[Foundation-l] The Foundation is not a wiki (was Re: RfC: Key priorities for my work)

[Daniel Mayer]

--- Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> I don't think that these special prerequisites for being on the Board 
> are necessary.  The treasurer should not need to do the bookkeeping 
> himself; we are big enough that we can hire someone to keep the books, 
> and prepare preliminary financial statements.  The treasurer should be 
> able to understand the statements and discuss them with the rest of the 
> Board, and with an expanded Board it is certainly more likely that there 
> would be a person who can do this.

With all due respect, a board of a non-profit needs to know how a non-profit should be run in
order to perform their oversight and guidance roles. At least some board members also need to know
a fair deal about how to do professional fundraising; others need legal expertise since the
foundation is a legal entity; yet others need to know about finances so they could not be easily
misled by incorrect or fraudulent financial statements from staff (not that would ever happen, but
it is possible).  

There are some fairly serious legal, financial and privacy issues that the board (on the whole)
needs to have some training and experience to deal with. A group of people whose only
qualification is that they are popular community members, is not necessarily going to have the
needed skill-set. Of course, part of the board should consist of that, but not the whole board, or
even a majority of it. And, where possible, all board members should be from the community (plenty
of experts there). 

-- mav

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