[Foundation-l] Foundation Discretion Regarding Personnel Matters

[Mike Godwin]

Nathan writes:

> The community assumes
> that the Board operates in good faith, but that faith must be upheld
> by the Board through disclosure of information material to the
> community.

I agree that the Board should generally disclose as much as it is  
legally able to do so.

> And assuming that the Board believed that the community did
> not need to be involved in this situation, surely the interview
> between the Register and Mike Godwin alerted them to the fact that
> press coverage was inevitable in the near future. If it were me, I
> would have wanted to get out in front of that story.

Speaking as journalist and an editor as well as a lawyer known to  
specialize in freedom of expression issues, I think we did fine. Now,  
you may disagree about this, and I respect your disagreement, but  
please understand that even a community-oriented, volunteer-driven  
enterprise can't always share all the information it has regarding a  
personnel matter. There are legal constraints that apply to the Board,  
to staff, and to anyone acting formally on the Foundation's behalf.

Now I were you, I'd Assume Good Faith on the part of the Foundation  
(and on my part too, I hope) and ask instead what event or person gave  
this (oddly speculative and disconnected) story to our good friends at  
the Register.

And that is pretty much all I'm going to say on this list about the  
Register story or its subject matter.


--Mike