I am confused by this thread. It is starting with false assumptions (Board members are required to spend their own money for things) and builds on that to create further false assumptions (we have enough dot com millionaires on the Board). To the best of my knowledge: 1. The expenses of Board members relating to Foundation work are covered by the Foundation. They do not come from the individual Board members' "personal savings." 2. We currently have no dot com millionaires on the Board. 3. Paying Board members for Board-related activities can be perceived as a potential conflict of interests. 4. In many non-profit organizations in the US--but not the WMF--Board membership is actually contingent upon making a significant donation to the organization. Please get the facts right when complaining about the Board and its members. Danny In a message dated 8/11/2006 1:25:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time, erikzachte(a)infodisiac.com writes: Walter van Kalken: I concur with this entirely. We have enough dot com millionaires on the Board, and the Advisory Board might add some. This is not personal to anyone, those concerned probably just got their priorities right. What 'saddens' me however is the way Anthere was treated during the Board session last Sunday when the issue of paying board members was brought up. Jimbo made a casual remark to the effect of "(I'm not sure) we want to pay board members, besides it is not allowed by the bylaws" (paraphrasing here). Easy to say in his position. Then someone made a witty but badly timed joke about the situation, the chairman of the Board might have intervened at that moment. I feel it was humiliating for Anthere. Maybe the bylaws allow other board members than Jimmy to accept well paid invitations for keynote speeches? Erik Zachte _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

I am confused by this thread. It is starting with false assumptions (Board members are required to spend their own money for things) and builds on that to create further false assumptions (we have enough dot com millionaires on the Board). To the best of my knowledge: 1. The expenses of Board members relating to Foundation work are covered by the Foundation. They do not come from the individual Board members' "personal savings." 2. We currently have no dot com millionaires on the Board. 3. Paying Board members for Board-related activities can be perceived as a potential conflict of interests. 4. In many non-profit organizations in the US--but not the WMF--Board membership is actually contingent upon making a significant donation to the organization. Please get the facts right when complaining about the Board and its members.