Anthere wrote:
This has been the case for over 2 years now. Until last december, I had a job and it was not an issue to use my own savings. It has become an issue.
I have no easy solution for your individual case, but the situation is likely to be the same for every board member. One strategy to make the burden easier is to make it a routine to serve one or two years on the board and then leave. This can sound like a recipe for chaos, always having beginners on the board. But on the other hand, the board members would have an increasing number of former board members to consult. Being a senior and acting as a mentor for new board members doesn't require time and money for travel or babysitting. You can still travel and give speeches, if you wish, but there would be more candidates for each such task. Board membership would not be a destination, but a place you pass through.
(Let me point out that I, LA2, have no position and no wish to have one within any Wikimedia project. I never participate in wiki votes. This is not because I dislike Wikimedia, on the contrary, but because I want to remove any suspicion that I might have mixed interests with other projects where I'm involved.)