Hi,

On 03/09/2016 07:57 AM, C. Scott Ananian wrote:

I'm interested in drilling down on these issues a bit. As far as I can tell, there is nothing in the actual bylaws which forbids WMF employees from being board members, although "conventional wisdom" seems to agree there is a conflict of interest in doing so.

From the bylaws[1], Article IV, Section 3, part D: "Trustees selected by

Chapters and Thematic Organizations must resign from any board, governance, or paid positions at the Foundation, Chapters, Thematic Organizations, and User Groups for the duration of their terms as Trustees, but may continue to serve Chapters, Thematic Organizations, and User Groups in informal or advisory capacities."

The same applies to community-selected and board-appointed trustees (part C and E respectively).

(I'm not so sure I agree with that conventional wisdom, but let's treat it as given for now, since you've already pledge to give up your WMF position in your nomination statement.) AFAIK "board member" is not a paid position -- it seems wrong (albeit laudable!) for you to give up your income (by donating your good work to the project on a volunteer-only basis) in order to aid the organization. The Board does not meet *that* frequently.

And I have a personal interest in seeing your Shadow Namespaces work continue. ;)

Time permitting, I plan to continue my volunteer MediaWiki development work, which includes shadow namespaces :)

[1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Bylaws#ARTICLE_IV_-_THE_BOARD_OF_TRUSTE...

-- Kunal Mehta / Legoktm