Dear Members, As we approach the end of the year, and the next members' meeting comes into focus, I'd like to encourage each of you to think about the volunteer oportunties at the Foundation. We each have limited time to give, but the more of us who step up, the better we can address the many, and growing needs of the ASF, and step up to our mission of providing software for the public good. # Board of Directors Each year we elect 9 members to the Board of Directors. It's time, right now, to start thinking about whether you could be one of them. The duties of the Board are best described on the following page: The duties and responsibilities of the Board: https://apache.org/foundation/governance/board.html As a Director, you have the opportunity to do the work that keeps the Foundation running day-to-day, as well as helping with the longer-term strategy that ensures that we'll be here in fifty years. It's also a great way to find out about what's going on elsewhere in the Foundation. If you think you might be interested in becoming a Director, or would like to understand better what's involved, please reach out to any existing Director - https://apache.org/foundation/leadership - and ask if you can shadow them for the next few months. And attend the next board meeting - https://apache.org/foundation/board/meeting#attend - to see what they look like in practice. (The next board meeting is next Wednesday, and you're welcome to attend!) # Officers Most of the daily work of the Foundation is delegated to Officers. Some of these report to the President (Corporate officers - https://apache.org/foundation/leadership#corporate-officers), while others report directly to the Board (Executive Officers - https://apache.org/foundation/leadership#officers). All of them have more work to do than they have time for, and would appreciate some help. The work that these various officers perform is documented here: https://whimsy.apache.org/roster/orgchart (And, yes, each of those descriptions could be improved - another volunteer opportunity!) If you're interested in assisting one of those officers, or eventually becoming one of those officers, we encourage you to reach out to those individuals and offer your time, or just set up a time to chat with them about what they do for the Foundation. # Working Groups There's always a lot of work to do that the ASF, and not enough people to do it. One of the ways that we address these tasks is with working groups, which try to organize the work around various topics, so that anyone can step up to work on things. The working groups managed by ComDev are listed here - https://community.apache.org/workinggroups/ and need your help to be successful. Come join us!