On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 6:41 PM, Nathan <nawrich(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I don't know why discussions on this list and
elsewhere always devolve so
quickly to revolutionary ultimatums. The board has not 'betrayed the
community' - it simply took a step, regarding its own composition, that
took
a portion of the community by surprise. Many would have liked to hear
about
these changes in advance, to discuss them and potentially influence
alterations to the changes before they became fait accompli. This doesn't
translate to "We must eliminate the Board and start over with people who
don't totally ignore the will of the community."
As a matter of fact, I think those sorts of comments are untrue,
unnecessary
and insulting to the members of the Board who do, I believe, try very hard
to do what benefits the projects and the community and try I imagine very
hard to anticipate and understand the goals and beliefs of our community -
and not just those few of us who post to Foundation-l. Confrontational
statements and belittling and minimizing the efforts and commitment of
those
people we have elected to the Board is unhelpful and to be avoided. We
can't
require you to assume good faith on this list or outside of en.wikipedia,
but you might take under advisement the fact that it would be a good idea
nonetheless.
In one word: Thank you.
I absolutely agree with your comments and I'm presumptuous enough to say
that probably many of us who expressed criticism of the board's
'consultation strategy' on this point are not trying to make a motion of no
confidence out of this affair.
It was regrettable that this changes came as a surprise to most people I
know and I hope that it will be done somehow otherwise next time.
But I still trust the board and I consider all these calls to arms that we
see here now rather preposterous (if I may use another of these pre-...
words).
Michael