[Foundation-l] Future Board election procedures and guidelines

[Ray Saintonge]

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen wrote:

>On 7/21/07, Sue Reed <sreed1234 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>But, I >wanted to ask anyway and see if others chimed in. Many non-profit boards >expect each board member to commit to raising a certain amount of money for >the organization as a part of being on the board. Are you saying that you would >be against such a requirement?
>>    
>>
>I am not saying specifically that I would be against such a requirement.
>Such a requirement, if it were made to *each* would not constitute buying
>in to becoming a board member. It would be bad if it were an "auction" and
>that person was appointed as trustee who promised the *largest* donation.
>Even if a direct donation by the prospective board member themself, to me
>it would be more in the nature of the price of a country club membership
>than buying shares in a profit making company. To re-emphasize, 
>
I would certainly oppose such a requirement.  For some organizations it 
would be perfectly acceptable to have a Board that focuses on 
fundraising.  For us, we need a policy-making Board that is able to 
wrestle with some really complicated issues in uncharted territory, some 
of which may even appear to contradict a fundraising mission.  We 
absolutely need a varied assortment of skills on the Board, including 
fundraising.  Putting undue emphasis on fundraising may provide us with 
a WMF that is headed in a completely different direction from that of 
the community.

Ec