Interesting points have been raised in this thread, but I have to remind you all of two things:

YOU, maemo.org members elect the Council. Nobody gets a seat without stating intent and being voted on. I understand that a lot of people here did not qualify for voting or have seen the whole process because the N900 release did not significantly predate the current Council. The elections themselves were fairly well advertised on all community channels and everyone got a mail and voting token, with links to candidate manifestos (coincidentally, the elections are perfect vehicles for new ideas to emerge, directions to be found or change, etc).

Now, the for the meat (/me dons tomato-proof protective gear)

While the Council engaged in a lot of projects, as shocking as it sounds, our primary task is not working as in DOING (even though most if not all Council members have projects they work(ed) on for usually far longer than they are on the Council). Stop. Don't press that reply button just yet. Read on. Everyone can help on tasks, volunteers are welcome in all shapes and forms, from bloggers, greeters, through testers and all the way to developers. You don't need to be on the Council to step up - see the excellent example of kojacker and the application contest, or the hundreds of developers working on software in Extras. What is our primary task then ? IMHO, to help self-organize and make a link between individuals and the big corp. If something bothers you, we relay it. If Nokia needs input or suggestions how to proceed on matters touching on the community, they ask/write us. Now, I know there is a gag reflex about Flash 10.1, MeeGo, Nokia not listening, etc, but those, while VERY important questions, are by no means the only things that go on in Maemo land - and I agree that maybe some more exposure would be needed to make this visible (though I personally hate this as it reminds me of politicians opening new stretches of roads - they neither built it nor actually produced the resources needed). You need extra support/publicity for/guidance with your community initiative ? You go council. You are unsatisfied with how maemo.org operates in some of the myriad of it's aspects ? You go council. Note how many of the things the Council does (like the responsibility of the whole of Extras !) has little-to-nothing to do with Nokia per se. Let me underline - we're not a firmware request committee. It is IMHO wrong to see the council as leverage against Nokia (we can only blog, write open letters and similar - any of you can do that, too). What the council has is SOME level of authority to say 'hey, we're elected people, so represent the interests of a significant amount of users'... For unhappy people that means little, but it's a bit like dishes and cleaning - you don't realize the importance and effort people put in it until the stuff piles up.

In any case, when my term is up I will certainly present what initiatives I supported and how, what I feel was a success and what wasn't and what I wish the next Council can and should focus on (regardless of that Council's compositions provided there will be a Council at all :S ), especially in the context of MeeGo. As said above I think Council elections are a good time for retrospection, new ideas and re-establishing directions and goals, and one election is coming right up.

That's what I had to say about this topic.