[Foundation-l] Opinions/suggestions for "outside" members of the board?

[Brad Patrick]

So does that mean you are in or out?

On 6/20/06, Erik Moeller <eloquence at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 6/20/06, The Cunctator <cunctator at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I thought it was a pretty entertaining retort.
>
> Perhaps. Watching chimpanzees beat each other up can be pretty
> entertaining, too. But if we are to adopt the social standards of
> chimpanzees on this mailing list, I demand some free grooming.
>
> For the record, I have not criticized the people mentioned, and if my
> original message came across that way, I apologize. I have a lot of
> respect for all of them, and have worked closely with two of them. I
> have questioned the notion, as have others, of having opinionated
> outsiders on the _governing_ board of our organization (rather than in
> an advisory capacity), exactly because they are opinion leaders and
> very knowledgeable in the fields they work in, which are highly
> relevant to our day-to-day work, while having no involvement,
> experience and visibility in our community. I have mentioned before
> possible alternatives from other fields. None of them are me.
>
> The notion that I am campaigning here is absurd. There is no election,
> and I have about as much a chance of getting appointed as Daniel
> Brandt or Sollog. And what a great honor it would be to be allowed to
> waste away more hours for Wikimedia without pay, while receiving a
> litany of complaints from people who want their sock puppets checked,
> their admins tarred and feathered, or their crackpot theories about
> using orgasmic energy to run jet engines featured on the Main Page --
> all the while being accused of being part of some grand shadowy
> conspiracy to make every single human being on the planet read a copy
> of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead". I've lived with a Board member for a
> year, I know how much fun it can be. Am I anxious, eager, enthusiastic
> about the idea of joining in? "No, Kiddo, at this moment, this is me
> at my most -- masochistic."
>
> Erik
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-- 
Brad Patrick
General Counsel & Interim Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
bradp.wmf at gmail.com
727-231-0101