. Later in the year I attended a Drupal training in Vancouver conducted by Raincity Studios and Bryght. This experience gave me a good understanding of what Drupal was capable. I brought that experience back to WESTAF. We worked closely with pingVision to create a Drupal site for the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs during which time I worked on four other sites on the side. I became increasingly interested in Drupal, and when pingVision announced they were hiring, I approached them. For the last 6 months I have worked for pingVision as Operations Manager.
Have you made existing community contributions, and if so, what?:
1) I attend many meetups in Boulder. I have started going to Drupalcons--my first was in Barcelona.
2) I write about Drupal on my blog which aggregates into the planet feed.
3) I evangelise online and offline.
How much time can you invest in your Drupal Association work?:
16-20 hours/month
Apply for Board of Directors membership:
Apply for Board of Directors membership
Board of Directors position:
Funding/Grants Manager
Statutes:
I have read and understood the Statutes of the Drupal Association. I am prepared to participate by following those statutes.
Comments
my feelings about Matthew's candidacy
Matthew is new to the community so I feel that it's important for folks who know him (like, me!) to share our impressions.
As his application states, Matthew has enormous experience in the non profit world. He has really held a lot of different positions in non profits which gives him a breadth of knowledge in a field that we need. It's something that will really benefit the association. Perhaps more importantly, he has experience in guiding proposals and making sure that the proposals that are received are high quality proposals. This reduces the workload on the Association because there are fewer proposals to review.
If there is one weakness that Matthew has it is the relatively short amount of time that he's been involved with the community and his lack of involvement directly with the community. So far, though, there have been limited ways for Matthew to be involved. He can't provide patches, themes, design ideas, or many of the traditional things that people can give. What he can do he has done: promoting Drupal in the techsoup emerging tech forum, blogging about Drupal, promoting Drupal in the Denver Arts Community, helping organize the Denver Drupal User Group meetings.
So, having Matthew apply is exciting to me because this provides a way for him to be involved where he *really* knows his stuff and where he can really use the knowledge that he has.
I second the recommendation.
I second the recommendation. I believe Matthew would be a fabulous asset to the Drupal Association and a terrific Board member.
A mix is good
We can benefit from a mix of perspectives and experience on the board: developers and non-developers, Drupal insiders and relatively new faces.
nice testimony
testimony from a respected community member like this is really valuable. thanks.
Thanks Greg
Thanks Greg. I would very much like the opportunity to serve the community in deeper ways and believe that my experiences can be of benefit.