On 3 Mar 2016, at 6:22 PM, Erik Moeller eloquence@gmail.com wrote:
To discuss which practices to adopt, it's worth first looking at the existing Board manual, which is a remarkably detailed document that goes into many of these issues including the exact process for minutes publication, what types of information is captured in minutes, and so on. [2]
[snipping material]
As for minutes, again, it seems to me a matter of first clarifying, possibly in the Board manual, what level of detail is appropriate. It seems to me that the Board is adhering to a relatively risk-averse, conservative approach right now, whereas WMF staff (which make many risky and potentially sensitive decisions on a day-to-day basis) capture significantly more individual-level detail in quarterly review minutes without apparent ill effect. I understand the concern about "speaking freely", but I personally think this is overstated in many cases.
I think the issue, aside from the extreme tardiness of the meeting minutes (really, the Board needs 3 weeks to publish the minutes and apparently has been late even then?!?) is that the level of details is ridiculous. The meeting minutes for the last Board meeting look like they were written on the back of an envelope, then typed into the wiki. And it’s missing that there was any discussion at all about the removal of one of the Board members, or that they asked James to leave the meeting immediately after the vote.
I think the Board’s Secretary needs to step in to answer this question. Why is there missing actions in the minutes? Why aren’t the minutes complete? The Secretary is responsible for minutes, so let’s hear from him why the minutes aren’t up to date.
Would someone please ask Geoff Brigham to come onto the list to explain this please? And also explain why it takes so long to prepare these minutes and have them signed off?
Chris