[Foundation-l] [Announcement] board expansion

[Florence Devouard]

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen wrote:
> On 12/22/07, Florence Devouard <anthere at anthere.org> wrote:
>> Dear community
>>
>> The board recently passed a resolution, which you will find below
>>
>> In the aftermath of the resignation of Michael Davis (effective october
>> 31th, 2007) and Erik Moëller (effective december 15th, 2007), the board
>> confirms its will to replace the two former board members, as well as
>> its committment to expand the number of members on the board of
>> directors at the earliest convenience, up to a number of 11 members
>> maximum. Due to its commitment to involve members from the community, at
>> least half of the new members will be appointed for a term ending at the
>> next board elections, in june 2008.
>>
>> -----------
>>
>> Florence
> 
> I think I am bound to say, if I understand the import of this resolution
> correctly, that this decision is a very poor show indeed.
> 
> Am I to really understand that the new seats which are "community
> seats" will be initially filled by appointment? That is, not only will Eriks
> seat which is temporally vacant because of his resignation be filled
> pro tem by appointment, but the board will make a "designated
> incumbent" decision on the other new "community seats" too, even
> though there is no existing _vacancy_ to those seats.
> 
> Some may think that the only problem here is that those people will
> merely be "confirmed" by the community, not chosen by it, but that
> is hardly the only problem with this fashion of working.
> 
> It would not be unreasonable to assume in light of current goings on
> that accepting such an appointment would be somewhat akin to
> accepting a poisoned chalice, or a kiss of death.
> 
> Being appointed by the current board, would mean that it may be
> that the vote up or vote down of these new board members would
> take some degree of being a vote on the current pre-existing board
> and its legitimacy, and not merely on the persons of the appointed
> people themselves. That would be a very unfortunate pass to see
> ourselves at, and I would like to give the community more credit than
> that, but it is not something I find entirely improbable.
> 
> --
> Jussi-Ville Heiskanen, ~ [[User:Cimon Avaro]]

To be fair, I read your email 4 times and did not understand what you 
meant :-(
Can you rephrase in a clearer fashion ?

Ant