[Foundation-l] Board voting system

[Jimmy Wales]

Chris Jenkinson wrote:
> Angela raised the point during the IRC meeting last night that the Board
> is unable to make decisions due to the requirement for 5 affirmative
> votes before something is implemented. She also mentioned that Michael
> Davis and Tim Shell are typically "silent" and due to this it's
> difficult to reach decisions.

Actually, Talrias said it, not Angela.  Angela did repeat it more or
less a few minutes later, but I think that was a typo.  Michael Davis,
at least, is a very active board member, and he has been for the past
several months extremely busy for the foundation on a daily basis.

> Rather than discussing forming an "executive committee", which I think
> is sweeping the problem underneath the rug, would it not be better to
> instead change the voting system used by the Board, so they only need a
> simple majority (i.e. 3 votes out of 5) in order to enact a change?

Having an executive committee is part of a longer term restructuring to
scale the organization better.  The board is working on a change to the
bylaws, though, to enable us to work more effectively.  (And this isn't
really about 'silent' members, but rather a technical change so that we
do not have to have every member vote on every single thing.)

> Thoughts?

I think it is totally not accurate to think of Michael Davis as
inactive.  But the technical issue, yes, should be resolved soon.  Even
so, that's not really what the whole Executive Committee thing is about.

--Jimbo


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