The GNOME Foundation is comprised of a number of bodies - the Board of Directors, the Executive Director, the Advisory Board and the GNOME Membership. The GNOME Foundation Charter outlines the overall purpose, structure, and process for the GNOME Foundation. The GNOME Foundation By-laws (PDF) document the policies and procedures of the Foundation as a non-profit group.
The Annual Reports of the GNOME Foundation are published each year. They include reports on foundation activities for the year, including community programmes and events, and foundation development initiatives. Here is the archives of annual reports:
The GNOME Foundation is run by a Board of Directors, which is elected annually by the GNOME community, as the GNOME Membership, to carry out much of the GNOME Foundation's tasks. The Board of Directors meets every other week with a phone conference to discuss various topics pertaining to the regular activities of the GNOME Foundation and GNOME. The minutes to these meetings are posted publicly on the foundation-list archives.
The Board of Directors from July 2009 to June 2010 is:
Stormy Peters is the GNOME Foundation's executive director. She is tasked with managing and growing the GNOME Foundation as an organization. Working with the Board of Directors, Advisory Board, and the GNOME Foundation members, Stormy will help strengthen the Foundation by attracting new industry members and community contributors to create an awesome, easy-to-use, free and open source desktop, a strong development platform and accelerate the adoption of GNOME. Stormy's combination of industry expertise and community background will enable the Foundation to extend its outreach to industry, sponsors and the community, as well as increasing contact with new constituencies like mobile developers and governments considering deploying GNOME.
As an open source advocate, Stormy has established relationships with the open source community and industry sponsors, including GNOME. Stormy has been involved with the GNOME Foundation, having been one of the founding members of the GNOME Foundation Advisory Board in 2000 and a keynote speaker at last year's GUADEC. Her previous positions include that of Open Source Program Manager at Hewlett-Packard and Director of Community and partner programs at OpenLogic.
The Advisory Board is made up of organizations and companies that support GNOME. The Advisory Board has no decision-making authority but provides a vehicle for its members to communicate with the Board of Directors and help the Directors guide the overall direction of GNOME and the GNOME Foundation.
The Advisory Board consists of representatives from the following GNOME Foundation member corporations and projects:
Advisory board member companies pay an annual fee which helps finance the operations of the GNOME foundation. There are two levels for commerical companies.
No fee is paid by the invited non-profit organizations that are part of the advisory board.
The GNOME Membership consists of all the contributors to the GNOME project. Members can run for election to the Board of Directors, vote in the elections for the Board of Directors, and suggest referenda.