[Foundation-l] Future Board election procedures and guidelines

[Ray Saintonge]

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen wrote:

>To take a perfectly hypothetical case. Let us say the foundation
>board members are worried that notorious troublemaker Tweedledee
>is going to run for board of trustees membership. And despite his
>tendency to rouffle feathers, or perhaps because of it, they fear
>Tweedledee might easily do well in the elections, maybe even get
>in.
>
>So the trustees have a bright idea! They hire Tweedledee,  as an
>employee in charge of paperclips and hand him a red stapler
>giving him a desk at the basement of the foundation office.
>
>Now, there is a rule that there is an X month quarantine
>during which former employees may not run for elected
>office.
>
>So,  X minus one months before the election, they fire Tweedledee,
>ensuring that Tweedledee may only run after X minus one months
>plus the term between elections.
>
>I grant this is purely hypothetical. But to be quite serious, so is it
>quite hypothetical to presume that a former employee running
>for a board of trustees position would be deleterious to the
>boards functioning. In fact one might equally argue that having
>been in contact with the board intimately, they might even
>have a shorter period of acclimatisation and orientation for
>their position as trustee. (I am sure Oscar might be able to tell us if
>he needed much time to adjust to the ways the board worked
>coming from the outside, and why not the other board members
>current and past too)
>
It's not the only conceivable scenario.  Suppose that we hire someone 
for the sole task of implementing Single Log-in that we have already 
discussed for years.  After three gruelling months he completes his 
task, and is no longer needed.  Would it be the intention to block him 
from becoming a trustee?  Where a former employee runs for the Board the 
potential conflicts will be there for all to see, and the voters will 
have the opportunity to reject him.  If they accept him, it just means 
that a significant part of the voters don't have a problem with this 
particular individual.

I think the proposal has it backwards.  I would be more concerned when a 
person who has just left the Board is given employment by the Board.  
There can be exceptions here to, but the details must be all there for 
everyone to see.

Ec