I don't have much time at the moment, but I think:

1. Council importance
- yes it is required. We do need an official voice back to Nokia, and we have it. If you do not use it, then that is your problem. I truly believe if I had an issue requiring Nokia attention, I could get it communicated to them via the Council.

2. Council Effectiveness:
- This is something that is subjective since it depends on what an individual deems important. As an end-user and enthusiast of Maemo, the Council is doing their role fine enough for me. They are facilitating where required, getting developer resources they need, clearing the air over things like QT, etc. Work that needs to be done, but that is not very glamorous, or personally rewarding, I am sure.

3. Council Communication:
-Stop reading the 'new posts', and look at the Community sub-forum, the -community mailing list, and mwkn, and maemo.org/news. Most, if not all, Council communication I have seen in their term has been there. I do not think I have missed much since March, although I speak infrequently nowadays.

4. Forum members expectations of our Council
- Please be real. This group of 5 that we have are volunteers, not officially linked to Nokia, or Maemo in any way. They are doing this willingly, and using their own personal time. Please ask yourselves this: What do you think their families would say if they heard you saying that their role was useless? They would probably question why they are attending IRC meetings, firing off emails before bed, and generally, making a huge dent in their personal lives for the sake of this ungrateful community.