[Foundation-l] Foundation Discretion on Personnel Matters

[Mike Godwin]

Florence writes:

> In fall 2006, we did not perform criminal
> background checks afaik.
>
> Are we doing that now ?
> From what I understood, Mike took care of this and this is now being
> done. It is fairly recent, the board did not get any report on this,  
> so
> I can not further comment.

I can confirm that the Foundation has retained an independent firm  
that conducts criminal background checks, consistent with state and  
federal law in the USA.

>  I asked Mike to work on a policy related to conflict of interest  
> for the
> staff. We already have made that policy at board level several months
> ago, and it is successfully implemented. However, the policy at staff
> level is a bit broken and was never implemented. I told Mike I would
> like him to work on this.

This is in progress.

> There comes a point when we must balance between telling you guys  
> stuff,
> and shutting up to avoid further troubles. Unfortunately.

I wholly agree with Florence on this point, especially the  
"Unfortunately" part.   My own inclination is to be as upfront and  
open as possible. So when you see me cautioning against public  
statements, you should infer that it's for some compelling legal  
reason, and not out of disregard for the importance of community  
information and participation.


--Mike