[Foundation-l] What are the assets of the Foundation, anyway?

[George Herbert]

On 4/18/07, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> On 4/19/07, Kelly Martin <kelly.lynn.martin at gmail.com> wrote:
> > This is not a cyberlaw issue.  It's a basic, garden variety trust,
> > tax, and corporate law issue.  Exactly NOT the sort of thing you
> > should be going to your friends at the Berkman Center for.
>
> You are operating under the assumption that we already know what our
> key threat scenario is. That is not so; you have simply proposed one
> with your usual apodictic certainty. Understanding the magnitude and
> nature of the threats is the first step. Then we can develop different
> strategies for dealing with them.

Right.  A board and executives who are so reactive that they
immediately try to chase down every glitch in the organizational
framework, risk structure, etc. that they can't look at the big
picture and prioritize aren't doing a good job.

This was an issue I hadn't been aware of, and I am glad to hear that
it's on the Board's to-do list.  Maybe it should be a higher priority,
but I don't see it jumping to the front of the line.

Maybe it should jump to the front of the line, but the case that it's
more important to get this one going than any of the other open issues
needs to be made more strongly.  Is this higher risk than not having
key full time employees?  Than a hurricane hitting St Petersburg?
Than WMF not dedicating enough effort to fundraising?

If it really is a garden-variety corporate attorney thing, which
someone could do pro-bono, who can identify a resource to do that, and
track them down and get them to do it, and verify that it's the right
solution?  Is there anyone qualified enough right now to drive that
process, or are there still too many info gaps?


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com