I, as all others, has full sympathy for Danny and find that he in his
mail made an excellent explanation on how the situation made the option
to resign the only reasonable way forward
BUT this is the second community selected that has left the Board within
a year after being appointed, and before any future election (either a
snap byelection soon, or the ordinary in a years time) I believe we
should look into if anything can be learnt. And if there are things,
primary in the election process, that can be done to ensure the
appointed community selected members of the Board staying on the whole
term.
For Danny my interpretation is that he is very operational role in
ordinary work leads to many interaction with WMF etc and where COI
consideration hampers his day-to-days activities. And that his major
strength, "Wikidata", is hard to make use of in the Board as any
influencing of decision re this also puts him in a COI situation, and
that he outside this competence finds he has limited "value" for the
board work.
But all of these facts was known before the election (but not necessary
the ramification). Would a more elaborate (tedious long?) description of
requirements of serving in the Board helped Danny to understand the
challenge before he entered his candidacy? Would some type of
(lightweight) "vetting" by the Election committee by all candidates have
identified this risk (which then could have been feedbacked to the
candidate)? Should for future election the election committee not only
be facilitator of the election, but also help he voters in complementing
the data given by each candidate by some type of comments? For example
last time the requirement from the board was non western (non English
natives) persons and priority for nonmale. but 2 out of 3 was just his.
Could some mark on the candidate statement made by the EC (he/she is/is
not fulfilling the Board criteria) had helped?
The setup up of a Standing Election Committee is under formation but it
will probably still be some month before it is established. Any changes
in the election process has to await this formation, but I believe a
discussion of learnings can start independently.
Anders