[Foundation-l] Provisional Volunteer Council - proposal sent to the Board

[Andrew Whitworth]

On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 10:58 AM, Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se> wrote:
> effe iets anders wrote:
>
>  > I never claimed, and will not claim that this is a perfect
>  > representation, nor that it is ideal with respect to size.
>
>  Regardless of the words "perfect" and "ideal", you still use the
>  word "representation", but so far you have failed to explain in
>  what way these names "represent" anything more than themselves.

Maybe that's all it is, and all it can be. The provisional council is
just a group of volunteers with relatively diverse language and
project backgrounds, who are going to try to work out the logistics of
the final council. As far as I'm aware, this provisional council
doesn't have any "power" or "authority" or even "lasting importance".
All it is supposed to do is set the logistic background for a real
representative council. If all goes extremely well, the provisional
council could disappear forever within weeks. I'm not entirely sure I
see the point in arguing about the specifics of things like
"representation" when the body so so temporary and ephemeral.


>  The proposed resolution starts out with the high value of input
>  from the community of volunteers, then a list of names is proposed
>  for a (provisional) council, but it is not obvious how this
>  council creates input from any comminity of volunteers.

Well, maybe that is an issue that needs to be addressed by these
provisional council members individually. I personally put a high
premium on communication and openness, so I expect to be in regular
contact with community members to get a broad input on these issues. I
can't speak for anybody else, of course, but I like to think that
other members of this council will do the same. I think that people
are overestimating the amount work that this provisional council needs
to do.

--Andrew Whitworth