John, thanks for getting this discussion started. I'm not on the board, but I thought that I'd weigh in with a few words. I recently completed the practical portion of the Boy Scout's Wood Badge training. For those that are not familiar, the Wood Badge is Boy Scout's highest level of leadership training (if you have the opportunity I highly recommend it). As a part of that training, we spent a lot of time talking about values, mission statements, vision statements and goals[1]. I won't go into a lot of detail here, but let me crib from my notes: Values: core beliefs or desires that guide or motivate our attitudes and actions Examples: Merck: http://www.merck.com/about/mission.html 3M: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/about-3M/information/about/us/ Mission statements: A brief statement that reflects the core values of an organization and communicates the organizations long-term objectives - why the organization exists. Examples: Merck: http://www.merck.com/about/mission.html Starbucks: http://www.starbucks.com/mission/ Vision statements: A vision is a picture of future success. Examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouRbkBAOGEw#t=8m40s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk#t=11m59s Goals: statements of action or intent that will bring you closer to your vision. Goals should be SMART[2]. Ok, so Fedora isn't the Boy Scouts, but leadership skills transcend organizations and I hope that by defining the above we can really take Fedora to the next level. Obviously, I have some idea as to what Fedora's values, mission, and vision should be but I thought that this message would stir the pot enough for now. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_planning [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_%28project_management%29 -- Jeff Ollie _______________________________________________ fedora-advisory-board mailing list fedora-advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-advisory-board