[Foundation-l] [Announcement] update in board of trustees membership

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

On 12/17/07, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> In a situation where we will welcome many more staff members not from
> the community, I think it is doubly important that the board membership
> be from the community. I will personally support an increase of the
> membership, with a focus on members coming from the community. I'd love
> as well having a seat or more being a representant from the chapters.
> Recently, there has been discussions over the limited professional
> skills of board members. At the same time, we are developing a staff
> mostly made of highly skilled professionals.
>

In the event that the chapters were to get an earmarked seat on the
board, would this representative be an appointed position, or elected
by the chapters in some form? If elected by the chapters, how would
the voting be accomplished? One chapter, one vote? Members of
the boards of all chapters having a single personal vote?

Frankly I have absolute difficulty in seeing how any vote by chapters for
a trustee would be anything but a great pain all round. The problems
this would create down the line in the way chapters decide to
constitute themselves can hardly be overlooked. Just think about
the situation in the US right now, and project where it will head
from there, if every chapter gets one vote...

Method of election aside, is this the direction the composition of the
board should evolve in general? This many seats from the community,
this many seats from chapters, this many from the technical side,
this many seats from wikimania organisation, this many from the
financial side, this many from the licencing and IP side of things,
this many from the arbcoms of different projects... the list is
endless on how we could earmark seats by focusing on one or
another aspect of our operations...

I think it would serve us fairly well if there weren't earmarked seats,
but people on the board made choices that through appointment
balanced the board, and thus got trustees in, who on their merits
were useful for the composition of the board. If you feel personally
that a person active in the chapters side would be good to have
on board, wouldn't it be simplest all round to appoint them directly
without specifying that was a position reserved for chapters.

Or am I missing something here? Is there some specific reason why
a chapters person is needed on the board?

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen, ~ [[User:Cimon Avaro]]