There is still a significant problem the Board does have, though. "Chapter/thorg selected seats" are not community seats. And we've recently found out that none of the seats at all are actually considered to be community-selected, and that a community elected board member can be removed without referendum to the community.
A majority, at least six seats, on the Board, should be directly elected by the Wikimedia community. (Not "chapters", the entire community). And "directly elected" should mean that the member cannot be removed involuntarily except by vote of that same electorate, whether by referendum or the community's own initiative.
On Sat, Jan 9, 2016 at 11:29 AM, Risker risker.wp@gmail.com wrote:
On 9 January 2016 at 10:09, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
<snip>
We are well overdue for a major turnover of board members. Fae --
While I have largely kept out of this thread to this time, this statement needs to be rebutted. There are ten seats on the board. Five of them - all three "community-selected" seats and two of the four board-appointed seats - have changed hands in the last six months. An additional board-selected seat changed hands not long before Wikimania last year (Guy Kawasaki). That means six of the 10 board members have less than a year's experience in the role. (One of those has now been removed, but that still means half the board has very limited experience.)
Of the remaining seats, two are "Chapter/Thorg-selected" seats that will be contested in the near future. Historically, only one of the incumbents of those seats have been reseated, and I make no predictions for this year. Jimmy Wales is assumed to still hold the Founder seat, and the fourth board-appointed seat is held by longtime community member Alice Weigand.
We do not know how the board will decide to fill the recently vacated "community-selected" seat - the options appear to be narrowed to appointing the fourth-place candidate from the last election (which would bring an experienced board member back to the table) or an election, which could also bring a completely new trustee.
At minimum, we already have five board members who weren't board members this time last year. By the end of their Wikimania board meeting, we could have as many as eight trustees with less than 18 months of experience under their belt. Of all the problems the board has, insufficient turnover is NOT one of them.
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